Transcrevo abaixo a explicação sobre os problemas do HDTV nos EUA.

So, what’s wrong with HDTV?

1. Still Too Costly
Despite dropping prices, most high-def sets are still cost prohibitive for most Americans. While you can buy a small-screen HDTV now for under $500, the sets that make people drool — that make them run to the store — are still close to $1,000 or more. Even before the recession, that was too much for budget-conscious Americans. During the recession, it’s an unthinkable luxury.

2. Old TVs Prevail
Despite the upcoming Digital TV transition (assuming it is upcoming), millions of Americans still own older, non-HD analog sets. They spent good money for them and they still work — so why update them? Or, at least, that’s the view of the analog TV owner. It’s a lot cheaper to get a $50 digital converter box (which allows digital signals to display on the analog set) than it is to buy a high-def set. And it’s also cheaper to buy a non-HD Digital TV set for $200-300 than it is to throw down the mortgage money on a high-def one.

3. Poor Education
Cable and satellite providers (and the telcos) still surprisingly do little to educate consumers that if they have a high-def set, they need a high-def tuner to watch HD programming. (Roughly one-third of HDTV owners fall in this category.) They seem to think that high-def owners have figured it out.

And TV manufacturers and CE retailers do next to nothing to help out. Their view: They’ve sold the set so why spend their time and money ensuring that people use it to its fullest?

However, that’s a myopic view. If more people had high-def tuners, that would be more people out there in the marketplace spreading the word about HD’s wonderful picture and sound. And that would lead to more people buying high-def sets.

4. Not Enough HD Programming
Not enough high-def programming, you ask? How can that be? Aren’t there dozens of HD channels?

Well, yes, that’s true. But the four major broadcast networks, which still dominate primetime ratings, still produce far too many shows in standard-def. For instance, on CBS, The CBS Morning Show, The Amazing Race, 48 Hours and several other shows are still not in high-def. And on NBC, under spendthrift CEO Jeff Zucker, sometimes the entire primetime lineup is not in HD. For instance, unscripted shows such as Deal or No Deal and The Biggest Loser are delivered in deadly dull SD.

The result is that the average viewer is not as excited about high-def as he could be.

5. The Blu-ray/HD DVD Debacle
The industry’s food fight over which high-def disc format would prevail unquestionably hurt the HDTV industry. The high-def disc, which offers a picture superior to anything on cable, satellite or a telco service, is a great showcase for the technology. However, the format war slowed consumer interest in high-def discs — and now that Blu-ray has prevailed, the studios’ stubborn insistence to price Blu-ray movies at $5-10 more than their standard-def editions continues to delay consumer acceptance.

Blu-ray should be a catalyst for selling more high-def sets, but it’s often just a reminder of how costly high-def can be.

Desconsiderando apenas a briga entre Blu-ray e HDDVD, que comprometeu a credibilidade do sistema HDTV, e que passou despercebida no Brasil, os demais fatores são muito mais críticos por aqui. Os preços são mais elevados (e como!); o parque de TVs analógicas é muitos mais antigo; a educação é um desastre (tem muita gente vendo TV analógica, cheia de fantasmas, dizendo que tem TV digital HD por causa do logo que as emissoras colocam equivocadamente); e a programação em HD ainda é pequena. Para contornar isso, são necessárias várias estratégias de divulgação e de conscientização sobre as vantagens e problemas da tecnologia digital, sob pena de chegar 1016 e a TV digital estar restrita a poucas classes sociais.

Ah, e muita reza para que a crise econômica pare por aí, senão, ninguém vai investir nos receptores.