HD Sucks
Pros:
- Potentially improved picture quality (“potentially” due to insane compression ratios due to people demanding more and more HD channels with a given amount of bandwidth)
Cons:
- General need for cable boxes, CableCARDs, and/or tuning adapters for HD versions of SD channels that require nothing but a cable-ready TV
- Despite “separable security” in the form of CableCARDs, they are still locked to single devices by cable companies, and usually require a technician to come out to pair them when devices change
- Third-party device support sucks
- Picture quality (I’ll take a pristine 480p image any day over a blocky, overly-compressed 1080p)
Granted, my cons overlap a lot, but I think my point is made. Despite the technical advances of TVs, life has been made more difficult with the advent of HDTV. The FCC has failed miserably in their attempts to make consumers’ lives easier with things like CableCARDs, and has generally made things worse for consumers and cable companies alike, surprisingly enough. Sure, the cable companies are still making out better than consumers, but judging by the amount of time a technician spent at the house today (and the amount of time one will undoubtedly spend here tomorrow), they’re getting screwed over by all of this as well. Just not as much as me, and fellow TiVo enthusiasts.
Christmas has passed by for 2009, but all I want for 2010 is HDTV that works just like SDTV. No boxes, no CableCARDs, no tuning adapters. Please.
More accurately, you mean cable HD sucks. Over-the-air HD is uncompressed, and I’m unsure about the level of compression for Satellite HD. Also, HD movies on Blu-Ray do not have heavy compression.
I agree that HD from cable companies in general sucks due to compression. I think certain cable companies do better than others in this area, though. So there’s gotta be some technologies and business models that can still over decent HD over cable.
Right. From what I’ve heard, satellite used to be fairly heavily compressed, but now is actually quite good and better than many cable systems. This is purely anecdotal, as told to me by a family member who has DirecTV, but it’s believable, I think. And despite the hatred for Blu-Ray among a lot of techies, it really is the best HD technology out there today, as far as quality goes. Downloads are great, but until you’re downloading 50 GB per movie, or they find a codec that can give the same quality in a smaller size, Blu-Ray will always win in my book. Then again, I still have a LaserDisc player and a Beta VCR…
Anyway, my post generally dealt in the frustration felt when you do something other than a regular old HD cable box. If you just have one of those standard HD boxes, HD cable can be quite good. I have Charter at home, and the quality and levels of compression were miles better than the Comcast service I had at school. But like everything else these days, just because it’s legal to do something with a product or service (i.e., use a Tivo HD with a CableCARD and tuning adapter) doesn’t mean it’s as consumer-friendly as it should be.
