Darren Heal:
IMHO HDTV in general is still a bit of a waste of time. There's precious few HD channels other than premium sports, and pay-per-view sports and movie channels, and an awful lot of what is broadcast on the remaining HD channels is just upscaled LDTV of old. And my HDTV will upscale all on its own thankyou very much.
It's a bit like back in the late 60s, going out and buying a very expensive colour TV, only to come home and find all the movies, Dixon of Dock Green, etc. etc. are still being broadcast in black & white, or going out in the same era to buy a new sideboard-size stereogram (remember them?) and realising all your records are mono recordings.
I'm about three months into a twelve month SkyHD contract, and I have to say of the number of HD channels and the true HD content on those channels doesn't buck up soon, I'll be going back to LDTV.
Ineteresting analogy....................and look at the progress to date.
I, for one, think the advent of HD hardware and broadcasts are a significant step up for viewing, a massive step in terms of audio, with broadcast 1080i and 5.1 audio in most cases.
There just seems to be a major issue in terms of quality of broadcast transmissions in terms of visual excellence between the major providers viz BBC/SKY/Eurosport............deliberately not including ITV due to lack of content,as for C4........this jury is out.
But for all it's faults to date I shall be sticking with it