By now you probably have heard of the HDTV revolution. A new television scheme using new technology and new frequencies to give a far superior image quality. This technology is being forced on us by the electronics industry and by the federal government (who was bought by the electronics industry.) If you have not yet heard of HDTV, I suggest you look at some of the web sites, and stop by your local television shop – HDTV is here now (although an HDTV set currently costs many times more than a conventional (NTSC standard) television. The HDTV industry and federal government want us to believe that HDTV is a far superior technology and that we need it. If we accept this technology, it will be forced upon us. If we refuse to buy into this scam we can make it go away. Here is why we need to avoid buying into HDTV (DO NOT BUY THE SETS AND FILE COMPLAINTS WITH THE FCC AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES):

1. ALL television components will become obsolete. Think about this a moment. This means you will need to buy a new television set, new VCR, camcorder, digital camera, computer capture card – even that little radio that picks up TV channels will be obsolete. Even your new DVD player will be obsolete because it is incapable of holding the amount of data required to store HDTV. This is good ONLY for the electronics industry, which can no longer sell millions of television devices because all of us already own the equipment, and it is too reliable (does not have to be often replaced.)
2. Bag your antenna! Unless you are sitting at "point blank range" directly under a 5 million watt transmitting tower you may as well forget using anything other than an expensive, huge and cumbersome HDTV outdoor receiving antenna (you won't even get "ghosts" since HDTV is an all or nothing affair.)
3. HDTV is a bandwidth hog (translated – it eats more space on tape, disc or over the air.) This is a waste of valuable frequencies needed for things like police and fire dispatch and cellular telephones. Also, this will mean problems with computers storing and displaying images.
4. HDTV is good for the television industry as well! With digital TV you can restrict viewing and copying (you won’t even be able to time shift your TV shows with your VCR because the Motion Picture Industry Association Gestapo will lock out copying.) The industry will now be able to charge for over the air TV signals, just like the cable industry (so much for free TV.) The FCC has required only minimal support for free TV signals – and these can ALL be at the MINIMAL HDTV resolution! (HDTV offers several different resolutions with only the highest quality resolution offering any real advantage over current television technology. This resolution requires the channel space of FOUR of the lower definition signals! I strongly doubt that many TV stations will offer THIS for free. The industry can regulate and control all use of content, and can even follow your personal viewing habits if you watch the pay content. Digital content can even be restricted to playing on ONLY ONE TV OR PLAYER as evidenced by the recently failed attempt by megastore "Circuit City" to market "Divx." This worthless piece of crap was a system where you would take home a "DVD" disc for a couple of bucks. Once you stuck the thing in your player you had 48 hours to watch it. After that the disc either became a Frisbee or landfill, or you had to pay to watch it again. This was done over the phone by ONLY ONE COMPANY (which closed up shop – fortunately the Divx players also play regular DVD discs.) In addition, this company kept a record of ALL of your viewing habits (so much for privacy!) This concept did not go over well, once consumers realized how it really worked. The same kinds of problems plague all digital content, including HDTV.
5. Item 3 brings me to another point… What exactly do most of us watch on TV? Seems that according to the industry, 95 percent of our time is spent watching soap operas and sit-com’s! What good is it going to do any of us to replace ALL of our video equipment just so we can watch this eye-chewing-gum in high resolution? It hardly pays just for the occasional movie or super sports event. This was one of the real sore points with the motion picture industry and electronics industry in fact. Seems both wanted a means of delivering high-resolution images and great sound. The problem was that the market would not be large enough unless ALL CONSUMERS were forced to buy into HDTV! Both industries threw BILLIONS of dollars at the federal government and at the retail market to make this happen. Now they are working on convincing the general public that this mockery is a valuable asset!
6. HDTV sets WILL cost SIGNIFICANTLY more than present TV’s – even after production is geared up. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The entire idea was set up on generating profits for the electronic industry.
7. Scan the local high tech TV shops and Internet. You won't find ANY evidence of anything HDTV other than the TV itself and ONE VCR (currently in prototype only.) You won't even find any evidence of advanced research on products such as HDTV digital still cameras, HDTV portable television, HDTV audio only receivers, HDTV DVD, or for that matter ANYTHING else HDTV! What good is HDTV without all of the other stuff that goes along with it! How long will it take to design these devices? Seems to me it takes at LEAST 5 years from the initial design phase until a product is released... Guess we have a REALLY long wait ahead of us.
8. Finally, check out the HDTV sites on the Internet. I have been searching them for a long time now! NOT ONE OFFERS EMAIL, A SURVEY, OR ANY WAY TO OFFER NEGATIVE FEEDBACK TO THEIR SITE!! MOST DON'T EVEN HAVE A WEBMASTER ADDRESS. Does this sound like something YOU would want to buy into?

We need to stop HDTV NOW! Don’t buy HDTV sets. Don’t by the product hype or wonderful web sites and Usenet news/chat room reports. These are either industry promotion or uniformed consumers. Only we, the consumer who has to pay for this technology, can stop it – with our checkbooks! When a truly innovative technology comes out (3D TV?) then it may pay to switch.