HD is TV

On July 23rd, 1996, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC became the first commercial television station to transmit their signal in high-definition. Today, almost fifteen years later, many local TV stations, while capable of transmitting HD signals provided by their affiliated network, have still not upgraded their internal signal chain and continue to produce local content in standard definition.

As most everyone knows, every television sold today is capable of displaying high-definition pictures. So why are there still so many standard-definition channels available? The transition from standard-definition television to HD has been an odd one. I cannot recall another technological event where the level and availability of consumer technology outpaced the adoption of the content providers. For those of us old enough to remember the transition from black-and-white to color, television stations were transmitting the new color signals before consumer sets were widely available.

Now I’m fully aware that there are still many old-fashioned, standard-definition tube television sets out there, and that not everyone can afford to upgrade to a new HD set. But how much longer will the majority of the public, who owns at least one HD television, have to wait to see all their video content in HD? Do we need to wait until the last standard-definition TV set fails? Last time I checked, the quality of those TVs was quite impressive and could easily reach a lifespan of 10 to 20 years. Sorry, but I’ve watched this SD to HD transition for 15 years and am not willing to wait any longer.

It’s time to end the era of standard-definition, so I’m asking everyone reading this to please contact your local TV stations, cable and satellite providers and demand they provide all their content in HD. No longer should high-definition television be treated as some premium service. HD is TV, period.