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Are most people REALLY bothered about HD?
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[Deleted User]
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I find myself having a constant battle with my family to watch the HD channels we are paying for! I live with my sister and dad. My dad is 65 and doesn't really seem to care. Constantly find him watching Sky Sports 1 SD. My sister is young but just 'doesn't care' and just wants to watch TV. She will constantly record things in SD and turn to the standard def movie channels.
The more I think about it, I think they are in the norm. I think the vast majority of people just want to watch TV. They don't care if something is in HD or not and can't really tell the difference. I'm guessing many of you have similar experiences with their family?
The more I think about it, I think they are in the norm. I think the vast majority of people just want to watch TV. They don't care if something is in HD or not and can't really tell the difference. I'm guessing many of you have similar experiences with their family?
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If we watched live TV I would watch HD if I remembered, but to be honest I don't notice much difference when I do.
I certainly wouldn't pay £10/month to watch something in HD. I record programmes from some of the free HD channels, but if I started to run out of space I would happily swap back to the SD version.
I avoid anything on ITV1 HD because:
There must something wrong with your setup if you can only see a minor difference.
When I watch some shows on German PSB channels in SD I realise that SD could be so much better.
If a programme I want to see is not on an HD channel I wait for the Blu-Ray to come out and rent it.
I suppose it depends if you're into all that like I am.
Sky is planning on moving these numbers around next year (apparently you can opt-out of this)
Our telly is still cross wired with rf aerial cables - nothing wrong at all with the pic quality as far as Im concerned. I was in a pub the other afternoon that was showing the football on ESPN HD. First time Ive really had a chance to have a good look at a football game in HD - and to be blunt I wasnt particularly impressed - there certainly wasnt the "wow thats a fabulous picture" feeling
People who have HD want HD i guess. I know what you mean on the aspect ratio's. I've been round several peoples houses and said... btw, can I just change something on your sky box? And sorted the wide screen format out for them. I've seen brand new installations of SD not be setup for widescreen as well which is really poor practise.
I fully support a previous comment that SDTV in the UK never fully utilised the quality inherent in that format. Some FIVE programmes shot in HD but shown in SD at a high bit rate were better than the BBC's effort at HD.
It's a pity PSB has opted for the quasi-HD standard it now uses. Proper full HD is on Sky, especially Sport.
If you're seriously not bothered about giving away £120 a year, why not cancel and give it to a charity?
Personally I can see the difference and would prefer HD, but don't think it's worth £10 p/m. I think most folk could see the difference if you flip between SD and HD but many wouldn't be notice during normal viewing.
Of course, a lot depends on the size of your TV and how close you are to it.
I'd say that most people care more about the entertainment quality of the programmes than about the absolute picture quality. As long as there are no crackles on the sound, or signs of artifacts on the screen, most people don't care. You quickly get lost in the drama if it's a good programme. How often have you watched a good classic black & white film, and when you think about it afterwards you can't even remember if it was in colour or not?
My Dad used to put his (widescreen) TV onto analogue BBC1, and would watch a good but squashed picture quite happily. If I suggested going to the Freeview box for a true 16:9 picture he would do so, and agree that it was maybe a bit better, but next time he turned the TV on he'd just go back to hitting "1" for BBC. It was easier to push one button than 2. HD's the same for most people, they zap around channels until they find something that catches their interest, and they stay there. Pure luck if they hit the SD or HD channel first.
That's my experience too - and it's not only people in their 50s and 60s as one poster has suggested, my daughter and her husband who are in their mid twenties and their kids don't care either, not even when I switch their SD programme to the HD channel for them. Next time I visit, it's on the SD channel again.
As I've said many times on here, from where most people sit, watching their 42 inch or smaller HD screens, there really isn't enough difference in quality to grab them, and most people aint gonna cozy up to a 42 inch screen at 5 feet. As if they'd even care if they did (I've seen 'em watching SD TV from a gaming chair next to the HD TV, 3 feet away! :eek: )
It's like high end hi-fi music systems, most people don't care about the higher quality and never will.
I think, you think wrongly, i am 75yrs old and have 3D, blueRay, and a very expensive home cinema system, i watch and record everything in h/d that i can, but i also have the time to watch all my recordings, so my 500gig drive never gets full.
Fair play to you. I don't know very many 75 year olds who are so tech savvy!
£10 a month is a lot of money to some people, don't be so bombastic.