Hotels' new-tech TVs have guests fuming

Byrd, who stays about 75 nights a year in hotels, says an increasing number of rooms have new flat-screen, high-definition TV sets. But, he says, the picture quality is often poor.

"Many times I've reported problems, and most desk agents have no clue what I'm talking about," says Byrd, a Phoenix-based research associate in the pharmaceutical industry.

Like Byrd, many hotel guests say they're frustrated — and their TV viewing disrupted — by fuzzy, snowy or distorted images that freeze or break up on the screen. And what guests find is hotel and television-industry people saying there's nothing they or a front-desk clerk can instantly do to fix the problems.

New hotel TV sets are "nice-looking pieces of furniture," says Marc Ginsberg, a vice president for DirecTV, a satellite service that's in about one-third of U.S. hotels. But, he says, they won't provide a sharp, clear picture until hotels upgrade the receivers that transmit TV signals to each room.

Replacing receivers is costly, particularly in a recession, Ginsberg says. Hotels also have been reluctant to pay for many high-definition channels, so standard-definition signals are being fed into TVs suited for high-def, and picture quality suffers.

Frequent hotel guest David Young of Apopka, Fla., won't tolerate a high-definition TV in his room with picture quality no better than an old, box-shaped TV.

"Most hotels seem loath to spend the extra money for the high-def service from the cable or satellite provider, so what's the point?" says Young, who works in the aerospace industry. "I will not return to any hotel if they have high-def TVs but no high-def signal."

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Source - USATODAY