Will HDTV make today's TVs obsolete eventually?

I see in America that CBS will be broadcasting on an analog channel and on a HDTV channel and they hope to stop boradcasting on analog in just a few years.
Will the same happen hear?

this article is a bit old (march 2005) but it quotes the Minister for Communications as saying..
"..would switch off RTÉ's existing analogue free-to-air television service sometime between 2010-2015"
http://www.dvb.org/index.php?id=260

HDTV and not broadcasting an analog signal are not the same thing....HDTV is a better quality TV as it has more lines/pixels. Switching off the analog system is just changing the method of delivery, whether it is standard broadcast as currently it is being delivered or HDTV being delivered...the EU had envisaged everyone switching off analog broadcasts by 2012.

But to answer the original question, yes, HDTV will render today's TVs obsolete, unless the TV and and/or cable companies make a simultaneous standard definition service available. If you want HD you need a new set. Sky will offer a HD service pretty soon, I hear, but the bulk of it will be sports and movies, initially at least.

extopia said:

But to answer the original question, yes, HDTV will render today's TVs obsolete, unless the TV and and/or cable companies make a simultaneous standard definition service available. If you want HD you need a new set. Sky will offer a HD service pretty soon, I hear, but the bulk of it will be sports and movies, initially at least.

Click to expand...

There is very little HDTV content available in Europe at the moment apart from (HD1) on satellite.

However, Sky are launching their service early next year in time for the World Cup. [broken link removed] will include a Sky Sports channel, Sky One, Artsworld, a Sky Box Office channel and two Sky Movies screens.

To view these in their full glory requires a signal capable of receiving a High Definition input. Most new LCDs or Plasmas on the market display the logo i.e. are capable of accepting a signal of 1080 x 720 resolution and have a DVI or HDMI input.

(In fact, TVs that have component inputs can also be deemed HDTV ready but this is not future proof; only the first generation of Sky Digital TV set-top boxes will support component outputs as it does not support [broken link removed].)

So, the answer is yes; non-HDTV Ready TVs will eventually become obsolete.

How quickly your old (non HD ready) TV will become obsolete depends on a number of factors:

1. How quickly Sky's HD service gets widely adopted - the non-HD version will not be switched off for a long time.

If you don't have Sky or don't plan to pay more money for the HD service then you don't need a new TV just yet.

2. How soon Cable companies launch HDTV - NTL is planning to [broken link removed] this in the UK in late 2006 or early 2007. So I guess that we're probably a year behind this in Ireland although I would love to be proved wrong on this.

3. If and When we will ever see terrestrial HDTV in Ireland - we are still a [broken link removed] from having Terrestrial Digital Standard Definition TV!

We are thus a long way from turning off analogue TV in favour of Digital - probably behind the Uk's stated date of [broken link removed].

So, you will realistically get a couple of years (3 - 5 years perhaps) before you have to replace your non HD Ready TV, unless you are an early adopter.