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I understand that UK guys have never seen HD before
Hey we might all live in castles but we're not stuck in that dark ages to THAT great a degree here you know. smile 2006 may have been the year we finally started getting domestic HDTV broadcasts, but seeing HD content has never really been out of the reach of anyone over here who is technically savvy enough to seek it out. We've all got computers after all, and it's never been hard to seek out newsgroup HDTV content alongside official online HD demos.


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Its about the simple fact that, despite our now involvement with these formats, they are doomed to fail because they simply do not offer what the market place wants. SACD and DVDA all over again.
I still say the DVDA and SACD analogy only stretches so far. Yes it can be said the consumer may have felt CD to be "good enough,' and without doubt devices like the iPod killed off any progress for high end music, but there are at least different things at play here. HD and HDTV as buzzwords that are increasingly seeping into public consciousness. People are aware of the existence of high definition more than they ever were high resolution audio. DVD is going nowhere, but I am not ready to doubt that an HD optical media format can also have a future alongside it.


I did wonder at the start of the year how Europe in particular would take to the sudden shift to HDTVs and so forth, given over the past decade governments have encouraged us to go 16:9 and adopt standard def DVB broadcasting which the masses have done in droves. There was a thought that having only just been told to buy all that would damage interest in HD on this side of the pond since people might not be willing to upgrade so suddenly, but interest seems to be constantly increasing here and I am really encouraged by it. Flat panel TV sales in the UK especially are obscenely popular, and it's difficult to walk into a shop now and find a TV that isn't HD ready. Whilst certainly many buying these sets are not doing so with an eye to immediately combining them with an HD source (though Sky HD sales seem to have gone well this year), there will come a time where they'll eye an HD source to go with it, and if one of these bloody disc formats can die sooner rather than later we'll have adequate marketing that doesn't confuse the consumer, scaring them away because there are two formats, and HD on disc ought to be able to then appeal to the masses. That outcome of course rests on how continuously stupid and stubborn studios and manufacturers wish to be.