How widespread is HD in North America?

Cafe Society
1

Here in the U.K., the only broadcaster is Sky, with several HD channels. HD displays and other HD equipment are expensive - particularly 1080p displays. What’s it like in Canada and the USA?

2

As far as I can tell, it hasn’t really caught on yet. I don’t know anyone who has it, and it’s pretty limited as far as what stations broadcast in it.

Our cable company’s complete HD line up:
HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Starz! HD, Showtime HD, The Movie Channel HD, ESPN, NESN, TNT, Universal HD, INHD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, NBC, PBS, ABC, CBS, WeathTV, NFL Network & FOX

And of course the ones in red are ones you have to pay even more to access. Thus far, at least around here, it doesn’t seem worth having yet.

3

I’m one of the few who get thier HD only from other the air (not cable or satelite)
ABC and PBS definitely broadcast HD
The local FOX is doing digital, but I’m not sure if they are doing HD.
CBS and NBVC are farther away from me and I can’t get the HD signal but I’m prettuy sure they are doing HD (I’ve heard the NBC HD is at a reduced wattage compared to thier analog channel)

Frankly I only use HD for Lost and special NOVA episodes.
(I do watch CW on the ABC subchannel)

Brian

4

We have and use HD. Most of my friends have HD now. The channel selection is still limited but the price of the TVs is dropping nicely. We have a 37" 1080p LCD. The HD over cable is only 1080i. Our DVD player and my family room computer will put out 1080p but the DVD we own rarely if ever make use of the capability.

The HD channels we do have are stunning. The picture is incredible, I love the widescreen programming and Baseball and Football games are improved on HD.

Jim

5

My local Fox broadcasts in 720p, while NBC and CBS at least broadcast in 1080i. NBC looks the best of the three, by far (I also get my HD over-the-air only, which - as N9IWP mentioned - is pretty uncommon, and I can only get those three stations). I’m probably going to end up adding HD to my cable package for the sports channels, since sports stuff looks GREAT in HD, huge improvement. It’s nice to catch Studio 60 and whatever else in HD too, but not really a deal-breaker.

I am fully in support of higher definition becoming all the rage, but I have a feeling it’ll take a while yet to get serious saturation.

6

Some numbers:

7

:confused: What the hell is HD??? :confused:

8

High Definition such as HDTV or HD-DVD/Blu-ray (next generation DVDs)

9

oops meant to say

… the resolution of High Defintion is substantially better than of regular TV (sometimes you see it as SDTV), here and here are some good primers for all the differences between the various types.

10

I just happen to be doing research on that question at work (assuming the question is what percentage of the population has HDTV sets and what portion of those receive some form of HDTV broadcast).

What I’ve found is that the really good information will cost you a lot of money for research company reports. Since I don’t have a budget for my research, I’ve had to piece things together and this is what I’ve found:

22% of American households have at least one HDTV capable TV.

This number is expected to grow by about 10% a year over the next 3 to 4 years.

43% of the HDTV set owners actually watch HD programming either over the air or from a cable or DBS provider.

17% of the HDTV set owners think they are watching HD programming but really aren’t.