I am starting to see more commercials as well but we are still talking less then 1% even during HD shows add in all shows and it is minutia. Again, the driving factor for any and all tech is the economics. HD will take off when the sets cost the same as SD sets... Happened with CDs, when players and disks got down to at or near cassette costs... happened with DVD the same way. Nothing else matters, not quality, not content, nothing... only price.




ash =o)

I saw an interview recently with some local Public TV station execs on the SD/HD issue. They suggested that the sets and program origination costs were nothing compared to the costs to equip their stations to broadcast HD -- the figure given was $10 million/station.

The point made in the interview was that in the smaller markets with several stations local adversting just is not going to cover the transition costs; e.g. $40 million in a market with 4 stations say. Of course there are some kinds of programming that only local stations are going to do and so SD may linger in small markets for some time.

Luckily, one of the network affiliates here in Atlanta is going to broadcast their news in HD soon. WXIA (NBC) has been splashing ads about it for a couple of weeks.

Don't know if it will be studio only (likely) or some live segments as well.

Regards,

Joe Womble

"A new survey from Panasonic shows that one in every four U. S. households either own or plan to own an HDTV set by the end of 2006"

I don't believe that stat at all. Because for that to be true almost all of those people would have to buy one in this year!

And this brings me to the point that SD can look fantastic when up-converted to 720p like this local does... I would really have a hard time discerning that it was not HD except that it is pillar boxed.

Aye, but there's the rub! When you spend thousands of dollars for an HDTV you'd prefer to get the best possible viewing experience you can, and there's simply no good way to convert 4x3 SD video to look good on a large widescreen HDTV. The change in viewing aspect ratio combined with the change in resolution is a death knell for all non-widescreen SD cameras, as you can see for yourself once you have a decent HDTV.

So yes, absolutely, I $50,000 SD camera with studio lighting will end up looking at lot better than any $3000 HDV camera.

Sure, but it's noteworthy that we're even bothering to make that comparison! The Sony FX1 easily sets a new standard in image quality for $3000 video cameras, and at least in terms of resolution can challenge any SD camera at any price. That's revolutionary in a way which can't be ignored, and will inevitably lead to HD becoming standard for almost all professional videography within the next few years. SD may not be dead yet, but as someone else said it's definitely on life support.

Being a PC guy and reading the threads about the lack of support for DVCPRO HD on the PC platform gets me worried now and I am not really ready to get a HVX even if I could.

The Caonpus Edius "Broadcast" software for $999 reportedly has better support for the P2 video format than Apple's mighty Final Cut Pro. Other PC editing applications will undoubtedly follow suit, just as Apple finally offered support for HDV almost a year after most PC applications did so. No need to change computer platforms to work with the HVX200, but depending on your particular requirements you may want to investigate Apple's solutions.

[QUOTE=Kevin Shaw]Aye, but there's the rub! When you spend thousands of dollars for an HDTV you'd prefer to get the best possible viewing experience you can, and there's simply no good way to convert 4x3 SD video to look good on a large widescreen HDTV. The change in viewing aspect ratio combined with the change in resolution is a death knell for all non-widescreen SD cameras, as you can see for yourself once you have a decent HDTV.

I've got no less than 4 HDTV's and I can tell you that some SD broadcasts,such as WSB-TV news, although pillar boxed, do look fantastic. WTBS over the air looks pretty darn good too, like the best DVD progressive 480p movies look. My biggest TV is a 96" front projection. And you can see more of a difference on this TV than any of my smaller ones, but great up-converted SD, keeping the aspect ratio true, can look pretty darn good and much better than any OTA analog has ever looked. I also have a direct view CRT 32" HD TV, and while not to the $10,000+ plasma TV quality standard, it is at least another "decent" HDTV that I am watching. My others are flat panel LCD's and they are not as discerning.

Mind you, I am not arguing agaist HDTV in its full glory, but I thought that I would clalrify my position on good SD.