No real surprises here, but a recent
writeup over at
USA Today proclaims that the sheer clarity provided by HDTV could pave the way for a whole new pool of channels. We've already
found that sports fans in general typically enjoy watching a game in HD
regardless of what teams are competing, and the same seems to prove true when looking at nature. The report pinpoints Discovery's
Sunrise Earth and
The Smithsonian Channel (among many others) as programs that simply wouldn't have the same allure if not shot in HD. Additionally, Comcast's Derek Harrar even suggested that "pretty-picture content" could prove to be just as desirable as movies and sports. Personally, we've all watched quite a few programs for no other reason than to bask in the glory of how stunning HD can look, but only time will tell if there's a real market for
picturesque programming.
[Via
The HDTV Blog]
posted Nov 29th 2007 1:17PM
I should start counting how many shows I watch that in HD that I would never watch otherwise.
I would guess that 60% of the HD programming I watch I would most likely not watch in standard def.
The first thing I do when sitting down to watch TV is look through the HD channels and see if theres something on. I would rather watch reruns of the "pretty image" shows over reruns of old school sitcoms or reality TV any day. And since most new network shows are in HD, I would say overall 95 percent of my watching is HD, and some 50% is the "pretty image" shows. If theres nothing in HD and nothing on the DVR, I hardly ever just watch SD, unless its news or weather.
Most of my customers are just like this, will watch ANYTHING in HD. You could tape an HD feed of a clock and people would watch it. Hell, They'd TIVO it!
There will be channels to set your tv to as a background, Blu ray's that are fireplaces (anyone have the old VHS?). It becomes a way to MAKE your tv a conversation piece when you want it to be. Am I the only one with HD that still watches MORE in SD than HD?
Fireplace: Visions of Tranquility was released on Blu-ray Disc a month ago. ;-)
Counter-intuitively, something like porn in HD may not draw as many people as one would expect. Who'd want to see all the blemishes, wrinkles, and other flaws of actresses and actors, most of whom live a "hard" lifestyle? Anyone want to see Ron Jeremy in HD?
Imagine something like the planet earth documentry series then, not handheld style and done with perfect 10 actors with blemish remover. I would buy.
I think the HD factor is what's helping to drive more and more pr0n online, where our slow bandwidth forces streaming media to remain grainy and therefore hard to see the blemishes and scars many of these "stars" have.
HDnet's old show Chronos ftw!
Sunrise Earth is very good
I've had my HDTV since 2002, and I definitely pick substance over style now (although when I can find both, that's the best). I think this fascination with pretty pictures will die down as HDTV becomes more commonplace. I'm young enough that I missed the color TV transition, but my dad says that there were a plethora of these same types of programs during that period as well. I'll bet we could find quotes almost like AbbadonTD's from the '60s:
"Most of my customers are just like this, will watch ANYTHING in color. You could broadcast a color channel of a flower field and people would watch it."
Now that I have DTV almost everything I watch is in HD, except Survivor (!) and Boondocks (stretched).
And I hope to never see HD porn. I want it grainy and low-def.