80% of Television Viewed in SD

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Even though most households in this country have HDTVs, almost all of the TV programming they watch on them is standard definition. Why? Because cable still sucks.

Most households in the country now have an HDTV, but that doesn't mean we're watching television in HD. In fact, fully 80 percent of TV watched in the U.S. is still viewed in plain old standard definition, even though 56 percent of U.S. households have at least one HDTV set, according to the Nielsen Co.—and even though more and more network and cable TV programming has made the jump to high-def.
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Maybe that percentage is all Dish customers who can't actually find the HD channels :rolleyes:? :p :p
 
I can think of several reasons why.

1. Not realizing that there's HD channels. At least three times I've gone to people's homes to watch a ballgame and they didn't have a clue that the HD channel was a different number.

2. Not realizing they need new equipment. (cable box)

3. Having the equipment installed incorrectly. They hook it up like a old SD cable box, no HDMI or component cables, or if they do have that hooked up have the tv in the wrong mode.

4. Too cheap to pay extra for HD channels.
 
Perhaps if a descrambler box (DVR) and extra fees were not involved I would be watching HD. As CableOne is now, I would need to pay extra for HD and use thier DVR to get the channels I want in HD. It harkens back to the bad old days when almost every TV was "cable ready" but the cable companies were using scrambler so you needed thier box to watch it.
I will not pay extra for what I should be getting already. Lets make one thing clear, it is not the cable companies that are causing this, it's the networks charging them an extra fee for HD content and requiring the cable operators to scramble the signal. I am not sure what it is going to take to fix the current mess, but it needs to be fixed.
 
I have noticed several people that have a HD set and are watching a SD feed commenting on how great their TV looks in HD. I would say that they are not watching HD because they are using a coax cable from their Sat box to their TV. They often respond, that is how the installer plugged it in and they said that is how it is supposed to look.
 
I know my parents have no idea about how HD works...and the fact that all of their HD channels are "hidden" around channel 650+ doesn't help.
It's only been in the last 4 months that I finally got 90% of my basic cable channels in HD, and from what I gather that isn't that bad.
 
Using comcast with a DVR

1) HD channels are hidden in the 800 range
2) I DVR everything, HD takes up 4x to 6x the space of a SD
3) Regular network channels suck for HD, content is often letterboxed

that being said, AMC content looks good in HD

so really it is a combination of factors. for most purposes SD is just *easier*
 
Something I've noticed with Cox is that if you're watching an SD channel that has an HD counterpart, the quick info at the bottom of the screen has a button for "watch in HD" and all you have to do to switch to the HD version is hit enter/ok again. I think it'd be great if all CableCos adopted this method (though I'm sure there would still be plenty of dunces who wouldn't notice, would ignore it, or would misunderstand what it meant)
 
Might have helped to have done the Digital Migration 10 F*ing years ago like we were supposed to.
 
For me, it's about 0% that's shown in SD. I have an HDTV w/ OTA signal. :cool:
 
Ryokurin said:
I can think of several reasons why.

1. Not realizing that there's HD channels. At least three times I've gone to people's homes to watch a ballgame and they didn't have a clue that the HD channel was a different number.

2. Not realizing they need new equipment. (cable box)

3. Having the equipment installed incorrectly. They hook it up like a old SD cable box, no HDMI or component cables, or if they do have that hooked up have the tv in the wrong mode.

4. Too cheap to pay extra for HD channels.
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This is spot on. Many times I've got people watching the game in SD when they have the HD channel further up.
 
I actually still end up watch the SD channels even though I have access to HD ones ffor most of the channels I watch..

I think part of the reason is that I do usually flip between 2 stations and one doesn't have HD and the other does and there is a giant lag when you flip from SD to HD.
 
also some HD channels just don't work well, like TNT, the sound is always off enough that it's weird watching shows. (actually TNT is bad, and only a few other channels have the sound lag)
 
90% of the channels I watch have a HD channel on comcast (near pittsburgh pa) and HD access is only $5 so I watch HD a lot more than sd
 
Don't have a cable box, and other than the local channels, Cox scrambles all the HD, so it's analog for me. Plus, I'm still using a couple analog DVR's (with up to 450 hours record time for SD between them), and other than the main TV, I'm still using a couple old Tube TV's than only get analog.

To upgrade to HD/Digital would cost alot more than I'm willing to spend: Cables boxes, DVR Rental (with very limited record time), Digital TV package, etc. Don't watch enough TV to justify the added costs. The DVR's for for the wife/kids who don't really care that much about the video quality, but like being able to recording everything they might watch some day.

As for movies, I can either stream from Netflix or get the DVD.
 
kzaske said:
I will not pay extra for what I should be getting already. Lets make one thing clear, it is not the cable companies that are causing this, it's the networks charging them an extra fee for HD content and requiring the cable operators to scramble the signal. I am not sure what it is going to take to fix the current mess, but it needs to be fixed.
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The justification for the extra cost, at least for Comcast in my area is to pay for the channels you normally wouldn't get in SD like Palladia, Universal HD, HD Theatre, etc. I don't think it will ever go away even as SD is eventually dropped, it will just be absorbed into the cost of basic cable.
 
I'd honestly like an easier system to ONLY show HD channels in your TV guide.
At this point I pretty much know that the HD line-up is 650+ for me, but if there were some easier way to have an HD-only section (that saves that setting), I think it would help out. With Comcast it's a multi-step process and it doesn't remember that setting. Plus, setting up favorites is a complete hassle.

Also, the tech guys setting people up are often clueless. I've seen brand new top of the line TV's hooked up with composites (or worse...) way too often. I know HDMI cables aren't exactly cheap, but Comcast can afford 'em...and component's are dirt cheap and work fine, too. I'm not suggesting they set people up with a theater, but at least use cables that can do HD video.
 
DirecTV is the best for finding the HD Channels. By default they hide the SD duplicates and the HD channels appear in their place. Best System ever. I hate going to my parents house and finding crap in their HD channel range.
 
i have 4 hd tv's - all in bedrooms, the living room tv- which we just use for games- is SD

my wife is guilty of not watching hd channels on our tv


WHY?

because she is so used to the normal stations being 4 5 7 etc

that she does not bother with the hd versions of 804 805 etc

What i would love to see is the ability to REPROGRAM the numbers so that "804 is channel 4 etc)and if you press say channel 4 (for me that is cbs ) it automatically shows the HD version of the channel
 
Cable sux.

While I pretty much only watch the HD channels, some are only 720 or the audio is weak. Hell, comedy centrat on Cox will sometimes pixellate out, audio drops out, very fricking annoying. On the CW, the audio will just cut out to loud ass static for a few seconds, once in awhile.

Pondering going back to DISH or trying DirectTV. Need to research their DVR's capabilities.
 
Ryokurin said:
I can think of several reasons why.

1. Not realizing that there's HD channels. At least three times I've gone to people's homes to watch a ballgame and they didn't have a clue that the HD channel was a different number.

2. Not realizing they need new equipment. (cable box)

3. Having the equipment installed incorrectly. They hook it up like a old SD cable box, no HDMI or component cables, or if they do have that hooked up have the tv in the wrong mode.

4. Too cheap to pay extra for HD channels.
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#4 for me. No im not cheep. I just do not watch enough TV to justify the stupid extra price of HD package + box rental. What little I do want to watch in HD is the networks of which I have a splitter to plug the cable line directly into my TV to watch the HD's. Switch to RCA is my free digital cable box for all the other channels.
 
It'll probably be another 10 years before cable/satellite providers finally dump all SD transmissions and HD is the default.

I wish Comcast would arrange their HD channels lower in the lineup and put all the SD crap out in the 100-200+ range. I did notice some time ago that Comcast put that "Watch in HD" button on the bar when you are watching the SD equivalent of a channel they offer in HD; that should help out the people that don't know better.

I'd like to not have a box at all but I don't know what is going on in the back-end. If they have to encrypt the channels to prevent just anyone from seeing them then is there nothing in place that would let them decrypt channels on a per-home basis like they could with just standard old cable?
 
lenardo said:
i have 4 hd tv's - all in bedrooms, the living room tv- which we just use for games- is SD

my wife is guilty of not watching hd channels on our tv


WHY?

because she is so used to the normal stations being 4 5 7 etc

that she does not bother with the hd versions of 804 805 etc

What i would love to see is the ability to REPROGRAM the numbers so that "804 is channel 4 etc)and if you press say channel 4 (for me that is cbs ) it automatically shows the HD version of the channel
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I know at least on Comcast boxes (friend has HD) if your on a SD channel that has a HD version you can hit the guide button and something else and it will jump to the HD version.
 
I rarely watch the SD channels, or even look at what's on them. They just look like crap after watching stuff in HD.

In fact, I don't even browse the non-HD channels for things to watch. There are a couple of poker shows I'll watch on Game Show Network (High Stakes, and that new Doubles Tourney) but that's about it. If it's not HD I don't watch it.
 
I have a homemade Over The Air antenna and get nearly all my channels in 1080i. Can't beat free 1080!
 
On top of cox sucking, the DVR I have is ancient with only 80Gb hardrive. Some 2004 model Motorola. A typical show in HD uses 5% or so, fills up pretty fast.
 
djoye said:
I'd like to not have a box at all but I don't know what is going on in the back-end. If they have to encrypt the channels to prevent just anyone from seeing them then is there nothing in place that would let them decrypt channels on a per-home basis like they could with just standard old cable?
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They could probably do filters again, but that would eliminate their biggest advantage of going digital, making cable theft almost non existent. When everyone is dependent on a box, all they gotta do is send a kill command to the it to end service. I think the day will come when the cable box will go away again, but that will be when everything is sent via IP.
 
The only SD channel I watch is G4TV.

If they were to offer an HD-Only package cheaper, I'd be willing to give it up.
 
#1. Bless her heart, I could never get my Mom to understand the difference.

Ryokurin said:
I can think of several reasons why.

1. Not realizing that there's HD channels. At least three times I've gone to people's homes to watch a ballgame and they didn't have a clue that the HD channel was a different number.

2. Not realizing they need new equipment. (cable box)

3. Having the equipment installed incorrectly. They hook it up like a old SD cable box, no HDMI or component cables, or if they do have that hooked up have the tv in the wrong mode.

4. Too cheap to pay extra for HD channels.
Click to expand...
 
A recent feature that was rolled out on my cable box is if I am watching a channel in SD, and the same show is available in HD, it will show me an extra "Watch in HD" button when I select the channel. The HD channel line up itself has no logical order to it so this helps a lot when you are used to the SD channel line up already. Great for live TV, but so far there is no option to set HD over SD when the box is set up to auto record a show.
 
COX advertises "free HD", but it's only the local affiliates and one or two unscrambled pay stations on oddball channels. To get their HD programming, you need to rent one of their boxes. The upside is it has a channel guide. The down side is the programming is compressed to hell. I have one cable box for the main tv, the rest are viewing standard-def TV (with the 6 free QAMs).
 
Ryokurin said:
I can think of several reasons why.

1. Not realizing that there's HD channels. At least three times I've gone to people's homes to watch a ballgame and they didn't have a clue that the HD channel was a different number.

2. Not realizing they need new equipment. (cable box)

3. Having the equipment installed incorrectly. They hook it up like a old SD cable box, no HDMI or component cables, or if they do have that hooked up have the tv in the wrong mode.

4. Too cheap to pay extra for HD channels.
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I definitely concur; I've seen it myself in the majority of cases, even to the point where I made a mistake selecting the show to record from the SD channel instead of the HD channel.

Also, to some cable companies' discredit (Comcast), sure, they'll give you the basic converters for free, but those converters won't convert the upper HD channels...where the companies moved them in order for people to have to pay extra rental for the proprietary equipment. So, without paying extra, people are stuck watching digitally-converted SD programming. What's the f'ing point?

I'm moving soon, and when the move is final, I am going to rethink my cable/internet/telephone selections. Sure, it's convenient to roll them all into one package, but if I can save substantial money by splitting them up, then I've got no problem with putting in the extra wiring for satellite TV and cable internet, and live off the cell phone w/o the need for a home line.
 
I see so many HDTVs with stretched/distorted SD pictures. And, no one is watching 1080p broadcasting 'cause it doesn't exist.
 
DirecTV (Which is what I have in SF) is pretty easy to navigate the HD channels. The HD channels are next to the SD channels. I just block the SD channel numbers and get most of my programming in HD. I hardly watch the SD channels any more as most of the shit I watch is now broadcast in HD.

Comcast sucks for HD IMHO.....
 
Because you have to pay for HDTV separate even though HDTV is now the standard for broadcast. Even if you pay for it you get an over compressed stream of goddamn shit that looks like a fucking 30 frame per second tapestry.
 
niconx said:
Because you have to pay for HDTV separate even though HDTV is now the standard for broadcast. Even if you pay for it you get an over compressed stream of goddamn shit that looks like a fucking 30 frame per second tapestry.
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+1.

Got to see a Comcast HD channel at a friend's house the other day. HD content via Blu-Ray - amazing. HD content via Comcast - looks maybe slightly less pixelated than SD. Definitely not enough to make a difference.
 
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