Rich Fiscus
16 Nov 2007 18:58
Even though retailers are planning big deals on HDTVs for next Thursday's annual "Black Friday" sales. Even though it looks like digital televisions will be in more than half of all U.S. households by the time Christmas comes this year, that's not necessarily a sign that manufacturers or programmers are getting their message out to consumers.
Despite ever increasing hi-def programming available from cable and satellite providers, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) most HDTV purchases are actually intended for watching SD content in the form of DVDs.
While many industry experts have speculated that the disconnect between manufacturers/content providers and consumers is all about fine distinctions between several formats, others believe the issue is a general lack of understanding about what hi-def actually is.
For many consumers, the improved picture quality of DVD equates to a higher definition signal. That's easy to understand given that most people adopted DVD after many years of experience with VHS and similar formats that don't even take advantage of the quality available in standard analog televisions.
CEA spokeswoman Megan Pollock says “We’ve worked with retailers for years on some of these issues,” adding “More and more retailers are engaged in this issue. They realize it bodes well for them to educate their customers.”
Source: Variety