Plaidophile

Traditionally, members of a symphony have dressed in black suits so that they wouldn't visually stand out and distract the viewer from the performance, since the performance was to be heard, and not seen. So it's ironic that now there's such an emphasis on making a visually stunning presentation which focuses on the individual performers — which actually does make it more interesting and therefore easier to watch.

Of course the audio quality is somewhat better than on an analog broadcast.

I just think it's funny (and maybe a bit shameful to admit) that it's the visual quality and presentation which has gotten me to be much more interested in watching symphonic performances on PBS. (Though really, what I usually do is DVR it and then I listen to it while doing something else, and only really watch the screen when something catches my attention. Which I guess proves the point to the uniform to begin with, since I don't really remember much about that performance except for the beard.)