With FM there was “No Static At All” – Steely Dan sang about that … and there was even a movie FM. (Back in the day when I worked at Radio Shack they told me Don’t Use FM Stereo to demonstrate a HiFi System. Use another source like Tape or Vinyl Record. Of course those could have static too 
.)
Quadraphonic failed back in the day … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadraphonic_sound (But has been resurrected in modern times with Surround Sound stuff.)
A lot of people probably couldn’t tell Standard Def. TV from High Def. TV. But hey …
http://www.zdnet.com/cea-sets-ultra-hd-standard-for-next-generation-television-7000006085/
CEA sets Ultra HD standard for next-generation television
Summary: After selling us HD and Full HD TV sets, the consumer electronics industry is moving on to Ultra HD, formerly known as 4K. This is useful for large public display screens, but it’s hard to see any difference in domestic and normal business use, where “retina displays” are already available at normal working distances.
(more at the link.)
“Ultra HD has previously been known as Ultra HD, 4K or sometimes Quad HD. However, 4K is also used for a digital cinema standard with a slightly wider screen resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels.”
* The Quad HD part was what made me think of Quadraphonic failing back in the day, and FM – and the No Static At All song from Steely Dan.
“Whether there’s any advantage to having an Ultra HD TV is open to doubt, and back in January, a CNet article explained Why 4K TVs are stupid for home use. At an 8-foot viewing distance, you’d need something like a 102-inch screen to see the pixels on a 1080p picture, so there’s really no point in having 2160p.
Indeed, CNet’s Geoffrey Morrison points out that, at a distance of 10 feet from a 50-inch TV set, “even 720p TVs have pixels too small for your eye to see”. In other words, many TV viewers don’t even need Full HD (1080p).”
* See also Why 4K TVs are stupid for home use: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7-57366319-221/why-4k-tvs-are-stupid/.
* Another quote says …
“Given 20/20 vision, a human eye can resolve roughly 1 arcminute (1/60th of a degree), so every display is a “retina display” from a sufficiently large viewing distance. For example, you can’t see pixels on any screen, no matter how bad, from 50 feet. It is therefore possible to work out the viewing distance at which a particular screen becomes a “retina display”, and there’s a website to make the calculations.”
* So you just have to get the correct distance from your HD device for it to be Retina Display. Wow I thought it was some kind of special display.
* Did things just get better? Or unnecessary?
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