Anybody who has made the leap into watching HD programming has seen the wild divergence of the actual HD-ness of the various programs, as well as elements of the programs themselves. Now that we have upgraded our cable service to include a HD DVR (about which will be a different post), we are now watching many more things on the HD broadcasts. Some channels — HD Net, PBS — pretty much look great all of the time, but others are more hit and miss. For example, our local ABC affilate in Los Angeles recently made their news broadcasts all HD, with great fanfare, but their weather maps that show the temperature are still SD, necessitating the use of blue bars on either side.
This is all fine, because we are in the infancy stage of the HD revolution, and as TV Week points out, a lot of networks are still trying to decide how their HD offerings are going to be structured. The feeling here is that, just like with color vs. B&W programs, it will take some time before the HD shows outnumber the SD shows, and we will be living with a mix until at least a couple more years.
In the meantime, the early adopters are just going to have to live through the transition, nagging their Cable/Satellite providers to add more HD Channels, until eventually, the fact that we still can’t get first-run HD versions of Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars will be nothing but a fond memory.