Turn to HDTV for a bigger, better view

COMMUNICATION

Two weeks ago, I met with a very senior television newscaster who works with a large US-based network. We got talking about television in general and specific. Out of curiousity, I asked him what stations he watched regularly "" as in news, sport and entertainment.

"Well, let me think," he said, "Last night I was watching this amazing show which had these insects crawling all over the screen. And stuff like that I guess." Did he like insects, I asked, not sure whether that was the right way to phrase the question. "Oh, no, not really, its one of those channels which is on High Definition Television (HDTV). And I only like to watch what is on HDTV."

The newscaster then explained to me that while he could technically access a few hundred television stations, what he really switched to were the handful of stations which were high definition television. "I can't watch anything else anymore," he said quite matter of factly.

I asked around a little and found several others (in the US) saying the same thing "" that sure, they did watch a little bit of TV, but TV watching increasingly was being driven by whether it was HDTV or not. "That's going to be the next thing in television viewing," the newscaster told me. I reckoned as much. And you have to see it to believe it.

Describing it in technical language can get a little cumbersome, but suffice to say that at the least, HDTV has twice the linear resolution of standard definition television (SDTV). This means, it could show greater detail than even regular DVD players. HDTV can also provide the 16:9 aspect ratio in clear feeds, the kind of stretched images you see on LCD and Plasma flat screen television sets.

The million dollar question is will HDTV come to India ? It's a million dollar answer as well. It costs a lot. I asked Jagjit Siyan, a broadcast engineer and colleague, whether HDTV could be a reality in India. According to him, the answer is technically "yes" but practically it would take many years.

He estimates that it would cost almost twice as much to set up a HDTV-ready broadcast station. That's because, every piece of equipment "" from the cameras which shoot the pictures to the entire transmission 'chain' "" has to be upgraded. Moreover, on the receiving end, the set top boxes and television sets have to be HDTV ready as well. To sum up, he didn't see anyone investing in this whole process in a hurry. At least, given the current economics involved in entertainment, or news.

Does that mean no HDTV broadcast viewing for a while? Quite likely not. Which does not mean that you can't see very high resolution images on your TV. All you have to do is get a Blu-Ray DVD player and watch some of the old films again, or for that matter, new ones. I saw snatches of Casino Royale, the latest Bond film, on Blu Ray the other day and felt like watching it all over again. I am sure there must be something on insects as well.