Jason Dunn
08-16-2006, 03:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/HDTV+is+the+life+of+the+DisplaySearch+party/2100-1041_3-6105956.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/HDTV+is+the+life+of+the+DisplaySearch+party/2100-1041_3-6105956.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The era of high-definition has arrived and it's going to be the life of the party, according to representatives of Warner Bros., ESPN and CBS. Addressing a gathering of DisplaySearch's 4th Annual HDTV Conference: The Future of Television here, major media content providers and distributors challenged any remaining notions that high-definition televisions have been deployed without complementary high-definition programming. "HD is one of the catalyst technologies that will define the next generation in consumer entertainment," said Darcy Antonellis, executive vice president of distribution and technology operations for Warner Bros. Antonellis told the audience of TV, DVD and cable set-top box manufacturers, retailers and distributors that it's "not just about broadcast" anymore." With more than a dozen ways to deliver the 6,500 movie titles and 65,000 TV episodes in the Warner Bros. vault, she said it makes "business sense" to remaster them in high-definition 1080p format. Warner, incidentally, is releasing titles concurrently in both HD DVD and Blu-ray format. "</i><br /><br />This article covers a bunch of broadcasters saying that they think HD is really important. Oh really? :roll: They're about four years behind the ball, but better late than never as they say. What I found surprising was Antonellis went onto a P2P network and searched for episodes of Gilligan's Island to see if there was customer demand. That's an interesting way to gauge demand, though it of course neglects the fact that not everyone who's interested in Gilligan's Island is going to go the P2P route. Still, it's likely more effective than a focus group in LA somewhere. I say bring on the HD! Though, sadly, as more and more content goes HD, it means I'll be using my Windows Media Center Edition 2005 machine less and less for watching TV. But that's a whole other sad story about how MCE and HD are a failure together...