Anyone affected by the analog to digital tv broadcast switch?
 

As the subject says -

Do you use the over the air analog tv signal? If so, what are you doing about the changeover? Convertor box, cable, digital over the air? Have you gotten a convertor box coupon?

Do you think the changeover should be delayed?

(

We're cable. Supposedly ready for the switchover. But damned if I can understand the "why" of it, unless it was lobbyist money under the table to congressmen and senators.

I mean, here we were...just dumb and content with what we had. Why the need to "improve" things?

It's call progress so if you don't want to fall on you ass, better step aside.

As I understand it, the "spectrum" that the current signal is broadcast on is wide and can be sold by the FCC for a lot of money for other applications. The band that that the digital TV runs on is much narrower and they can pump much more data through it in digital format.

They have been pushing HDTV for some 20 years as I recall, but the entry to get the population to do it was too high. Why as a TV station would I convert if nobody had the TVs? Why should I buy the TV if nobody is broadcasting? So, finally they drew a line in the sand and said you will convert. The profit from selling the spectrum supposedly will overcome the cost of buying folks vouchers. So many folks are now on the dish or cable, it's not going to be like it was 20 years ago.

I guess this is one of those things for the greater good. I don't know if the spectrum has already been auctioned yet. Maybe that will pump some money into the Treasury to bail out the banks. Maybe now I will finally get an HDTV (so will many others) and that will pump more money into the economy. Too bad Circuit City couldn't hold on a couple of weeks.


lol, ruf.

A lot of it also has to do with the level of control that the broadcasters and content providers can exert with digital signals.

Think DRM.

One TV is analog, the main one is HD, but doesn't have an internal converter (we use a rocking Samsung HD converter).


The analog spectrum was very wasteful (as far as info available). The digital spectrum is MUCH more efficient, which opens lots of bands for emergency information and new informations technology. They're also going to be putting more specialized stuff over the air (there's already all news and all weather and all music, but they could add education, internet, Google type software to give that information to those who don't have/want a computer, very high quality info for storms/hurricanes/etc so people know exactly where there's danger and not).

It has the opportunity to be an exceptionally valuable source of info for anyone for free, but it'll probably fall flat on it's face with legislation.

It was, something like $15 billion taken in, and $1-2 billion of that used to fund the converter coupons (yes, they were actually free, not paid for with taxpayer money as so many people claimed).

I've been affected by the incessant and constant advertisements about it. How many times do they have to tell people? You would figure a million times would be enough but apparently not.

Still waiting on my coupons that I requested several weeks ago. The rural area where I live, does not have cable. Sure I could get satellite, but the antenna signal is free and we get ABC, NBC, local Fox and PBS with it. If I had the plethora of programming available on cable or satellite, I fear my projects/hobbies would grind to a halt.

Yep, I'm tired of hearing about it and having tess to see if the TV will work.

I was thinking of going without cable and just getting my information/entertainment from the Web.


Think about it:

Your local news channels have pages that are updated on the hour or at least every few hours. The national news is easily found on AOL.

Most TV shows or at least what I want to watch is available the Web.

And the porn? Fuhgetaboutit.:D

Really, do we need cable TV anymore?

Tim. we have coupons we won't need. Let me know if you want them.SmileWavy

EDIT::: Sorry, I should have checked with my wife first. She has already donated them.

I gotta learn.

espn

We're a 100% OTA household. So far we have one HDTV in the den, and one converter box for the bedroom. The room-over (kid's room) is still analog.

I'm trying to decide which to buy.

• A 19" LCD for the bedroom, and move the box upstairs
• A 32" LCD upstairs, and leave the converter box in the bedroom.

Oddly, I'm thinking of leaving the analog upstairs. That way the off-spring units have to spend a bit more time with their origination-units....

ESPN doesn't have anything I care to watch. I'm not much into sports unless it involves cars.

One of the news tidbits on first day at CES 10 days ago was that the US gov't is considering a delay in the analog shut-off due to the lack of coupons or money or some nonsense.

Ian

Mine took many weeks to get to me. It was like a week longer than what they said. I dont remember the exact number of weeks since that was a few months ago.

Naw, you'd get bored pretty quickly. 100 channels of garbage is pretty much like 4 or 5 channels of garbage.

Got my converter box. No, I'm not waiting around for the coupon from our broke-ass federal government to show up. I don't care - I just paid the 50 bucks. At least this way I can get the networks' ****ty programming without having to have the salt rubbed in the wound of having to pay a monthly fee for it.

Here- this should clear it up for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w34nNux4Xw

Thank you for the informative response.