SilverWook said:

Television shows and concerts have been regularly shot in HD video since the late 90's. I even have one of the few feature films shot in analog HD in the 80's in my Laserdisc collection. And lets not forget MUSE HiDef Laserdiscs in Japan!

The industry knew HD and widescreen sets were coming.

I worked in the industry as a cinematographer and later camera assistant around the 2005-2008 changeover when HD started being widely adopted, and there was a massive shift in those years. In 2005 and most of 2006, I worked almost exclusively in the field of documentary and reality television, and the stuff I was on was either 16mm or standard-def video (and once in a while some 35mm). By 2008, there wasn't a single major production in town that was shooting docs in either of those formats, it was all being done in HD. There simply was no need to do HD in 2003, the hardware and software was simply so cumbersome and slow and expensive that it was easier to just shoot on film if you wanted the product to have a future-format shelf life (i.e. theatrical distribution or then-hypothetical high-def format). In most cities, you didn't even have access to an HD camera, you'd have to have it shipped in from L.A. or NYC or Toronto. For a tiny production intended for a DVD extra and a limited A&E broadcast, HD would not have even been thought of for EoD.