me Personally, Its Death...

I couldn't care less if HDTV ever became anything, the entire DTV transition is nothing more then a plot to remove all Betamax Fair use rights from teh consumer and make all Television fall under the DMCA. so End users can not do as they wish with paid for (via Cable subscriptions) content on VCRs, DVDrs, PVRs, DVRs or any other type of recorded medium, that allows for timeshifting, Archiving and recording for personal use.

And personally I just do not see it. Compair a 40 inch standard TV with a 40 inch HDtv, so what? its just Television.. I just don't get the orgasm that people get from an overly expensive medium. I mean common, it was not too long ago that we were lucky to get a signal at all with rabbit ears and we were happy when Our kids had to stand in the corner and hold the antenna so as to get a good fuzzy picture. Now Of course we do not have to do that, but its still Television here... A medium that adds to the ever degrading brain cells of generation after generation... Why does it matter if its in HD or regular definition. Its bad enough it has to be Digital at all. Indeed the DTV transition cuts off thousands of Rural citizens from any signal at all now, cause what they could at least get was a fuzzy image is now a black screen. Nadda... And no hope of anything unless they shell out thousands to get a satellite dish (even C-band is kinda starting to die, something I thought would never happen)... Not going to happen in some of these poor native villages out in the distant woods or deserts...

I live in a rural area. While I have cable at home, I also have an outside antenna and a simple 20db booster for some local channels not carried via cable. DTV is a huge boon for reception here at my home, at the homes of relatives with broadcast reception and especially so at the cabin we weekend at in a fairly remote area (northern lower Michigan) far from any metro center.
Channels that we normally would never bother watching due to poor reception are now suddenly crystal clear thanks to digital.
What makes me even happier is that once analog broadcast stops, the television broadcasters plan to boost the digital signal even higher due to lessened interference.

I also personally love the HDTV in my den, and rarely watch the even larger analog set in my living room because the picture quality between the two isn't even comparable.

If you don't like HDTV, that's fine... but it's here to stay.

You have to be able to translate this.

"every HDTV vendor is striving for style" really means "we can't figure out how to improve our TV's any further now so we change things around that really don't matter like the looks of the unit to try and fool the customers into thinking the new units are some how improved, when they really aren't at all"

Come on guys, how dumb do you think consumers really are? You can put all the "style" you want into the looks of your TV's but if you have simply run out of new ideas on how to actually innovate and improve on them, why not do something differnt and actually start asking your customers what THEY want to see included as features/improvements in the new TV's?

Hey, there's a novel concept. Engage the actual CUSTOMERS in the design and development process for the next round of product releases. Radical!

Please. Go stand in any Best Buy or Circuit City for ten minutes and you will here a dozen very good ideas from CUSTOMERS on exactly how to improve these TV's in a meaniful way.

This isn't rocket surgery here. Get off your high paid corporate high horses here and get down in the trenches with the people that actully BUY these products and LISTEN to them for a change! They will give you enough new ideas to keep you busy for the next ten years...for free!

How about content, instead of signal bits... have you seen what passes for entertainment Television of late? YUCK with a capital Y...

The nelson families MUST be nothing but a bunch of gun slinging, smack talking, gangster rapping, mind tripping, no education, crack wh***s. Cause that's the style of stuff that gets a passing rating anymore from them. Meanwhile shows that make you actually think and have a plot, go unnoticed and canceled at every turn... OHHH woe is me. put on some more no thought no intrigue game shows maybe that will get us some ratings. I swear reality TV, needs to be taken out to the wood shed and put out of its misery already... its as bad as a rabid dog in heat.

Leon Temiz, president and CEO of Electronics Expo, said he sticks strictly to "top-tier" brands such as LG...

LG "top-tier"???? YHGTBSM!!!!!

I'm gonna be different and actually comment about the article:

What the average (i.e. middle-class) consumer wants from an HDTV is as much screen as they can get for about $600. Thus, Wal-Mart will keep selling Vizios hand over fist while the $2000+ Hitachis just sit there gathering dust.

Hi, I about have fallen apart since I just moved 45min. away from my job!! LOL

but instead of "falling apart" i'm going to leave my long time employer for one closer to my house..

"change/adaptation"

p.s. - $4.15 a gallon avg in wpb, fl (for cheap)

Americans have fallen apart over just $4 per gallon of gas.... [rollseyes] They are still paying far less than just about everyone else in the West. We didn't fall apart. We adapted.

"Fallen apart" LOL!

Disliking it is a bit different from "falling apart"!

I'm american, I haven't seen anyone 'fall apart' over gas prices in my middle class neighborhood.
I don't even personally know anyone that is changing driving habits.
The 24 hour cable news channels hammer the topic pretty hard, but that is to be expected since we are in an election year and politicians like to froth over it.
I'm certain the topic is important, just as it was when I lived through the gas price jumps in the 1970's, but I really don't think most americans are quite falling apart as of yet.

I find that pretty amusing, considering the exchange rates of the US Dollar, at $4.50 were paying more than most Europeans. But hey it's ok to skip a reality or two...

I'm confused, in America your paying $4.50 per Gallon (roughly £2.25 with the exchange rates) and in the UK we're currently paying £5.90 (roughly $11.80 with the exchange rates) and although i haven't skipped across the channel to France or Spain recently, I'm guessing they're having to pay something similar because they're all on strike about it currently!

so just how are you paying more than us for fuel?

http://www.theaa.com/onl...s/fuel/2008/may2008.pdf

In fact, the lowest is Estonia £0.8601/litre ($6.33/US gallon), to Norway at £1.3053 ($9.61/US gallon).

The UK is listed as £1.126/litre in the same report ($9.34/US gallon). 59.6% is tax, but it is a mainly fixed duty, so does not rise as the price goes up. But the VAT (17.5% on the total) does...

You of course are right! It was a brief mental lapse... brought on by the angst of having such a huge increase in such a short time. Used to cost me $20US to fill my tank in 2001, now cost me $85US. Now, I'm not whining about the price per say, but it sure is playing havoc with my life style as of late, since I drive so much for work and all.
Still not even close to falling apart though. Although it does have me wondering how others are coping with it and how you over in England are able to deal with it. Here in Los Angels, the damned city is 100 miles across so driving really is a pain if you are like many of us that work in lots of locations.