Have we reached a lull in new advances in TV/media?

[wayner]

I somewhat hesitate to say this, but it appears to me that we may have reached a lull in new advances in TV, media, etc. I hesitate to say this since change is constant, but I don't see much happening in the next few years vs. the last couple of years. But I don't see that much compelling me to buy new hardware in the near future.

1. In the last two or so years we have had the introduction and adoption of BluRay and its defeat of HD-DVD. We aren't likely to have the next generation any time soon. SageTV handles BluRay very well and once you have a BluRay reader in your PC and an extender at your TVs you are set. How long is it until I will want something better for watching movies?

2. We have just had the end of the adoption of digital TV for OTA, at least in the US. We aren't going to see anything better than 720p or 1080i for TV broadcasts any time soon so your existing OTA tuners are probably going to last for quite a while in your SageTV setup.

3. With the introduction of the HD-PVR a little over a year ago you can now get HDTV from pretty much any cable or satellite box into your TV. There may be some competition in this space in the future but assuming that your HD-PVR is stable then you are set for a long time, at least until component outputs are disabled, but then there is the HD Fury (I think that is what it is called) that converts HDMI to component.

4. CableCard has been rather a fiasco and its successor, which I believe is known as Tru2way, is not likely to appear very soon and even if it does why would you care given the HD-PVR?