HD AND DTV Set Sales

[Kevin Arnold]

Interesting article from tech notes: Self explanatory.

Subject: About Digital Television Pictures
By: Frank Eory-- Frank.Eory@motorola.com
Apparently most consumers find SDTV to be just a slightly better version of S-Video NTSC. SDTV monitors
compete directly with NTSC sets/monitors and cannot command much of a price delta.
EDTV (480p) commands a more substantial price delta over NTSC, but the general perception of 480p in
the market is somewhere between "really good NTSC" and "poor man's HDTV." 480p displays are a niche
that has not been properly marketed, IMHO.
Personally, I find the difference to be quite striking when the 480p monitor is displaying a progressive DVD
source or properly decimated 1080i or 720p HD material.
It's not about actual video quality; it's about the numbers game. At the retail level, DTV = HDTV, and there
really is no such thing as digital SDTV or EDTV – at least they are not being marketed that way. Something
that only displays 480 lines is close to the (NTSC) low-end of the price spectrum. If it displays 1080 lines,
well, that's the biggest number and can truly be labeled "HDTV" -- even if it has a huge dot pitch and an
effective resolution no better than a good 480p display. The numbers game means that a 1080i display can
be margined up quite a bit compared to its smaller-number siblings. The numbers game doesn't bode well
for 720p either, since it costs more than 1080i and is, after all, a smaller number. Higher cost, less "big
number" appeal, lower margins and thus, less retailer interest.We once believed that affordable EDTV sets in the 27" to sub-40" range could really take off. If consumers
saw side-by-side comparisons of an NTSC set, a 480p set displaying decimated HD material and a 1080i
HD set displaying the same material, it would be a no-brainer. The 480p set would have a modest price
adder relative to the NTSC set, whereas the HD set would be dramatically more expensive. And in those
screen sizes, most consumers would say of the 480p set, "it looks like HDTV to me."
But consumers never got to see that side-by-side comparison, and my guess is that they never will. --
Frank