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Alfred Poor Says HDTV Manufacturers are Hurting (Video)
The last time we talked with Dr. Poor (who is now a Senior Editor at aNewDomain.net), we ran out of time and didn't get around to discussing 3-D and ultra-high-def TV and whether they're worth buying. So here he is again on the Slashdot TV screen (which is *not* high-definition), talking about the TV marketplace. This is a perfect time for that discussion, since Dark Friday is only a few weeks away, and after that we move into the month during which TVs and a lot of other items sell at a lot higher rate than they do during the rest of the year. If you're thinking about buying a new TV for yourself or as a gift this holiday season, you might want to listen to what Dr. Poor has to say on the subject before you do.
theres no point in buying a 3dtv or a 4k ultra resolution tv when you cant watch anything on it with either... televesion is at best 1080p, and you can only get fake 3d tv. if you want to watch a 3d movie, you have to pay extra. if you want to stream movies, dont even think you will get 4k resolution any time soon. even if you could find something online with 4k resolution, you wouldnt be able to stream it without a gigabit internet connection.
The article mentions "Dark Friday" but links to a wiki page called "Black Friday". What is that about? (I know about Black Friday in the US, just not sure why the Dark Friday bit)
Trolling is a art,
Here in Italy, the only form of broadcast HDTV content is via pay channels. I see them stealing a page out of the mobile phone companies, and include the TV in their contract, so that the early exit penalty would be paying off the TV. they get more consistent revenues, and the HDTV producers "Eat" the retailing margin, or they split.
Only problem, as a consumer, would be if they get the producers to include the ability "brick" the TV remotely (for non payment, for instance) and/or include some proprietary encryption.
"If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
Why is there no summary or transcript? Watching a video to hear a few words is a completely wasteful use of bandwidth and time.
See the "Hide/Show Transcript" link just under the video?
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Oh, didn't see it. Oops.
There are geeks who still have cable?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
If I'm going to suffer through a 2 minute commercial lead-in for a "doctor" video it better be a doctor that can cure heart disease or cancer instead of one telling me I should buy a 3-D television.
One of the things about 3D is that the consumers have shown that they are not particularly interested in spending a whole lot more money in order to get 3D. And the installed base is growing but it is not growing fast enough to support the development projects by the broadcasters and the content producers. ESPN was singular for being way out in front on developing 3D content especially for live sports coverage. And they have actually pulled the plug on a lot of that activity now because I think, in part, they are just not getting the viewership for it.
Smart observation. But then...
And it is just a matter of time in my opinion for the installed base to get to the point where people are going to be able to take advantage of it and will want to take advantage of it,
WRONG CONCLUSION.
People do not want 3dtv. The market research shows this clearly, as he himself states. Then he does a 180 and starts pushing 3d. The fact that it's baked into every TV on Best Buy's shelves (for a significant markup, of course) is NOT A GOOD THING. Maybe TV sales wouldn't be so damn bad if TV manufacturers didn't keep trying to shove every damn bell and whistle in our faces for an extra $100. Just give us a big, pretty screen. That's all we want. No cameras in our TVs, no 3d, no internet bullshit. If I want internet on my TV I'll plug my computer into the HDMI port. If I want a camera I'll plug in a camera. If I want 3d I'll...wait, I'll never want 3d, because it's retarded.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Just wait a year. 1000 Gpbs internet is rolling to all locations within 10 miles of a top tier research university nationwide. For only $10 a month.
It's part of the Internet 2 initiative.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'm a geek who has tried cutting the cord several times now. And it's still just not there. It's better than it once was, but there is still a lot more that you CAN'T get than you can. And even the stuff you can get still comes with a lot of caveats, costs, and weird compromises.
Cutting the cord right now is fine if you're okay with accepting whatever content happens to be there. But it sucks if you're the kind of person who hears about a specific show and wants to watch *that* show (and not wait a year or more to do it). There are just too many shows that I like that either aren't available at all or would cost me $3 an episode to watch.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Sales spiked up during the HD transition because everyone was upgrading from SD to HD. The benefits were obvious and easily viewable.
Those days are over. I don't want fake 3d with stupid glasses. I don't need a TV with a camera that can Skype, my phone already does it (better). There's simply no reason why I'd need to buy another new TV, unless my current one dies.
Sorry TV makers, but this is the new normal. If you set up expecting things to stay in transition sales mode forever, than it sucks to be you.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Why so gloomy sounding? Why can't it be called A Mix Of All Colors Friday?
If you work in retail (as opposed to actually owning a retail establishment), maybe you might wish for a dark friday...
Dark Friday: a Friday when the staff is taking the day off and the establishment is not open (normally only applied to a Play or Show)
Pink Friday: a crappy album made by Nicki Minaj
Red Friday: (US/CA) support the troops (UK) July 31, 1925, british coal miner labor union celebrate winning a temporary government backed minimum wage
Orange Friday: (US baseball) support the SF Giants day
Big Yellow Friday: Children's liver disease foundation awareness/fundraising day
Green Friday: a social reform movement
Blue Friday: support law enforcement officers KIA
Purple Friday: (US football) support the Minnesota Viking or Baltimore Ravens
Black Friday: (US) the day after thanksgiving (which is always on thursday) many business goes from "red" to "black". This follows the tradition of accountants to use black for non-negative numbers and red for negative numbers. (UK) April 15th 1921, the day the Triple Alliance chickened out and called off a strike that would have supported british miners in their fight or minimum wages (see Red Friday)
Thank God it's Friday: oops that was a day early, it's only thursday.
The brightest plasma screens are far darker than the brightest LCD screens (which are so bright you have to turn them down in a dim room otherwise they're uncomfortable to watch).
Plasma has better colours, better viewing angle, better blacks, etc. But it's not brighter.
"Seriously, if you want to buy electronics you either do it on Cyber Monday or you do it in February."
what a stupid generalization, and it shows complete ignorance on how companies change and evolve.
"Everyone knows that."
Everybody knows a lot of thing, they are seldom correct.
"We don't care about 3D."
I do, albeit it not strongly.
"We also don't care about 4D.
I do, very much so. Have you seen a 4k film on a 4k TV? IT's fucking amazing.
"Nobody cares what the "industry" wants us to buy.
if that was true we wouldn't have iPhones and Tablets.
"The only reason we even bought 1080p HDTV sets in the first place was we were forced to."
Stop acting like you speak for even a tine percentage of the population.
The internet is middle aged, maybe it's time you grew up and stopped being an ignorant hater?
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