Current CableLabs CEO & prez Richard Green is moving on later this year as Paul Liao from Panasonic takes over the reigns and the first part of Multichannel News' interview with him covers the first time he saw HDTV back in 1980 and the process that eventually gave us the standards we have today.That goes back through the first NFL game recorded in HD, and why high definition took so long to take off -- apparently not everyone wants a 1 million+ lb 40-inch CRT and broadcasters were never happy about spending all the money necessary to upgrade -- from the days of 5x3 with 1125 lines. It's not a crystal ball to the success of Blu-ray, digital downloads, 3D or anything else, but worth a read for some interesting anecdotes on how tough progress is.


Outgoing CableLabs prez talks about the origins of HDTV as we know it