The revolution has been televised: Survey reports 53% of U.S. homes with HDTV
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 7th 2009 12:55PM
posted Aug 7th 2009 12:55PM
posted Aug 7th 2009 12:55PM
The percentage of sales people that recommend Samsung HDTVs.
Salespeople are also becoming less likely to recommend LCD sets over plasma sets, which goes against the industry trend.
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The real question, how many of that 53% actually watch HD video on their HDTVs, either HD cable or Blu-Ray? Many people buy HDTVs just because they are big and flat, or because most new tvs are HDTVs, not because they desire better image quality.
The only HD capable device we had when we bought our first HDTV was an Xbox 360, and believe me, that console alone made the purchase worth it.
Plus, OTA TV broadcasts all primetime and sports events in HD, so I wouldn't say a person needs to subscribe to HD programming to fully enjoy an HDTV.
But you have to admit, that even SD programming and DVDs looks much better on a modern HDTV than an old SDTV. I really don't like watching interlaced TVs anymore.
@chumley
Of course, there are many people that watch 1080i television which is still interlaced and most probably don't even know it or know what it means. Give me 1080p (or even 720p) over 1080i any day.
@seriousam7: While I think we can all agree that you don't need to pay for HD service to enjoy HD content, I believe the point Evan was making is that there are still a lot of people that only watch SD cable and DVDs on their HDTVs and think they're watching HD content.
Also, while video game consoles are great HD content, some people have their consoles mistakenly hooked up as an SD source. Or, more commonly, if they have a Wii, the only option is SD. Widescreen is still mistaken for HD by a lot of people.
Actually, the real question is why we post these retarded polls and surveys and eat them up like it's anywhere near reality. Survey via phone 1,144 people to represent millions? It doesn't make any logical sense. Only 48% have DVD drives in their computers? Really?! My mom's retired in Florida and loves to play bingo...she has one. When you make fact-gathering super easy, we just become dumber people.
"The sample includes 1,144 randomly selected adult consumers age 18+. This study has a +/- 3.5 percentage point margin of error. "
Quite so John F.
S'funny how nobody rushes in to slam this poll's findings (despite the majority being wafer thin and well within the margin of error) based on a sample of less than 1200.
I guess it just goes to show, when the answer is one well received here nobody wants to look beyond the headline.
HD TVs are definitely gaining ground but whether they are in the majority yet or not is very much open to question.
BTW, who paid for this report......is that a clue to the answer thats been given?
""The sample includes 1,144 randomly selected adult consumers age 18+. This study has a +/- 3.5 percentage point margin of error. ""
I don't buy the quoted margin of error on these kinds of studies. They assume you're getting a truly random sampling. You're not.
The largest factor is that most people refuse to take the survey. This means that the people closest to average isn't included in the survey.
There are other factors too, but until you solve the above, I won't buy into your margin of error. It's bogus.
To be honest, you can't NOT buy an HDTV from a store like Walmart in this day and age, but that doesn't mean that they will know how to actually get an HD picture onto that TV.
So 88% of people own DVD players, and of those - 80% are consoles and 48% PC DVDs?? Thats 128% Something tells me there's a problem with these numbers.
it's possible to have both a console and a pc dvd drive
there are those with both...
John F, that 48% with PC DVD is 48% of total households. Given that only 71% of households own a PC that means 68% of PC owners have a DVD drive. That number still feels a little low, but it makes more sense than 44%.
rwczen, 88% of households own a DVD player of some sort. 80% of total households own a console DVD player, 48% own a PC dvd player, and 28% own both a console DVD player and a PC DVD player.
Avi - That's if you take any of that garbage as true. Which you shouldn't.
I have a feeling that most of the 52% that did not say they have a DVD-ROM are not aware of what that actually means.
I guess I should become part of the majority. I really need to upgrade to HD especially since that is all I record now even though I am watching it on SD sets. I just got tired of the centercut images on SD channels since the switchover.
A few things:
First, to consider a jump from 35% to 53% during a recession, to me, sounds ludicrous. HDTV's don't grow on trees and consumer spending has decreased, making me think that this number seems a little . . . out there.
Second, depending on the survey method and question that was used, respondents may have been unclear on what an "HDTV" actually was. Just as Evan posed the question of how many people are watching HD content on HDTV's, I'd ask how many people mistakenly *think* they have an "HDTV" simply because they are now "digital-ready" per the conversion from analog to digital this year?
Third, I don't know much about the nonprofit, CTAM, that sponsored this survey. It seems legit with a large enough sample population. However, because they are involved in fostering marketing relationships, there may be an inherent bias in their questioning and survey design to inflate the numbers in HDTV ownership if they want to use it to make the case to vendors that more HD content should be produced, etc.
For now, I'm going to suggest that we probably don't know about real ownership from this survey, so although you might use this as an excuse to go out and buy an HDTV, I'm going to wait a little longer until they drop in price a bit further before I grab me one and not succumb to peer pressure from a majority that probably doesn't exist yet!
You know now that we're the majority, sdtv holdouts will be killed and eaten right?
Jeez, people still have VCRs?