At spring, we had many topics, that were about HD-penetration (not hard deep, you perverts). Everybody votes channel had a worldwide poll, about is your TV a widescreen or different, which results came today. Results were pretty interesting: 51,2% didn't have a widescreen TV (which leaves 48,8% with widescreens). So, people play their Wiis through computer monitors, with VGA adapters, but likely most of them plays through their 10+ year old TV:s.

have widescreen TVs really been standard since 1997? I'm sure you could buy one then but that doesn't mean "4:3 = decade old"

[edit: The really interesting question, and the one I thought the thread title implied, is "What consoles do people with/without WS/HD TVs buy?"

[OR:  I wonder how this poll would have gone on the 360 or PS3?]

yeh ive had a standard old box tv for about 12 years and it has option for 16:9 but i choose not to becaouse i want the whole screen and my 360 looks not good on a SD tv i must go HD!!

48% with widescreen? That seems pretty high actually; even if you assume half of those are EDTV then 25% of Wii owners have HDTVs (which is higher than the last stats I heard on HDTV adoption). What this means is that owning a HDTV doesn't make you any less likely to buy a Wii as someone with a CRT TV ...

@HappySqurriel: About how surprising the results were, of course depends on your expectations. Since the majority of people, who have moved away from their parents in the last decade, have widescreen TV:s and the people who have wheir Wiis online, are propably the people who have some kind of understanding for technology, are the people who have widescreens, and these people do buy a lot of consoles.
Of course, there are the kids, with their 20" CRT:s (i forgot, that less than 20" TV:s have been mostly 4/3 up to just recently). Anyway, i did expect a lot bigger widescreen percentage. But, in the other hand, this shows that people don't care so much about the visual qualities (and in Wiis case, widescreen is better for gameplay).
Also the regional differences would have been nice to see, definately Japan raises the average and Europe lowers, since EDTV never gained any popularity here. But, as you said, percentage of HDTV:s would also be interesting.

Not having a HDTV definitely makes buying one of the HD consoles a less attractive prospect for me. I'd be paying good money for a feature I wouldn't be able to use, and some games appear to have serious issues in SD resolution.

To be fair, it's starting to look like developers took note of Dead Rising, and the latter problem only affects very few games. I'm borrowing a friend's 360 later this year, and probably deciding wether or not to get one myself before a HDTV after I see how it looks on my 22" SDTV.

Why does have a non wide screen 10 years old? Sorry in Germany 16:9 became accepted with HD TV (low adoption rate). There where some before, but nobodoy bought them.

My guess is, even today there are more 4:3 sold in Germany than 16:9. And i personally doubt Germany is the only country.

Honestly, I really doubt it is "The Kids" (People between 18 and 35) who really have the majority of Widescreen TVs or HDTVs ...

Something I have seen day in and day out which is exagerated by where I live (Calgary) is that the majority of people between 25 and 35 have difficulty paying rent/mortgage, paying down their debt (often large student debt) and paying for the bare necessities of life; as an example I pay $1250 on a 500 square foot single bedroom apartment which is not the cheapest but is the least expensive apartment without a 6 month waitlist that is within walking distance of public transit.

The 40% of people in this age group who have a college/university degree or are in the trades make decent enough money to survive but only a few are splurging on fancy electronics and what not; the other 60% live with 2 to 4 room mates, and everthing they own is used. Even those that were lucky enough to buy homes a few years ago tend to have young children which are money/time sinks and are not buying personal toys because they lack the time or money for items like that.

The people I see who are buying expensive things are over 45, have no mortgage and are living in a $600,000 house they bought 10 years ago for $150,000; their children are teenagers or have moved out of the house and they have the time and money to start enjoying things like brand new TVs.

Maybe I live in the only place in the world where this happens but I don't believe that is the case; the Sports car has always been owned by the 50+ year old even though it is the dream car of most 20 year olds.