People are STUPID

[skottey]

Have you ever seen that stupid commercial "People are smart" by Ditech? This commercial really irks my wife and I because we are constantly pointing out examples of how stupid human beings are. We see this in traffic, on the news, in stores. People are just plain stupid. Here is another example of stupid and it relates to HDTV and cable so I am posting it here.

From my local paper the other day,

"Only about half who bought HD sets subscribe to the HD service from their provider, and viewers in one of four HD households thought they were watching HD programming but were not, according to Leichtman Research Group of Durham, N.H."

So let me get this straight, 1/4 of us with HD TVs are so oblivious that we think by just hooking up an HD TV we are watching HD. HELLO? ANYBODY HOME IN THERE? People are stupid!

 

[WhenYouAwake]

You can't totally blame the people in the survey. I would be willing to bet a large number of them went into a local electronics store and were given whatever line was necessary to get them to buy the expensive TV. I can't imagine the clerk telling them not to buy the TV because they wouldn't be able to take full advantage of it. And yes, people should do research before they go out to buy, but they don't.

 

[branchbouncer]

Like Skottey said people are stupid

 

[Pepper]

Not everybody has time to learn all the technical jargon and specifications, they just want what has the best picture for the money.

Typically, that means they end up believing the pimply faced kid at the store whose only concern is what can he sell them that gets him the most commission. Then they get it home, don't understand how to connect it all and end up with a substandard result. This doesn't mean they are stupid, (unless you define stupid as meaning you believed the guy at the store who told you to take the set home and plug it to analog cable and you'd be watching HD - I would call that more uninformed than stupid).

Not everybody knows how to make network servers work either, if they did I'd be out of a job. There is a niche market there for somebody who would just come to a house and inspect their setup to see if it's connected correctly and what can be done to improve the situation. An "Entertainment Center Consultant" or some such. Not the high-end guys that spend hours designing, tweaking and aligning, just somebody that charges a reasonable fee for 15-30 minutes work that for most of us would be quite easy but for the average home consumer is insurmountable.

Regarding the original post, I would have thought it would be much more than 25%, we forget that we technically inclined users are a small minority of the population.

 

[Likvid]

I agree with you, same thing here in my country, people are so stupid these days.

Seems they have got lazy with the internet and computers and being fed with information.

 

[icstephen]

my dad was an early adapter with HD but was too cheep to get an HD tuner or subscribe to HD (at the time Voom was the only game in town I think), This used to make me crazy why pay $3500 for a tv to watch SD on, I did buy him a progressive scan dvd player so he could at least utalize that & after awhile I did eventually get him a deal from D* where he got a free HD reciever (it was an early model) and now he has the newest set up from D*...although he still complains about the price (and has no movie channels other than the hd pack)

 

[seandudley]

(at the time Voom was the only game in town I think)

Voom was never the only game in town, DirecTV and Dish (as well as most cable companies) had HD offerings, they just weren't offering nearly as much as Voom offered when they came on-line. I enjoyed Voom while it lasted. Of course, now I get a lot more channels on Dish than I got through Voom.

 

[skottey]

Voom was never the only game in town, DirecTV and Dish (as well as most cable companies) had HD offerings, they just weren't offering nearly as much as Voom offered when they came on-line. I enjoyed Voom while it lasted. Of course, now I get a lot more channels on Dish than I got through Voom.

Voom was way before its time. They should have launched around NOW, while everyone is complaining about not getting enough HD and this D* vs E* stuff. I pay a lot for cable and E* right now and if an all HD provider came out with a good list of channels (like Voom at the time), I would ditch probably E* and go with the new HD provider, keeping cable for locals and SD channels.

 

[TuxCoder]

Have you ever seen that stupid commercial "People are smart" by Ditech? This commercial really irks my wife and I because we are constantly pointing out examples of how stupid human beings are.

I agree with you regarding that commercial, and very strongly on that second point. Yes, people, generally speaking, are stupid. It's getting worse, too. And those are the best examples - in traffic, on the news, and in stores. I'll add that today's TV programming is in its own way another example. And most commercials on TV, and especially on radio, prey on the stupidity of people.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I'll bet a majority of those 1 in 4 are libs/dems.

 

[Pepper]

Did you know that employees take 40% of their sick days on Mondays and Fridays? Something going on there.

 

[markfp-1]

Wow! I thought it was only a guy I work with. He bought an HD because he got a "deal". Then he called up the cable company talks them into giving him three months of HD for free and when the time is up he goes back to standard cable. He has the SD picture stretched to fill the screen and claims that neither he or his wife can tell the differences so why pay extra. I really hope that 25% of the world really isn't like him.

 

[TNGTony]

I am reminded of this print ad I saw once on a TV guide approx 15 years ago for a "new device that lets you receive free programming. You do not have to pay cable bills because you no longer need cable". It continued to say that the "amazing new technology allowed you to receive all your favorite programming with no cables or satellite dishes cluttering your house." and better yet it was only $19.95

What was this miracle new product?

A rabbit ear antenna!

See ya
Tony

 

[digiblur]

Must be the same stupid people that don't bother to use the automatic spell check feature in Firefox while posting in internet forums.

Stupid Firefox! Stop putting a red underline on all my werds!

 

[haertig]

The only people who actually get caught by those survey takers in the malls are, ... well, ... stupid. So of course the survey results are biased towards them.

 

[nomad816]

the proper term would be ignorant.

 

[TNGTony]

At some point you have to admit that some of the ignorance is due to stupidity!

See ya
Tony

 

[Van]

I have a visio 32 inch 1080 set that I watch, its currently on digital cable with HD, a ps2 is hooked to it for dvd play back and Im 60 - 70 miles away from the majority of ota sources. The last time that I watched an hd show was 30+ days ago because of the following reason's.

(1) Lack of advertising of shows in HD by the provider ( charter cable ), if I dont know that something good is coming on then Im not gonna turn to it.

(2) Lack of quality channels in HD, all Charter offers is Discovery HD and HDnet and soon there will be history HD and the rest is crap sports hd ( sorry Im not a sports fan ).

(3) The Vizio does a great job with SD so much so that it is actually crisper than what I've seen on some of the tnt shows that have been upconverted as well as on the locals during prime time.

(4) Watching dvd's ( non blueray / HD ) on the Vizio the pq is also incredible and in my opinion close in quality to hd.

I can see why there are so many that dont suprscribe to an hd service, the tv's or atleast the good ones do a good job of showing a digital sd picture and the providers such as charter are seriously lacking in providing an acceptable amount of content plus there is the issue of trying to justify the cost for the monthly programming / box rental versus what your getting from said provider. Rght now Im getting my hd for free for 6 months and when the times up Im returning the box because I dont feel that the monthly fee's for hd justify the limited amount of content. I dont think its a question of stupid or ignorant so much as its a question of wether its worth it right now or not, one could say that those who rush to get the latest and greatest are the stupid ones for paying high dollar amounts instead of waiting for refinements or the addition of services ( iPhone anyone? ) as many of them are the ones complaining about not having enough hd content and going nuts over what Charlie is doing next.

 

[egnlsn]

Here's another vote for People are Stupid. I've been dealing with general public for over 30 years, and I never cease to get amazed.

 

[sonnyboy11]

I used to have a little more faith in people not being so dumb. But then we elected George Bush to a second term and I gave up hope.