high definition marketing

[Steve]

Why are manufacturers and retailers of electronic goods jumping on the HD bandwagon with every product they sell?

For example, last night I was being sold a 9MP camera (plain still photocamera) which "takes pictures in high definition". How does it? High definition is a MOVING IMAGE term, not a photo term. And what would be a high definition photo? anything over 5MP?

This morning in the shower, I was being sold a "TOM TOM HD traffic" sat nav. WTF? How in the world is it HD?? And what in the world would be the point??? And why market it as HD when its clearly impossible to view anything HD on such a small screen?

For the record, High Definition and the abbreviation HD refer to a standard of moving picture with a height of 1080 pixels.

They should all be done for false advertising.

 

[bernardgreen]

Highly Dubious

 

[conny]

Seen a report somewhere recently that a team of scientists did a trial in America.
They showed a group of people a short movie.
They then showed them a 'High-Definition' version of the same movie.

6% said they saw no difference, 94% said it had 'improved image quality'.
The scientists then admitted they had merely altered the contrast of the film and it was not HD.

All in al,l in my opinion HD is a big con, which is what I thought before I heard about this trial.

 

[Johnmelad502]

This morning in the shower, I was being sold a "TOM TOM HD traffic" sat nav. WTF?

Stop inviting sales people into your shower.

 

[Steve]

All in all, in my opinion HD is a big con.

Nope. I disagree, almost violently.

HD is the best thing to happen to television since colour, then DVDs and digital transmissions.

I watched through a movie last week, on my 37inch HD TV with HD blu ray player linked by a HDMI cable. The movie was "the day the earth stood still". The quality was incredible. On slow closeups, you could see every hair on peoples heads, every grain of sand on beaches. It produces a very CRISP picture, which is possible by adjusting contrast and brightness and sharpness etc, but you'll never get the sheer quality offered by 1080 HD.

Of course, some people will be fooled by altering settings on a television set. They WOULD be wasting their money by shelling out for HD kit. But those with an eye for detail know better

 

[conny]

Count me out then, I'm as blind as a bat!

 

[securespark]

And I'm that bat's cousin, with diplopia...

 

[Johnmelad502]

HD = Highly Dubious

 

[sooey]

Highly Dubious

So it does.

 

[Johnmelad502]

Highly Dubious

So it does.

Failed to see that, it was not in HD was it?

 

[Deluks]

The quality was incredible. On slow closeups,

That's basically it, slow moving and close up shots. Who wants to sit through a movie stopping and pausing every few minutes to marvel at the quality? (ok, I can think of certain types of movie )

The other annoying thing is the Sky HD ads. They illustrate the effect of HD by seperating the foreground from the background and moving them at different speeds (aka parallax scrolling). Which afaik doesn't happen when watching HD material.

It's all pointless anyway, unless you have a 37" or larger TV. Just 5 years ago everyone was happy with their 26" widescreen FST's