DemoCoder said:
There is no such thing as a CRT HDTV (not computer CRT monitor) All existing CRT HDTVs on the market, including the highest end ones you can buy, accept HDTV signals, but do not have the resolution to resolve the signal, specifically, the horizontal resolution. The best available HDTV CRT you can buy today has about 1400 resolvable pixels horizontally. This set can resolve neither 720p nor 1080i formats completely. But for the most part, you won't know.
Who the heck are you talking to?
If you are talking to me 1) I never specified the HDTV type (in fact, not 1 is CRT, so meh... typical ranting) and 2) certainly knowing the native signal your set works with is relevant.
Since the rest of the post appears to be a response to me I take it this must be as well. That being the case your are repeating irrelevant information to this case as I not once mentioned CRTs. You are ranting about nothing to prove what?
Every single person I know has an HDTV, and bought it clearly knowing what HD was. Maybe you know a bunch of idiot blue collar types who walk into a store and slap down $2k without understanding the features of the product, but almost everyone I know knows the difference.
Ad hominem.
"These people are idiots compared to me and my friends, and thus I can dismiss them".
Sorry, the day the began selling HDTVs in Costco, Sam's Club, and Walmart your arguement went flying out the door. As for knowing what they were... duh. "Its HD dude, its better". We live in an era where 2>1, bigger is better, more frequency > better, more memory > better, etc regardless of any other facts. We live in the era of 512MB FX5200s.
And that does not even delve into the entire demographic of people who are semi-familiar with a subject (i.e. HDTV is better) and rely on sales people at Circuit City, Comp USA, and other stores to direct them to the "right" product. The number of intelligent people who get ripped off buying PCs, in the year 2005, is incredible. Especially with this is their 3rd or 4th PC.
So either you are on cloud 9 or you are out of touch with the general consumer.
Further, your personal insults on people makes you like like an ass. Just an FYI. Your comment is about as mature as calling your friends, "Obsessive audio/visual freaks who hang out obsessing on online forums".
How would I know that? I don't OBVIOUSLY. But that is about as low and moronic as your comment is. Your demeaning attitude toward others and "Me and my friends are better, and therefore the people you know are idiots" is pretty sad commentary. Uhhh yeah. And yes, this is how you come off on the forums.
Summing up people who may not have a knowledge base that overlaps your interests as "idiots" really is a good show old chap. Do I sense some security issues?
Even my friend's girlfriend, not technically savvy in the least, knows her Sony WEGA CRT is not a true HDTV, but merely "HD Ready" (can accept signal, but resolution not as good as HDTV spec)
Irrelevant anecdote to justify character assassination.
I understand there are people who have been introduced to HDTV. I have no doubt about that. What you seem incapable to comprehend is that not all consumers run your circles or have been introduced to the topic--or have been fortunate enough to have had a friend, coworker, magazine, etc... explain the concepts.
The bottonline is HDTVs have become a mainstream product. They have been known about for about a decade and over the last three years more and more people getting new TVs--not an unknown practice as they break down--have looked for future proofing. Hard to avoid it when you walk into your local TV place and they are pushing HDTVs. Heck, the last time I was in a Circuit City (4 years ago) they were pushing HD sets heavily.
If you are going to invest $2-$4k in a TV you want to future proof it--regardless if you understand the lingo or not. What is so hard to understand about that?
If the consumers didn't understand what they were getting, manufacturers wouldn't go to such great lengths to increase specs like CR. I think most of the 15 million HDTV users are ALOT more savvy than the typical TV owner.
Non sequitur.
Just because your average HDTV owner may be more tech savvy than a typical TV owner, that tells us nothing. TV owners cover the entire gamut of people. HDTV owners tend to be people 1) with money and 2) spend time in front of their TVs and want wide screens/big screens.
You can have both of those interests and not necessarily be up to date on all the HDTV wranglings on this stalled technology. Yeah, I remember reading about HDTV in 1996 and how it was "here"... um yeah.
As for manufacturers, many things push them to increase their specs. Obviously the high end consumers want them. Further, even if a consumer does not understand the number they can frequently see a difference (although what consumers see as a difference on a show room floor is often BAD). Further, manufacturers are not just trying to impress consumers, but also they are competiting for floor space. If my show room has space for 10 sets and there are 20 vendors wanting space--I am going to pick the best 10 overall for my markets needs, ranging from low end products to the best high end products. Pricing is fairly stable across product categories, so offering quality features at price points is significant.
Finally, specs are constantly improved due to the obvious disparity between technologies. For the longest time LCDs lagged in many areas. If they wished to move into the space occupied by CRTs and Plasmas they needed to improve enough that any difference was moot when viewed by the average consumer.
So your justification that HDTV users must be more savvy based on manufacturer improvements does not hold water. The tech industry has been driven by bigger and faster for decades. Most HDTV technologies appear to be an offshoot of that industry mentality.
