HDTV, satellite add to viewers' options

Television technology is moving forward at a rapid pace, and local TV dealers agree that the one constant is change.

"We're never going to stand still in electronics," said Bill Hall, owner of Home Trends/Bill's Satellite TV, 1027 S. Glenstone.

Consumers can expect big changes in the next few years in television reception and equipment.

"What you see in science fiction today will be available tomorrow," said Bob Bachert, salesperson with Cardinal Electronics, formerly on South Glenstone and now based in Joplin.

The biggest issue now is high definition television HDTV. While it is still in the future as far as regular programming goes, the time is coming when HDTV will be the norm, and HDTV sets are now available.

Hall said the FCC has forewarned television stations they will have to be ready with updated equipment to produce high-definition broadcasts by the year 2045, but that date may be extended.

Delays are expected, not only to allow stations time to upgrade, but also to prepare the general public. Once the switch is made, if someone buys an analog television the existing technology standard the individual also will have to have a converter box just to pick up the signal, dealers said.

Today, Hall said, there are only a few stations that provide high-definition programs and, percentagewise, still fewer consumers who have the sets to receive the crystal-clear pictures.

Price is what is holding the average consumer back, according to Hall. A 51-inch HDTV set can be purchased for $2,500, but a smaller, 34-inch set costs nearly $5,000. That's because the buyers who can afford the high-end HDTV equipment want the big screens. As a result, the smaller sets are not produced in as great a quantity, making them more expensive.

The difference between analog and HDTV is the difference between analog and digital technology.

For the layperson, the main, visible difference is in picture resolution, according to Jay Rice, salesperson at SCS Home Entertainment. The resolution for analog sets is 525 lines; for HDTV, it is 1,125 lines. The lines are what make up the picture. More lines means finer resolution.

Rice said some customers are buying the new high-definition sets to be ready for the future, when HDTV signals become widely used.

Right now, there are a few satellite channels now offering HDTV, Hall said, but the user must have the dish, the television set with HDTV capacity and a decoder to receive the signal.

The expense will keep the average buyer at bay for now, but as demand drives the price down and more channels go to high definition, more people will switch over, Hall said.

Satellite television has grown in popularity in the last few years, not only for rural customers, but for users who want more diversity in programming than is offered by cable or antenna.

The 4D big dish, now offered at about $949 retail picks up 26 HBO and Cinemax channels, nine Discovery channels, 10 PBS stations, 80 music channels (sound only) plus hundreds of other

channels. Some are pay-per-view programs, Hall said.

Among these myriad choices, four of the movie channels now have high-definition capability, two HBO and two Showtime channels, he added.

Notwithstanding HDTV capability, many consumers are selecting satellite service because it produces a quality picture no matter where you are, even on an analog set, Rice said.

Digital video disc players have been around for a while, and units available to consumers at this time only play the discs.

This segment of the industry is headed toward systems that will both play and record. Soon after the change occurs videotapes will gradually go by the way of eight-track tapes, Bachert said.

The technology is here, but legal issues have to be resolved before units that both play and record programs and movies are available to the public, Hall said.

DVD players are more expensive than VCRs, but prices should come down when the units become more widely used. Local dealers said they predict DVDs will eventually replace videotapes, much the way compact discs have usurped audio cassette tapes in the music industry.

Now available and gaining popularity with avid television viewers is TiVo, a tapeless time-shifting device, Rice said. The TiVo unit allows the viewer to pause a live television show and save it to a hard drive for later viewing.

This means that interruptions to a favorite show don't cause the viewer to miss anything, Bachert said.

He added that while there is no big rush to buy the units, they do represent the wave of the future. Bachert also said that other vendors are getting into the act, which gives the consumer choice and should give a boost to demand.

Hall said that the TiVo units have become more popular since the company began to offer a one-time, life-of-the-unit charge instead of a monthly fee.

Internet access through the television set has been in existence for the last few years.

This technology is constantly being updated and improved, and in the near future users will be able to do anything through their television monitor that they can do on their personal computers.

Bachert said units to hook up to the Internet are available with the use of external equipment, but one day the technology will be integrated so that the phone line, printer and scanner will be all that is needed.

All innovations in television are heading toward faster connections, clearer pictures, better sound and multiple functions. What it will take to put the technology into the hands of the ordinary consumer is price reductions in the equipment to make it more affordable, Hall said.