Tuning in HDTV

Brian Lowry expressed the frustrations and confusions about HDTV and its future very well (“High Definition’s Middle Ground,” June 30).

I have seen HDTV demonstrated many times at industry conferences and workshops, and look forward to the promise it brings. However, if it turns out to be another empty promise, like the intermediary we must now be forced to live with known as “digital” television, I’ll pass. Unless you watch a lot of premium channels such as HBO, you’re not getting anything that’s truly digital delivery anyway.

What is really aggravating is the quality. Most digital channels use such high compression rates that the artifacting (or digital “blocky” look) is totally unacceptable. Recently while watching “Match Game” on the Game Show Network, Charles Nelson Reilly looked like an alien--his head forming and deforming digitally every time he moved.

Movies are just as bad. Heaven forbid a film should have a dark scene in it because everything goes blurry. Lets hope that HDTV gets it right.

MICHAEL J. SAUL

Tarzana

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Faced with many of the same questions Lowry addressed, I took the HDTV plunge last year and don’t regret it for a moment, despite the cost and confusing information given out by television set retailers. Like most people contemplating a purchase of this kind, I used the Internet heavily, where I gained almost all of the information I needed to make an informed decision on my purchase (size of set, type of set-top decoder, sources of HDTV programming, etc.).

I achieved HDTV nirvana only after upgrading in stages. Now, 50% of our viewing is of high-definition content, courtesy of a DirecTV subscription (bare-bones) and a $25 Radio Shack roof antenna.

So take my advice and complete your setup. There’s still time to catch college football on CBS HDTV this fall.

DEAN SHERER

Sunland