By John Butterworth Corvallis Gazette-Times This was a local home town profile run on Dale Cripps and published in late 1999 by the Corvallis Gazette-Times. FALL CREEK - Against the backdrop of a rushing stream and towering peaks, Dale Cripps has established a headquarters to foment revolution in the television and movie industries. Computers, digital imaging and the Internet have created the right environment to make high-definition television a worldwide reality. Dale Cripps works out of his home near Fall Creek to promote the worldwide development of HDTV. Alsea, OR -- From his Fall Creek home west of Alsea, the 61-year-old man coordinates, encourages and badgers those who seem to be dragging their feet. Working at his task for more than 17 years, Cripps has produced a newsletter and online consumer magazine that is considered by some to be the bible of the HDTV industry. Open up his Internet site home page at www.hdtvmagazine.com and his vision is plain to see. "Welcome to the future of television--the convergence of all media," it reads. "News and analysis from the front lines of the revolution." The idea of creating a system of producing movies and television with more lifelike images has been around for long time, according to Cripps. Getting the television and movie industries to cooperate and advance the idea has not been easy. "The old infrastructure is fighting for its life," Cripps said with the zeal of an evangelist. "The challenge to any change is the inertia of the old." Cripps illustrates his point with an example from Swedish history. When the country switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right, people talked and the government promoted. When it came to make the change, nothing disastrous happened and the only long-term consequences were needing new road signs and the auto industry moving steering wheels to the other side of the cars. HDTV advocates have a number of hurdles to jump before manufacturers and filmmakers accept a major revolution, according to Cripps. One is the fact that the current system is working well. Another is a growing demand for standard televisions in third-world countries. "Here in our society it's time for a change,' he said. "The old standard is still expanding in Third-World countries, but the old standard in this society is at the phase where it's no longer interesting." The move to HDTV would change television viewing from a form of passing time to a period of quality time, according to Cripps. "Marketers of today say that if you're not selling an experience, you haven't sold anything. HDTV is not just a little bulb with a light in it. It's a brand new experience that throws its arms around you and gives you a big, wet kiss." Even though HDTV has limited applications for now, those customers who have made the jump say they are spending more TV time and enjoying it more, he said. HDTV has two advantages to viewers - viewing and sound. An HDTV screen has five times the information, or five times the number of dots, than standard television. Cripps said an appropriate comparison would be looking at an older computer with only 256 colors and then looking at the new ones with thousands or millions of colors. HDTV viewing is as close to looking out a window as it can get, he said. But the improvement isn't just in viewing. "Audio is the best part of it," Cripps said. "It gives a complete audio field as close to nature as possible." Rather than using a limited FM band for sound, like older systems use, HDTV has six complete fields of sound: left, right front, center front, left rear, right rear, and a sub-woofer for low frequencies. But making such an overall change won't be easy. Despite the improvements for the medium the film industry doesn't appear too receptive. "Everyone in TV makes most of their living from the old standard," Cripps said. "They're not out there pitching too hard for a new baby that may be too heavy to lift." In order to make such a momentous changeover it will take the cooperation of Hollywood, the manufacturers, and the television industry, he said. Getting a working, profitable industry to drop the existing level of competitiveness in order to make advances is a hindrance, but the advent of digital images and the inter-connectivity of the Internet have made the load that much lighter. "There's no question that the moguls know it's coming," said Cripps. "They see it coming, but they don't know how they'll make money with it." Looking ahead to international HDTV acceptance is a long-term project which runs contrary to the intensity of day-to-day business in Hollywood, according to Cripps. Executives are obsessed with today's business like the daily ratings. "We're looking at a 20-year transition and they can't afford a lot of time," he said. "They don't meditate on it day and night - I did that for them." Cripps sees some hope among the Hollywood leadership. George Lucas is planning to shoot his next "Star Wars" prequel in HDTV format. It will take new attractive programming packages to advance the new industry. "My personal belief is that the weight of this transition is too heavy for any individual hands to carry," Cripps said. "Sony, Panasonic, NBC, ABC--as big as they are they simply cannot handle it alone." One area Cripps hope for more cooperation is in the release of new movies. He'd like to see Hollywood work with the HDTV industry to broadcast first-run movies to a select group of HDTV mini--"barn theaters" within 10 days of being released in theaters. While he anticipates it would affect the theater business by an acceptable $10 million a year it would expand the movies' receipts and create a larger demand for the product. "{People talk about movies around the world--it's our only international language," he said. "The willingness to pay is at the height of demand when a movie is released. Why not capture the value in that high-demand from a select group of home theaters?" That would go a long ways toward Cripps' goal of uniting Hollywood, television and manufacturers. Despite the number of years he has spent trying to promote a better television and movie system, he remains hopeful for the future. "I liken it to a launch at Cape Kennedy. There's a huge fireball at the base of the rocket and it slowly lifts off. It takes an enormous amount of power to overcome the inertia and gravety. It is slow to rise until it begins to escape the hold of gravity. It travels faster and faster on its way to the heavens until it takes very little power to sustain its movement."