Please Give, We Need to Cover the Conventions in HD

Every once in a while, I'm reminded of the bizarre technological dance we're being forced to go through in the federally-mandated switch to digital television. First, it's interesting for federalists and libertarians to note that, while it took thirty years, and much Republican opposition, for the Congress once again to mandate a fuel efficiency target for American automakers (which has serious environmental implications), the digital switchover--which will probably cost each one of us a lot more money--was mandated by Congress with nary a whimper, and for what?

This item from TVNewswer helps answer that question:

The first HD NewsHour broadcast occured Monday evening, and, according to a press release, PBS has more in HD to come: the network plans "approximately 24 hours of live, HD primetime coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention (in August)...and the Republican National Convention (in September).

Newshour in HD is spectacular enough. Why shouldn't we give to our local PBS station for the privilege of seeing talking heads even more vividly? But the conventions--long-obsolete four-day political infomercials looking even more spectacularly irrelevant. Without you, we'll never have Lawrence Welk reruns upconverted to HD, either.

Comments

[larry278]

HD TV, so what, feces looks like feces on a 7 in B & W or a 5 ft HD color set. TV won't get viewers till TV improves content. Jerry Springer, The View & The Price is Right will still need to air Billy May commercials to make it worth it for stations to air these programs. Prime time shows also need Billy May commercials & worse. The audience is no longer there due to demographics & plenty of competing alternatives to TV, like computers, DVD's, video games, nose picking contests, etc.
HD sets will be unused & gather dust, regardless of federal edicts.
TV stations could become a drug on the market & go unsold even at cut rate prices. Some stations could reduce their hours of operation or go off air altogether. TV stations can't make money if they can't sell time to advertisers. A station can't sell time, even at bargain rates, if the station doesn't have viewers.

[Kungfublood]

Just shut up and pay that no more free TV tax every month for the rest of your sheep like existence white boy!

[3fingerbrown]

It might be nice to watch "Nova" in HD, but the "News Hour"? Not every new technology works for every show. I mean, If ever a face was made for low definition it's Jim Lehrer's.
Reminds me of when I was a kid. Remember the show "The FBI"? The network would always make it a point to announce it as "The FBI ... IN COLOR!" And the whole show was white guys in black suits.
Generally, I like an old-fashioned TV set: small, square screen emitting the blue glow of cathode rays. I find it as comforting as an old-time music buff who loves listening to his old 78s. He knows it doesn't sound anything like a live performance--it sounds like a 78 rpm record--and for him, that's a big part of the fascination.
A friend of mine is a comic who does a bit in her act about her addiction to Sweet n' Low. She finds herself on plane without Sweet n' Low for her coffee. She asks the stewardess, and the stewardess comes back with a packet of Equal, saying cheerfully, "It tastes more like real sugar than Sweet n' Low!" The comic, in the throes of Sweet n' Low withdrawal at 30,000 feet, snarls," But I don't want it to taste more like real sugar, I want it to taste more like real Sweet n' Low!"
In other words, sometimes the substitute becomes the reality. That's how I am with TV. I don't want it to look more like real life, I just want it to look more like real TV.

[JAUG]

Sooo what's this gonna cost us taxpayers?!?!

[antispin]

I breathlessly await Hillary's crow's feet gouging out my glazzies. Breathlessly, because your news has slain me. Which is a good thing, because the advertisements have been telling me that I suck bad and need a new everything: a new job, a new wife, a new nose...hell, a whole new bod.

The irony is, the old UHF antenna grampa put on the roof, the one dad tore down when he got cable, would have worked beautifully for HD reception.

But pity the TV stations, the production
studios, and mobile trucks owners who have to replace all their equipment at a cost of hundereds of millions of dollars.
HARRY RESPONDS: For them, it's deductible. For you....

[LeoMarvin]

Harry,

Sorry for the off-topic question, but what do you think it is with comedians and the bass (standup/ electric)? You? Penn Jillette? Mike Huckabee?

[Steve]

Hey, don't diss upconverting "Lawrence Welk" reruns. Seeing this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

without a hint of apparent ironic appreciation in the performance would be worth the whole thing.

Please give.

[Dem02020]

Lawrence Welk, Suze Orman, Texas prairie house or whatever it is, and that "feel good about yourself" author walking around barefoot in his pajamas on a stage...
...all of it to the tempo of a fund-raising beat.


The Best Television On Television?


That would now be the Weather Channel, an occasional cooking show (the cook actually), some of the stuff on HGTV, Stephen Colbert, and of course, Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

[fogbreath]

Thank you Harry,
our local pbs affiliate is currently advertising the fact that it is "honoring" Luciano Pavarotti by trying to make money off his corpse.
his singing will only be interrupted by people begging for donations, not evil commercials.
i do hope it is in HD, that will make it sound so much better.
this, so far, unfunded mandate should be compensated for by buying us new tvs.