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If there is to be a time for H/DTV, now is it. The naysayers have had a field day for fourteen long years while the standard was in development. They have taken their shots at H/DTV's expense, and emphasized the lack of end-market pull. They have said that there are no displays capable, as if the signal must match today's capability in a world changing at light speed. To have market pull, one needs to have the market knowledgeable about the product. This is clearly not yet the case.
The current phase for HDTV is the initial commercialization one. To succeed the false ideas and notions of the past must fall. If you believe that an alternative to broadcast is the best way to proceed with HDTV signal provisions, don't let that conviction fall without hard evidence. If you think that broadcasting is the first and most proper signal provider for HDTV, stick to your view as long as you can, but not so long as to miss the window for the important alternatives.
HDTV is either worth it to you, or it is not. If it is not, why go further? You won't enjoy a part in a new movement unless it is worth it to you personally. If a success, H/DTV will help lift many standards for many things before its day is done. The opportunities coming as a result of it are like the commercial benefits which befell the world from NASA engineering. New speeds, and new displays, and new transmission methods will be discovered to forge the way ever farther, ever cheeper, ever better, ever faster. And like NASA engineering, many of these products and services are as unknown today as was the composition of moon rocks was to us 50 years ago.
Dale E. Cripps
Written in 1995, revised May 30, 1999 |
