You can probably chalk this up to the "I want a bigger TV" phase people went through. In that process, they never really gave any thought to what they were looking at on it. I mean, people thought VHS looked good enough, and I've seen countless people have shitty color and brightness too. I realize we can't all have a background in video, but come on!
Reminds me of people who take pictures and frame them with heads occupying the bottom third of the frame, and lots of sky.
I always laugh at the flashes during fireworks or sporting events. Unless of course these folks want photos of the back of people's heads. At sporting events or concerts I guess they could have a flash so powerful and accurately focused that it may actually work. ;)
For the record, I had my HDTV cable box installed the same day as my TV was delivered. But I would also be lying if I said that having a 61 inch widescreen TV had nothing to do with my decision. Who says size does not matter?
You know I used to shake my head and/or chuckle at people like that too. In fact, my in-laws are those people. Big HDTV and a basic cable subscription. Watching their TV was torture.
Then one day I was talking about it with my mother (who isn't one of those people and knows to consult her loving son for advice - and did a kick ass job of setting up her own HD/theater set-up) and she put it into perspective.
Maybe those people don't care about HDTV, they just want/need a TV.
And that's probably the truth. Anyone buying a TV in the past few years really didn't have a choice - HDTV's are what's for sell. Even if I had no desire to HD programming, I'd still pretty much have to buy an HDTV (unless I went for one of the overpriced, oversized relics that still line the shelves in the dark corners of some electronics stores)
I guess the point is that a certain segment of those people who had no idea they had to do more than just buy the TV really don't care in the first place...they just needed or wanted a new TV.