The 5 Biggest Lies in HDTV

[Woochifer]

Found this spot-on article over the weekend on the lies and deceptions being used to sell different HD services. Swanni of TV Predictions, along with Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits, are probably the two most level headed voices when it comes to analyzing trends with HDTV and home video. I generally agree with their takes on the industry because they center on reality rather than wishful thinking. Their cogent framing of the market issues puts the tech writers at CNET, PC World, et al to shame, because they base their views on actual consumer behavior rather than blatant shilling for the computer industry's latest "convergence" scheme.

Here is Swanni's list of the five biggest lies in HDTV

1. Comcast Has More HD Than Anyone Else
2. DIRECTV Has 130 National HD Channels
3. Verizon's Fios Has the Best HD Picture
4. The Blu-ray Picture Is Not Much Better Than a DVD Or Digital Download
5. Americans Want to Interact With Their Blu-ray Discs

http://www.tvpredictions.com/lies120708.htm

#4 in particular is something that I've seen pushed quite a bit by the tech press over the past few months. Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits published a couple of excellent rebuttals to some of these articles a few weeks ago. But, I think Swanni's article perfectly summed up the idiocy of the anti-Blu-ray writers, and exposed the real agenda behind their rantings against Blu-ray. Anyone who has a Blu-ray player can see the difference for themselves, even if these tech reviewers ignore/disregard them.

4. The Blu-ray Picture Is Not Much Better Than a DVD Or Digital Download
This big whopper often is uttered by members of the technology press, particularly those who believe that digital downloads are the real future of home video. Desperate to criticize the Blu-ray high-def disc, some journalists will downplay its picture quality while overestimate the picture quality of a download sent over the Net to your TV. But consumer studies -- and scientific ones -- have shown that the Blu-ray picture is dramatically better than a DVD, a digital download or anything else that's out there, including cable, satellite and the telcos.

So, Why Lie?
Many tech journalists are not comfortable unless they are promoting cutting edge products, such as digital downloads. To them, Blu-ray is old-fashioned, just another hard disc like a standard-def DVD. It's much sexier to write about new technologies that can stream video over the Net to your televisions. So, in their zeal, the journalists tend to overestimate the qualities of digital downloads to justify their position.

This Big Lie is supported by companies pushing digital download services, such as Microsoft, Apple and others. They use the journalists' writings to back their claims in the marketplace that downloads are just as good (or better) than Blu-ray.