The PC and TV Fidelity Split

An interesting debate seems to have popped out of Om Malik's NewTeeVee Live conference last week: Does high-definition video matter on a PC screen?

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen told the conference that picture quality matters less than ease of use and convenience. Just yesterday, Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback (NOT Next New Networks' CEO, as I previously called him) told me his company just built a state-of-the-art HD studio. He says that the kind of people likely to watch Rev3's stuff are geeks who don't mind messing with electronics to get high-end video -- plus, it's easier to sell advertisers on high-quality content.

All of that may be true, but for most people -- i.e. non-geeks -- my bet is that we're migrating toward a split. In general, computers connected to the Internet will be convenience machines. The important aspect will be how easy it is to find and watch exactly the videos you want. The quality will always matter less.

And TVs will be fidelity machines. The important aspect will be the quality, and convenience will matter less.

Of course, the quality of videos on PCs will constantly improve, and the convenience of TV video will constantly improve with things like video on demand, TiVo, and Internet-connected media centers. Still, if it's on a PC, the user is looking primarily for convenience. On a TV, it's fidelity.

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