High Definition and the General Consumer

[avaserfi]

While this might not be the most representative sample of the population or possibly even a valid questionare that can really be generalized to the masses from my experience it seems dead on.

Best Buy recently conducted a phone poll on the average consumer and what they knew about HD and the results are saddening for enthusiasts like us, but not too surprising if you have ever talked to someone who wasn't into this hobby about HD. Barely half of the people they talked to didn't know HD content was needed to actually get HD most just budget for a display and assume that is enough! Even less surprising but just as sad is more than half didn't realize a full audio set up is needed for multichannel sound. This is exactly why both Blu-ray and HD DVD are going to care a general lack of knowledge/care on the subject!

No matter how you look at this it is just sad. People are buying HDTVs like mad and have no idea what the point is hence why so many people are hung up on 1080P. Hopefully people start opening their eyes, but that is doubtful .

The article.

 

[j_garcia]

People are buying HDTVs because most want a larger screen, even if they don't know how to take full advantage of it, as you already said. I suppose Best Buy consumers are probably a fair representative of the average consumer relative to A/V, but I would expect all but the ultimate noobies would realize that multichannel sound requires more than 2 speakers...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

While this might not be the most representative sample of the population or possibly even a valid questionare that can really be generalized to the masses from my experience it seems dead on.

Best Buy recently conducted a phone poll on the average consumer and what they knew about HD and the results are saddening for enthusiasts like us, but not too surprising if you have ever talked to someone who wasn't into this hobby about HD. Barely half of the people they talked to didn't know HD content was needed to actually get HD most just budget for a display and assume that is enough! Even less surprising but just as sad is more than half didn't realize a full audio set up is needed for multichannel sound. This is exactly why both Blu-ray and HD DVD are going to care a general lack of knowledge/care on the subject!

No matter how you look at this it is just sad. People are buying HDTVs like mad and have no idea what the point is hence why so many people are hung up on 1080P. Hopefully people start opening their eyes, but that is doubtful .

The article.

Yeah, my little brother bought a 65" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP not too long ago. I had to practically GIVE him a PS3 and literally GIVE him 1 BD movie & 4 PS3 games just so that he would "get into" HD!

I originally bought the PS3 for $600. The 4 PS3 games cost like $50 each. Four months later I sold him my HK 247 (sold $200, bought $600) & NHT 7.1 SuperZero/SW2P system (sold $300, bought $1,200). Then I asked him if he would buy my PS3 for $300.
He said NO!
So I said, "Okay $200 plus I will give you my 4 PS3 games (worth $200) & 1 BD movie that came with the PS3."
He said, "Well, okay."

It's amazing how people (& my own family!) would spend several thousand dollars on a HDTV, but they won't buy BD, HD DVD, or HD Satellite.

 

[j_garcia]

"What the general public doesn't know is what makes them the general public". My dad is far from technologically cutting edge, but he knew he wanted an HDTV and when he bought it, I don't think he realized what that meant. When I hooked it up for him, I mentioned that he would need to get an antena or a HD cable box to get HD channels. He wasn't impressed with the picture quality, so he eventually got an HD box and he was very pleased with what HD could do. Since I talk about it, he has been asking about Blu-ray lately too...

People know they need an HDTV because of the eventual change over to digital only, but as already stated, most probably don't even know what that means it is just because that is what they were told.

 

[zhimbo]

but I would expect all but the ultimate noobies would realize that multichannel sound requires more than 2 speakers...

I wouldn't bet on that...even my CRT TV has a fake "surround" setting for its two speakers; ditto my DVD player. Plus, you can get "surround sound" from a single speaker (Yamaha digital sound projector, Philips Soundbar, etc.), don't ya know?

I imagine that's plenty to get many people utterly confused on this point.

Added:
From the article:

62 percent did not know they needed a full audio set-up to reproduce multi-channel surround sound.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

From now on; I am buying all my stuff from you...

Yeah, my little brother bought a 65" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP not too long ago. I had to practically GIVE him a PS3 and literally GIVE him 1 BD movie & 4 PS3 games just so that he would "get into" HD!

I originally bought the PS3 for $600. The 4 PS3 games cost like $50 each. Four months later I sold him my HK 247 (sold $200, bought $600) & NHT 7.1 SuperZero/SW2P system (sold $300, bought $1,200). Then I asked him if he would buy my PS3 for $300.
He said NO!
So I said, "Okay $200 plus I will give you my 4 PS3 games (worth $200) & 1 BD movie that came with the PS3."
He said, "Well, okay."

It's amazing how people (& my own family!) would spend several thousand dollars on a HDTV, but they won't buy BD, HD DVD, or HD Satellite.

 

[darien87]

My mother recently bought a Panasonic LCD TV to replace her CRT that broke. I asked her how she liked it and she said she loved it. I recently went down to San Diego to visit her and looked at the TV and I was shocked. It looked like crap!! I immediately turned to the HD channels and it didn't look any better. I was like, man this TV sucks!

I decided to check the connections on the back of the TV and sure enough they had the TV hooked up via the coaxial cable. They had the component cables connected, but not selected as the input. As soon as I changed it to component, BAM, HD goodness. The whole rest of the weekend, she was like, "Wow. I can't get over how good this looks." I asked her, "Didn't you notice that the HD channels looked the same as SD?" She said, "I just thought I had a really good TV, since SD looked just as good as HD."

That's what we're dealing with people. That's the general public.

 

[patnshan]

Yeah, my little brother bought a 65" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP not too long ago. I had to practically GIVE him a PS3 and literally GIVE him 1 BD movie & 4 PS3 games just so that he would "get into" HD!

I originally bought the PS3 for $600. The 4 PS3 games cost like $50 each. Four months later I sold him my HK 247 (sold $200, bought $600) & NHT 7.1 SuperZero/SW2P system (sold $300, bought $1,200). Then I asked him if he would buy my PS3 for $300.
He said NO!
So I said, "Okay $200 plus I will give you my 4 PS3 games (worth $200) & 1 BD movie that came with the PS3."
He said, "Well, okay."
.

Hey bro, I'll take that stuff off your hands no problem

Pat

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

From now on; I am buying all my stuff from you...

Do you realize what kind of story I had to tell my wife to make all that happen? You realize what kind of acting I had to perform? I think it was an Oscar-caliber performance!

Man, I hope my wife never reads this forum!

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Many consumers, perhaps most (my parents for example) are both intimidated by hooking up anything complex and unwilling to pay someone to do it. Connecting a DVD player to a TV is about the most they can manage.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Do it one more time...please...for me...

Do you realize what kind of story I had to tell my wife to make all that happen? You realize what kind of acting I had to perform? I think it was an Oscar-caliber performance!

Man, I hope my wife never reads this forum!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Do it one more time...please...for me...

NO.

I am totally out of excuses now.
I have to lie low. I think LAY LOW sounds better, but since humans don't LAY down, I guess it's LIE then.

I guess most people just don't care all that much about HD. People don't want changes. "If it's not broken, don't fix it", they say. Unless it is FORCED upon them, they will probably never care about HD.