Comments on: Study: 18% of people can’t tell if they’re watching true HDTV content or not

By: Jacques Snyman | Website Design

Jacques Snyman | Website Design — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:18:43 +0000

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…..

By: MikeC

MikeC — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:04:45 +0000

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.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:00:07 +0000

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.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:10:48 +0000

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.

By: Michael Burke

Michael Burke — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:09:21 +0000

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.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:44:31 +0000

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.

By: Gregor

Gregor — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:05:11 +0000

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.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:30:47 +0000

Yeah. I’m likely in that 18%.

But I can’t believe it is only 18% and not more.

By: Ankit Gupta

Ankit Gupta — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:29:08 +0000

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.