Well this is shocking news. Apparently some 18 percent of HDTV owners can’t tell the difference between high-def programming and standard-def programing when viewed on their screens. That’s what Leichtman Research Group concludes based on a survey of 1,302 households. That’s a telephone survey, mind you; there’s some controversy surrounding that type of poll these days.
Why is this? For one, I truly think there’s plenty of people out there who have more important things to worry about then whether or not the local newscast is in HD or not; the picture is big, it fills the screen, yay.
Second, Blu-ray has been garbage thus far. Not all movies are authored equally—remember The Fifth Element?—; the players are still flaky (please update now or forget about watching any more movies, bub); movies are still regularly around $35; etc. With no inexpensive high-def disc out the to show people what they’re TV is really made of, people “settle” with whatever’s broadcast. And let’s not forget that advertising pertaining to HDTV is confusing at best, misleading at worst.
It often comes down to people like us, the people who live and breathe this stuff, to tell others about the wonders that is HD. And even then, it’s not like it’s so totally amazing, just a little sharper. And if you’re someone who’s eyesight isn’t too hot you’re really not going to care so much anyway.
That’s the thing – most people just don’t really care. I’d bet that people would rather have a large shiny screen that had good colors over something a little less appealing but could display HD resolutions.
Audiophiles have wondered this for ages – why do people spend so much on the display and so little (if anything extra) on the audio equipment? The answer is that most people don’t care.
Most people just want to enjoy whatever they get or at least feel good about having it, and so I don’t think it matters if it’s HD or not to most people. My opinion has lately been that technology is great, but most people don’t care for it in the way technologists get excited. They usually get something very watered down, but it appeals to them, and so that’s what they go with.
Yeah. I’m likely in that 18%.
But I can’t believe it is only 18% and not more.
That number doesn’t figure for the people who won’t admit that they don’t know HD when they see it. You’re just more honest than most.
One of the major reasons people don’t know HD when they see it, is that the channels are harder to find. With my cable, they’re high up on the dial. A lot of people just go to their regular channels and assume that they’re watching HD, probably wondering what all the hype is for, because of how cruddy a stretched out SD channel looks.
From my experience, many people watch HD programs on a screen that’s too small or too far away to actually make it physically possible to see a difference. If you take a 32″ screen and watch it from 3 meters (approx. 10 ft) distance, you won’t see any difference between a good SD signal and HD. Especially not if your TV has a halfdecent scaler that makes SD bearable.
I have a 52″ and I’m seated 2,8 meters (approx 9 ft) from the device – and trust me that there is a ratio of 0% percent of all people who can’t see a difference between HD and SD with this setup, at least with high-quality media.
This is interesting. however, I can see the difference between SD and HD at around 6 feet on a small 15 inch LCD TV. Contrast is much better, and there is no question that the image is sharper.
I’m a videographer, so my eyes have been trained. But I have to believe that most people of normal vision should see the difference.
I upgraded to an HD cable box because I got a Mits. 65″ DLP TV and I honestly can’t tell the difference from the old cable box. I’m guessing I’ll need an HDMI cable instead of the standard cable that came with the box.
Ill flip back and forth just to show people watching the game at my house how sh!tty SD is. I dont even watch SD channels anymore. I start and 700 and stop at 800.
Only 18% can’t tell the difference? This is not a bad thing. It means 82% can tell the difference. If true this is great news.
I would like to see a test where people are actually not aware of whether the picture they are watching on similar sized screens is HD or not. Guaranteed that the percentage will be much higher, becaused lots of people convince themselves the quality is better, just because the label says so, something akin to the emperor that wore no clothes…..