is this news?

I’m not sure what category you would file this “news” item under. Human Interest maybe? Regardless, MSNBC bring us the hard-hitting infotainment* piece Clearer Pictures: The coming high-defenition TV revolution.

The interactive feature fails in its aim of selling HDTV to the masses and points our a few humorous points along the way. First, that the term “High Definition” is relative and as a result meaningless. Second, illustrated through their handy TV-Resolution-through-the-years Flash presentation, they show that TV quality, including the “upcoming revolution” of HDTV, has stayed remarkably similar since 1936.

Anyone who has a 5 year old $3000-turned-$150 computer will not be impressed by 10% improvements over decades. We demand yearly improvements in order of magnitude.


* Microsoft Word told me that “infotainment” was a real word. The end is near.
 

7 thoughts on “is this news?”

  1. Heh.
    Infotainment.Heh, heh. Almost as funny as ‘edutainment’. My favorite new official word in the dictionary, though, is ‘d’oh!’
    The site in question led me to think: “What the hell is the point of this?” Did the folks at MSNBC not look at their demonstration and say:”Gee, this actually doesn’t sell hdtv… maybe we should hold off the celebrations”? I reckon not.

  2. I’m abandoning the english language for something not quite so embarrassing

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