Masses tune in to superhero abilities of HDTV

[Gregg Lengling]

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
Jeff Leon was never one to watch nature documentaries. Until, that is, the Chicago attorney bought a 50-inch Fujitsu plasma HDTV. "In high definition, it's just mesmerizing," Leon says.
TV junkies are answering the call of nature with greater frequency and are gaining appreciation for ballgames, concerts, movies and other programming that comes alive in high definition.

HDTV is shorthand for a picture that is far sharper and more vibrant than the conventional analog reception consumers have been watching for decades.

HDTVs have up to 2 million pixels, or picture elements, compared with 200,000 for analog. With a wide-screen "aspect ratio" of 16-by-9, the proportions of most HDTVs are similar to those of a movie screen. By contrast, most analog sets are 4-by-3, or closer to a square.

The rich detail puts viewers in the middle of the action. "If there's a hockey fight, you know how many stitches a guy needs before the doctor gets on the ice," says Mark Cuban, who, as owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and co-founder of a high-definition television network called HDNet, is an authority on spectator sports and broadcasting.

Adds Leon: "Nobody is ever going to say, 'Gee, you look different on TV' anymore. All the age lines of the TV anchors, skin blotches, too much makeup — you can see actors as the real people they actually are."

HDTV broadcasts also sound great. Combined with the proper audio components (an added cost), couch potatoes can exploit what is known as six-channel 5:1 Dolby Digital surround sound. So home theaters reverberate like the neighborhood multiplex.

Yet for a gaggle of reasons — lofty prices, customer confusion, a paucity of HD programming and broadcaster resistance — mainstream consumers had been reluctant to embrace the digital transition.

HDTV's reception among the masses is brightening. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, manufacturer-to-dealer digital TV sales for the first quarter of 2004 totaled 1.39 million, a 104% climb over the same period in 2003. By 2007, nearly one-third of American households will be tuning in to HD programs.

"Two or three years ago, people were calling HDTV a failure," says Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the CEA. Today, Shapiro says, "I have very little worries."

Indeed, the digital migration appears inevitable. "The transition we've embarked on is not really any different from the transition from black-and-white to color TV," says Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner Cable.

Several positive plot points could accelerate the handover:

•Pricing. True, the sexiest televisions, notably thin, large-screen plasma models, command thousands of dollars. But wholesale prices are about half what they were when the first digital sets turned up, says Sean Wargo, the CEA's director of industry analysis. Depending on TV type, he says, prices are plummeting 10% to 30% a year.

Entry-level HD monitors can be found for as little as $450, Wargo reports, though at that price you're getting a 27-inch, non-wide-screen model, based on older tube technology. And buyers would still need a separate set-top box for receiving cable or satellite transmissions or an antenna for capturing over-the-air reception.

Other developments portend a continued price decline. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Intel demonstrated Cayley, the code name for a technique called "liquid crystal on silicon," which it says will lead to large-screen digital sets for less than $2,000.

Also helping drive down prices: Cable operators such as Time Warner and Cablevision say they are not charging extra to show high-definition versions of programs already broadcast in analog. Subscribers do have to fork over a premium for pay channels.

•Programming. More is coming. Major events shown in HD include the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl and the Masters Golf Tournament. NBC will broadcast the 2004 Olympics in HD.

As of late February, according to research firm Digital Tech Consulting, CBS was airing 27 hours a week of its usual programming in HD, not counting specials. NBC and ABC were broadcasting 21 hours and 13 hours of usual programming, respectively.

Though a laggard, Fox plans to show at least half its prime-time lineup in HD beginning this fall.

Others:

• PBS airs its Great Performances series and nature documentaries in high definition, and ESPN shows a variety of sporting events.

• Bravo, HBO and Showtime are among those offering original HD fare, plus movies.

Broadcasters are also devising special content for the medium. Cuban's HDNet plans to run a high-definition documentary on the Enron scandal, for example.

The Voom high-definition satellite channel from Cablevision subsidiary Rainbow Media is offering 21 new niche channels, including Monsters (horror), Gallery (museums), Rush (extreme sports) and Ultra (fashion).

"We tried to take formats that were underserved on TV in general but that would be enhanced and frankly spectacular on HD," says Rainbow CEO Joshua Sapan.

•DVDs. Granted, the resolution of today's DVDs is not up to lofty HD specifications. (Competing high-definition DVD technologies are in the works.) But today's HD monitors do show DVDs in their best light, especially when discs are placed in "progressive scan" players.

•A boost from the feds. Uncle Sam has assumed a role in the digital transition. On July 1, half of new TVs 36 inches or larger with analog tuners must also have digital tuners, the government has mandated. By July 2005, half the sets 25 to 35 inches must have digital tuners.