HDTV and Its Impending Problems?

NeuroManson asks: "With the growing hype surrounding HDTV and copy protection, and as further corporate control of the FCC becomes more commonplace with the inevitable arrival of the technology thanks to Hollywood, you will have no choice in the future of watching anything else, since your TV, VCR, etc, will be forced into obsolescence. There are two things that this brings to mind that should be addressed: who will be paying for the retrofit to the thousands of CRT and TV manufacturing plants around the world to make this possible; and assuming that this is going to be a US only problem in the short term (approx 3 years), how do they propose to safely dispose of all those outmoded TVs?" About the only way that this can happen by the recently proposed deadline of July 1st, 2007, without trashing and replacing the majority of our current televisions, American television owners would have to have their TVs "serviced" by a qualified technician to continue to receive broadcast signals. Having a secondary tuner would not work as that would break the "trusted" display chain that Hollywood is seeking to establish.

"Assuming there are approximately 300 million Americans, with 2/3 having upwards of 2 TV sets, that amounts to close to 500 million or more perfectly functional TVs that will wind up in landfills or third world 'recycling' countries like China. These are not exact figures, but you get the idea. As this grinds on, it looks like economic and ecological impacts are the predominate risks involved, as well as not being able to record the latest Star Trek because they put a copy-block flag into the digital broadcast. This is something that I think everyone, from the geek on the web to the little old lady across the street, through the average soccer mom should be concerned about. Any suggestions as to how such could be made publically known, organized against, and promoted, in such a way that the public would know it as a threat, not only to their way of life, but also to their pocketbook and health?"

Comments

Re:Simply put

[Zeinfeld]

This will really be an issue when the widower living on a fixed income only watching basic cable has to pay for such an upgrade. Pissing off that voting block is suicide.

The only mandate for HDTV is for broadcast signals. Cable will not be affected by the proposed mandate since a cable TV company can broadcase both standard and digital signals at the same time without conflict. Same goes for satelite.

The ridiculous part of this whole thing is that almost nobody who buys a big screen TV connects it to a broadcast signal as the primary feed. Most people watching HDTV signals for real today are taking them off satelite.

Broadcast HDTV so far is a bust, the signals don't work in appartment blocks with a set top antenna.

So if the edict did get made law the people affected would be the people who listen to broadcast signals - mostly people who can't be bothered with tv much, can't afford cable or are watching on second sets.

Withdrawing these people's ability to watch TV would be interpreted as yet another corporate, for the rich policy. But since those people won't be able to vote it does not matter. Any complaints that are made will merely divert attention away from the huge contracts Haliburton and other Bush crony-capitalism companies get to exploit Iraq's oil (bill for security paid for by US taxpayer) and of course the effort to remove the limit on presidential terms...