Status of HDtv in the Netherlands

[Arwin]

We don't get info on how successfully HD is penetrating the market very often, so I thought I"d share this.

One in five homes in the Netherlands purchased a new flat screen TV last year. The total amount of flatscreen TVs sold was 1.4 million, which is a 58% increase over 2006. 85% of these flatscreen TVs is 'HD Ready'. It is currently estimated that flatscreen TVs have made it into 42% of Dutch homes.

It is expected that this year sales will grow with 20%, though that number may turn out higher because both the European Soccer Championship and the Olympic Games in Peking will be recorded and broadcast in high-def.

The Dutch market for consumer electronics totalled a 3 billion turnover last year, which was an 8% increase over 2006. Nearly half of that amount (1.3 billion) was spent on flatscreen TVs.

(from www.nu.nl)

 

[betan]

How are the console sales progressing?
I wonder if there is an obvious correlation between HD consoles and HDTV sales.

 

[PARANOiA]

What's the resolution required to be "HD Ready" out of interest?

And does the site mention anything about resolutions sold? I'm interested to see how many people are walking away with true 1080p sets. Mine's a year old but I still don't know anyone else with one... they're all buying 720p native or the 768p 16:9 sets due to the big price difference.

Cheers

 

[Cornsnake]

Full HD is 1080p. All the other HD resolutions below that are HD ready.

 

[Zaphod]

What's the resolution required to be "HD Ready" out of interest?

1. Display, display engine
   • The minimum native resolution of the display or display engine is 720 physical lines in wide aspect ratio.
2. Video Interfaces
   • The display device accepts HD input via:
     • Analogue YPbPr1, and
     • DVI or HDMI
   • HD capable inputs accept the following HD video formats:
     • 1280x720 @ 50 and 60Hz progressive (“720p”), and
     • 1920x1080 @ 50 and 60Hz interlaced (“1080i”)
   • The DVI or HDMI input supports content protection (HDCP)

 

[Arwin]

Over here, the HD Ready specification is fixed and means the following:

- widescreen 16:9
- at least 720p
- support for HDMI/DVI with DHCP and Analog YUV (typically Component or VGA)
- support for at least these resolutions:
1280 x 720p at 50/60 Hz (720 lines, progressive
1929 x 1080i at 50/60 Hz (1080 lines, interlaced)

EDIT: too slow.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Full HD is 1080p. All the other HD resolutions below that are HD ready.

I don't think Full HD is a real standard. 1080p is given whatever names the TV companies wanna give it. The only actual standards are as mentioned above.

 

[Arwin]

Could be, but currently, everyone understands Full HD to be 1920x1080p and it's often labelled on TVs as such. If it's not an official standard or legally enforced (HD Ready is actually defined by European Consumer Law, I think), it's at the very least a de-facto standard.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's quite possibly a common naming convention, and whatever it is, it serves its purpose.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

How are the console sales progressing?
I wonder if there is an obvious correlation between HD consoles and HDTV sales.

No correlation, better yet, these figures arnt worth anything. Want to know why? Walk into a dutch electronic store and say you want to buy a normal sized crt tv. Good luck.

Better yet, dutch HDtv signal offer is pathetic, so everyone is watching those awsome pal quality shows on their new shiny hdtv, not exactly a improvement in image quality. best you can get on most channels is buy a digital decoder but that still isnt hd material.

In the end its not so much a matter of wanting a hdtv, but more a case of not really having any other option as the offer of crt tv's is very limited.

 

[-tkf-]

In the end its not so much a matter of wanting a hdtv, but more a case of not really having any other option as the offer of crt tv's is very limited.

Thats fine, at one point it was the same with color televisions but those wanted B&W just turned of the colors. Those that liked the color wanted more. Some will want HD on the HDrdy tv as well.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Thats not a very good comparison though. color has some very obvious advantages over black and white. Just like dvd has some obvious advantages over vhs. That isnt so much the case with HD. Yes the image quality is (alot) better. But its not a totally different thing like color vs black and white. This goes even more if you take into account that atleast in Holland not a single channel you can receive on normal cable pay tv shows HD content. And even if you pay quite a bit more for HD channels you can only get stuff like Discovery HD. So non of the single commercial or public stations shows HD and 90% of the time you will be watching those. So people dont buy one for the suberb image quality because they just cant get that here. What is even worse is that atleast the public channels arnt even scheduled to replace their equipement untill 2012 and even than it remains unknown if they will purchase HD equipment because of the cost involved in making HD programs (it wasnt untill last year they started broadcasting everything in widescreen). Commercial channels might go quicker as they show alot of stuff from the US so that should already be available in HD anyway.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Kinda funny "HD Ready" here in the states typically refered to an HD monitor that lacked an HD tuner (though I think all HD sets now have em). But in the UK at least "HD Ready" meant it was ready to be hooked up to an HD source and you're good to go.

 

[PARANOiA]

Kinda funny "HD Ready" here in the states typically refered to an HD monitor that lacked an HD tuner (though I think all HD sets now have em). But in the UK at least "HD Ready" meant it was ready to be hooked up to an HD source and you're good to go.

That's what I thought, though I wonder if it's different for different reasons. I see a lot of forum activity where people buy cheap HD sets (Conia, etc) without tuners or whatnot that must have terrible scalers and other internal filters to improve the image. It's a shame to think people will be running content at the non-native content (eg, 720p gaming on a 768p set) and think that's just how it's supposed to look

Having said that, I was a dunce many years ago - granted I was only 15 - and bought a Dolby Digital Ready amp for my home theatre. Little did I know that that only meant it had 5.1 analogue inputs, and wouldn't actually decode any digital inputs. That's why whenever I see the term "xxx Ready" I feel a little angry inside.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Most 42" plasmas with a resolution of 1024*768 are accepted as HD ready as well, considering that they can display 720 lines.

 

[Mobius1aic]

I have to agree on the "xxx ready" statement PARANOiA. It usually means that I need to read some fine line somewhere that'll screw me over at some point, hence it's a good idea to research stuff before you buy I don't even own an HD set at all, but I've done my homework on it for when I'm ready to acquire such a device, but I'll probably end up hooking my PS3 to my Samsung PC monitor (yes it's HDCP capable), I just need a DVI and Red/White stereo switch of some kind because I have my 360 on my VGA port with connections to my PC stereo system and my computer of course running on the DVI. All my older systems are perfectly at home on my old 26 inch RCA CRT which the are meant to be viewed on (old school baby) and I don't even have cable anyways. Hell I don't have the antenna attached either.