Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Welcoming You To the Digital Age... is Gordon Jump

(Anybody get the reference?)

The following post is my response to Vent Casey's DTV Transition Report: They’re Out of Coupons?



A lot of this whole conversion is propaganda. So much information is not being released, it’s not even funny. Even the people who work in television don’t have a clue.

Here’s what I do know, that can help clear things up.

1. If you have bought a TV in the past couple of years — there is a very good chance you have nothing to fear. By mandate any TV manufactured since 2005 is supposed to be able to support HD-TV. You need only an antenna — and, yes, your old rabbit ears WILL work (if you have them on an HD-ready TV). On HD-ready sets, the conversion happens inside the tele. You’re good to go. You only need to covert once (at the antenna or monitor)… one HD setup per monitor is all that is needed.

If you have a cable box, you have nothing to fear. Yes, the government is throwing around a 10-cent word to hype it up (coverter). Every cable box distributed by the cable companies is supposed to, and probably already is accepting HD signals, then converting them back to analog if that is what your TV takes. If you get your cable directly from wall to monitor, you might have some issues, unless you have an HD-ready set. Again… just once coversion — this time, box or screen.

2. There is almost zero benefit in going to HD. Unfortunately, the decision of whether to switch over was taken out of our hands. You will experience EXACTLY the same problems you had with an analog signal. Bad weather, antenna placement, and signal quality will still be a factor.

Right now, I have an HD-ready TV behind me. When I first got it, I put the old analog antenna on it — I got both analog and HD channels. But I didn’t get all of them. So, being thoroughly uneducated by the government, I went out and bought an HD antenna. It makes no difference. I still get the same channels… and it’s not all of the channels available in the area. Come February, the HD antenna will go to a non-HD unit… I will simply switch out the antennae between units.

3. No offense to you Vent, but I am calling bullshit on this clearer picture with HD. Colors are bolder, but no clearer… and, as a professional in the field, I can tell you that the field of focus when shooting in HD is much shallower. Backgrounds are not in as much focus as they were in standard format. That’s because the piece of glass at the front of the camera has a different shape.

The conversion from analog to digital will take us from an aspect ratio (viewing window) of 4:3 to 16:9. It sounds impressive… it isn’t. It’s letterboxing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you’ve squared two numbers to make bigger numbers. The pixels are smaller, and you have a few more pixels on the sides. It’s just more things to go wrong.

Really, does anything happen to those sides? Maybe you can see the back of someones head in a movie… and maybe you’ll see the cornerback jump a route a fraction of a second sooner. But all the main attraction is still in the center of the monitor. When you get to the boundaries of sports — it just means you can see the jackass in row 10, instead of only seeing rows 1 thru 5.

Any difference you are seeing, is probably the result of a new unit. I’m guessing you are peering into an HD-Flat Panel (not the same as a flat screen). A flat screen (the same size as a standard tube television from 10 years ago) and a flat panel (looks like a picture frame) produce images differently. In 3-5 years, those flat panels will look no different than the flat screen, and possibly look more like a projection. This is because flat panel Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors need to be reconfigured — basically the light needs to be refocused.

Ever sat at Buffalo Wild Wings and noticed a magenta shadow around everything on the big projection screens? The magenta (red) light is out of alignment. Same effect on LCDs.

Say hello to maintenance costs and the Sears repairman.

I hope I haven’t ruined the experience for you, but the information and facts need to get out there. It’s scare tactics. Someone in the television industry as a Senator or Congressman in their pocket.

Really, we should be concentrating on broader issues. It was only because the iPod and internet have taken a sizeable chunk out of the electronics market from the television. It was just the first “bailout”. A little more appropriate than aimlessly throwing money around, but not by much.

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