Hotels feverishly upgrading rooms with HDTVs, casually forgetting HD programming

Surely you've noticed this by now if you happen to end up in hotels often -- there's an HDTV there on your wall, thought nary a single HD channel appears when you flip it on. It's an unfortunate trend that's sweeping the lodging industry, as more and more chains cave to the pressures of having sexy, thin TVs all while disregarding the need for HD programming. Of course, most are playing the cost card as the reason why they have yet to offer up any HD channels on those wasted HDTVs, although not all hope is lost. At Hilton, you can expect each and every room to have a flat-panel TV and HDTV service by June of 2009, and LodgeNet, which began offering high-definition service in 2005, expects to keep up the good work in the future (though no definitive numbers were given). Please, travel venues -- don't force us to watch stretch-o-vision while away from home.

[Thanks, Ben]

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 12:14AM]

Stretch-O-Vision is the devil!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 1:05AM]

I was commenting this very topic to my friend as we stayed in a very nice Doubletree hotel in Portland. 4 star place, very nice everything. But not only was the LG LCD less than impressive, but all the channels (no HD of course) absolutely gave insult to the room rate I paid. I don't get the whole "thin sexy TV" thing. Maybe its for the wives. I couldn't give a crap unless the picture looks good, and I certainly don't give any freebie points to crappy picture even if the TV is thinner than my briefcase. I'm watching the picture, not the TV chassis! I don't even think there was HD VOD. Bottom line, stretch-o-vision is torture! Makes me never want to leave home because even a 4 star hotel can't get the TV element down pat.

[CharlieX Posted Sep 16th 2008 1:20AM]

I've been in a handful of rooms lately suffering this disease. Including a few very $$$$ botique hotels with giant 50" plasmas hooked up with a coaxial cable.... and, of course, no remote in sight able to switch the aspect to 4:3 pillar box.

typical. american. my countrymen are dullards.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 1:36AM]

Yeah, add a $5 pair of rabbit ears to the roof if you're located in a DTV coverage area! I stayed at some hotels where I watched HDTV on my laptop with a Paperclip antenna because the new HDTV flat screen didn't have HD on it. Pathetic.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 12:30PM]

I know that problem. My family and I stayed in a brand new Hampton Inn last year in Nashville. We walked in to see a beautiful 32" LCD HDTV. We turn it on to see stretch-o-vision.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 1:17PM]

I had the same problem when I stayed at the Signature at MGM Grand in Vegas in a penthouse suite and all the channels and VOD was in SD. They did have a decent selection of movies however, and I wasn't watching much TV.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2008 7:52PM]

Although it is a nice touch to have the larger flat screen, and even nicer to have some HD programming, the biggest shortfall in hotel rooms these days is not having the capability to display a channel guide! The newer hotel systems seem especially slow to change channels - this would be an even nicer development than having all-HD programming...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2008 3:17AM]

Hotels are placing "sexy, thin" flat panel TVs in hotel rooms simply because it makes the room seem bigger. No more, no less.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2008 9:58AM]

Even without the HD programming, I'd still rather be watching a nice flat panel than a huge ass CRT. Maybe if it were a nice CRT, but in a hotel it's going to be some cheap ass CRT. So may as well be a flat panel if nothing else, and if you dont' like stretch-o-vision, you can always set the TV to 4:3 mode or some other zoom mode that reduces the stretch. I use "just" mode on my plasma at home which just stretches the edges and not the center, it works really well, you don't really even notice the stretch.