Why does everyone jump to the conclusion that you have to buy a new TV just to receive digital broadcasts. Most of you already receive digital broadcasts over cable and satellite, and even OTA in and around major cities.
I can watch HDTV channels on my old 32" CRT tv right now with the nearly FREE cable box from my cable company. I think I pay less then $2 more for the HDTV box over the digital cable box.
By the time this mandate happens, anyone that chooses not to upgrade to an HDTV set will either be supplied rental equipment from their cable/satellite provider, or purchase a converter box. By 2009 those boxes will be extremely cheap because of early adopters like me and the other about 10% of U.S. HDTV owners (sorry I don't know any figures from other countries).
I can't believe people are angry at the industry for trying to improve the archaic horrible badly engineered NTSC framework. If anything you people should be bitching about the lack of future proofing in ASTC. Come on 720p thats only.87 megapixel.. We need standards that can last.. 1080p should be the minimum. Digital display technology is still in its infancy compared to film and crt. I believe consumer 2k capable displays will be available and cheap in 10 to 20 years. Storage and bandwith should catch up by then. I mean come on you can already buy 1TB of hard drive storage for a reasonable ammount of money.
Sorry just this whole industry makes me angry. Manufacturers and industry leaders are incredibly shortsighted these days; or maby technology is just moving way to fast.. whatever either way the consumer is the one who suffers.
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Why does everyone jump to the conclusion that you have to buy a new TV just to receive digital broadcasts. Most of you already receive digital broadcasts over cable and satellite, and even OTA in and around major cities.
.87 megapixel.. We need standards that can last.. 1080p should be the minimum. Digital display technology is still in its infancy compared to film and crt. I believe consumer 2k capable displays will be available and cheap in 10 to 20 years. Storage and bandwith should catch up by then. I mean come on you can already buy 1TB of hard drive storage for a reasonable ammount of money.
I can watch HDTV channels on my old 32" CRT tv right now with the nearly FREE cable box from my cable company. I think I pay less then $2 more for the HDTV box over the digital cable box.
By the time this mandate happens, anyone that chooses not to upgrade to an HDTV set will either be supplied rental equipment from their cable/satellite provider, or purchase a converter box. By 2009 those boxes will be extremely cheap because of early adopters like me and the other about 10% of U.S. HDTV owners (sorry I don't know any figures from other countries).
I can't believe people are angry at the industry for trying to improve the archaic horrible badly engineered NTSC framework. If anything you people should be bitching about the lack of future proofing in ASTC. Come on 720p thats only
Sorry just this whole industry makes me angry. Manufacturers and industry leaders are incredibly shortsighted these days; or maby technology is just moving way to fast.. whatever either way the consumer is the one who suffers.