I want my HDTV

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The nation's turtlelike march toward HDTV domination sure is a head scratcher.

Take a country obsessed with television, introduce a new technology that makes current televised images look blurry by comparison ... and watch the visual revolution commence, right?

Not so fast.

Thanks to an imperfect storm of economic forces and government foot-dragging, the revolution has been delayed. A mere 4.1 million digital TVs were purchased last year, according to Jeff Joseph, vice president of communications with the Arlington-based Consumer Electronics Association. (Roughly 88 percent of those digital sets were HDTV-ready models.) Currently, 12 million households have an HDTV set, a market penetration of less than 10 percent.

Phillip Swann, president and publisher of Arlington-based sites www.onhd.tv and www.tvpredictions.com, says the two major obstacles are price and programming.

"Right now, you can go in and get a 52-inch set for $1,299," says Mr. Swann, whose onhd.tv features a cheeky list of celebrities whose mugs look better -- and worse -- in high definition (see sidebar). "That's not bad, but it's been a while to get to that price point. In the minds of most consumers, HDTV is still too expensive."

Price may be moot as long as too few networks program enough HDTV-friendly shows. Fewer than 20 networks now broadcast in high definition, Mr. Swann says. Why shell out double or triple the cost of your current TV set to catch only a handful of programs that take advantage of HDTV's marvels? Moreover, the quality of those broadcasts continues to vary, a further disincentive to would-be HDTV converts.

The recent Olympic coverage showed how frustrating such programming can be, Mr. Swann says. NBC couldn't justify the costs involved in broadcasting the games live in high definition, so it did so only on a delayed basis.

The network promises the 2006 Winter Games will be a different story, but even the limited glimpses offered this year showed just how wondrous HDTV visuals can be.

HDTV can sell itself to gadget fiends and tech heads, but that doesn't necessarily convert into mainstream appeal.