Crystal-Clear, Maybe Mesmerizing

Fully half of the United States is now watching television in high definition, the fastest adoption of TV technology since the VCR hit store shelves in the 1980s.

With the adoption comes good news for networks and Hollywood studios: HD lures viewers to TV for longer periods of time. According to The Nielsen Company, high-definition households watch about 3 percent more prime-time programming than their standard-definition counterparts. The sudden growth in high-definition, or HD, viewing has happened with little fuss for consumers, who simply swapped out their TV sets and set-top-boxes. But behind the scenes, HD is nothing short of a revolutionary upgrade for the television business, involving hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in new cameras, studios and control rooms. It has even changed the way local anchors apply their makeup. But as HD adoption grows, it is apparent that there are still two kinds of TV production: one that enables viewers to see individual blades of grass on a baseball field, and one that is little changed since the 1960s when color television took off. Studio executives privately complain about local stations that cannot yet afford to receive high-definition broadcasts of shows. And producers say they cannot yet take full advantage of the wider, crystal-clear medium because so many viewers still have outdated TV sets.