Monday, July 10, 2006
The HD TV Evolution: Part 6 – Resolution Wars
Posted by Felix Torres in "THOUGHT" @ 07:00 AM
Okay, up-front: this is not about whether 720 HD broadcasts are better than 1080 transmissions and it’s not about how or when some person or another can see the detail on a 1080 screen. All the sound and fury behind those arguments are just plain meaningless for two simple reasons:
One, consumers don’t get to choose the format in which their HD content is produced and broadcast in, the studios do. Two, manufacturers have already decided what kinds of displays they are going to build. And, with apologies to Alex Trebek, like it or not, folks, the answer is 1080. The question is, of course: “What resolution is full HD?”
Content
Here is a short list:
-- Disney (ABC/ESPN)
-- FOX
These are all the companies currently broadcasting HD formatted for 720 display.
Here is a shorter list:
-- Everybody/everything else.
Which is of course, the list of the HD sources that format and distribute their content at 1080 resolution. Easy to see how content providers see the future, no? And it is no accident that the two studios most active in promoting highly restrictive blue-laser copy protection schemes are the same vendors dragging their feet on HD broadcast resolution, right? Both have highly profitable DVD sales busineses and they would rather you bought their highest resolution product instead of watching it via broadcast. Fortunately, the other studios aren't quite as consumer-hostile.
Displays
Here is a much longer list:
That is a partial list of the HD displays and projectors featuring native 1080 display resolution, shown at CES 2006 in Las Vegas last January, and that will ship to North America this year: 68-strong. A very, very incomplete list.
In other words, the decisions that matter have already been made: HD content will be produced at 1080 resolution and manufacturers are rushing to sell displays that present that content at native resolution. No amount of carping about fringe issues will change the fact that, moving forward, HD content will be defined as 1080 content.
(This isn't to say there won't be tons of new 720 displays out there - there will. But the understanding will be that they are "truncated", downscaled-presentation devices. Low-end products. The 21st century equivalent of B&W TVs in the age of color CRTs.)
One, consumers don’t get to choose the format in which their HD content is produced and broadcast in, the studios do. Two, manufacturers have already decided what kinds of displays they are going to build. And, with apologies to Alex Trebek, like it or not, folks, the answer is 1080. The question is, of course: “What resolution is full HD?”
Content
Here is a short list:
-- Disney (ABC/ESPN)
-- FOX
These are all the companies currently broadcasting HD formatted for 720 display.
Here is a shorter list:
-- Everybody/everything else.
Which is of course, the list of the HD sources that format and distribute their content at 1080 resolution. Easy to see how content providers see the future, no? And it is no accident that the two studios most active in promoting highly restrictive blue-laser copy protection schemes are the same vendors dragging their feet on HD broadcast resolution, right? Both have highly profitable DVD sales busineses and they would rather you bought their highest resolution product instead of watching it via broadcast. Fortunately, the other studios aren't quite as consumer-hostile.
Displays
Here is a much longer list:
That is a partial list of the HD displays and projectors featuring native 1080 display resolution, shown at CES 2006 in Las Vegas last January, and that will ship to North America this year: 68-strong. A very, very incomplete list.
In other words, the decisions that matter have already been made: HD content will be produced at 1080 resolution and manufacturers are rushing to sell displays that present that content at native resolution. No amount of carping about fringe issues will change the fact that, moving forward, HD content will be defined as 1080 content.
(This isn't to say there won't be tons of new 720 displays out there - there will. But the understanding will be that they are "truncated", downscaled-presentation devices. Low-end products. The 21st century equivalent of B&W TVs in the age of color CRTs.)
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