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.

Got my coupons for the converter boxes, but most of the stores around me didn't have any in stock (this was last summer) by the time the stores received the converter boxes, the coupons had expired. No what kind of lame brain bureaucrat would put an expiration date on coupons? I tried asking for new coupons, but the same bureaucrat informed me that they had already sent 4 coupons to my address. They can have it in their computer that 4 coupons were sent to my address, but they don't have it in their computer if these coupons were ever redeemed. Circuit City will have a liquidation sale on their remaining DTV, time to buy a new TV.

Anyone want a 25" 25y.o. NEC Color TV? Local Pickup Only. Will not ship.

Why is it the federal government's responsibility to give people coupons? I say get with the program or do without. I personally don't feel like "sponsoring" people who don't want to do what it takes to get digital TV.

Why should I have to pay to get you TV? If you want it, pay for it. If you do not, then you do without.
Either way I don't care as long as I don't have to watch my taxes pay for something you could pay for but don't want to.

I don't ask anyone else to pay for my stuff, evidently you don't feel the same way.
I bet the same people standing in line to get something free from the government are the same ones who complain about high taxes.
Shame on you.
Look yourself in the mirror tonight and see if you are proud of yourself. I wasn't raised that way. Man up and stand on your own two feet.
If you can't do that much, at least be man enough to admit you are part of the problem.

+1 Sammy...if I had my way around here, the TV would be gone. But, I suppose Cindy's right when she says that would be selfish on my part.

Because it was the Federal Government that pass a law that analog tv will no longer exist.

I'm sure if analog was allowed to exist we will not be having this discussion.

Digital TV has a narrower bandwidth so more station can be place in the same bandwidth that analog TV occupied. Why is the government concern with bandwidth? Because they can sell bandwidth to more TV stations, or charge a TV station for additional channels. Example ABC TV is now broadcast on 4 channel right now, analog, Digital Channel 1, Digital Channel 2, and Digital Channel 3.

He's the people I was talking about.

Could you try to clarify exactly what you find wrong with this situation?

Is it that YOU payed for THEIR TV viewing? You didn't, I thought I had made that clear in my earlier post.

Is it that YOU think that THEY (meaning, people without digital TVs) must be poor and stupid, and are not worthy of TV? Maybe that they're lazy and shouldn't be watching TV? Are you aware that the reason TV and radio are still free is because they are a primary source of information for people? They tell people when a storm is coming, when and where to evacuate, how to get help after a storm. Do you think that people without digital TVs should not be allowed to get such info?

Is it that you think the feds are doing this for some tinfoil purpose? That doesn't even qualify for a response.

Come on, tell us exactly what pisses you off about this. Then tell all of those old people, poor people, people who don't want to pay an extra $400 just to watch free TV that YOU think they should just STFU and spend lots of money on a new TV.

No, it was to clear up the interference that was occurring with emergency transmissions, FAA transmissions, radio telescopes, all sorts of things. The 4 channels of ABC is taking up less bandwidth than the 1 channel did before, so how are they kowtowing to the stations?

Let's all pretend that the FCC gave in to the stations, by duress, to give them whatever they wanted. Do you really think there would be ANY free TV then? People now regularly pay lots and lots of money to watch TV and listen to the radio, things that should be free. So, why would ANY station want to keep their stuff free, when they could easily force EVERYONE to pay?

Well, I'm old...not rich, but not poor either. I just think all TV is krap...like I posted above, if I lived alone, there wouldn't be one in my house. I do like cable broadband internet...

Hey, more power to ya. But...how would you feel if your government or your neighbors told you that you HAD to pay money to watch TV from now on?

You'd be pissed. Therefore, when the feds realized that they were essentially going to say that, they instead found a way to fund the coupons, without ANY taxpayer money (none, zero, zilch), because they didn't want to say that to you.

Hey, I'm pissed because the government said I HAD to go digital. But now that the "follow the money" has been explained, I realize the congressional greed behind it.

The coupons are being funded from a small part of the billions generated by auctioning the bandwidth to be freed up when analog TV ends.

I read 10MM Americans still use analog broadcast TV and have TVs too old to receive digital broadcast.

So, how about rural areas...do the converter boxes with antennas work wayyy out there as well as the old roof antennas did with analog?

No. That's another problem.

Toss an amp on them, and spend extra time aligning them, and they'll work fine, but if you're too far away, they'll need help.

Rural folks are too stupid to deserve TV anyways

I think one of the earlier posts cited "progress". Others have cited the need to free up bandwidth. You'll never get it, will you?

I got it...Congress "needed" to free up bandwidth so Government could rake in mucho dinero...That's not hard to understand. Just Congress doing what it does best...

Went full HDTV when we moved to Houston. I gave my 36" to the inlaws in Mexico. Remember, the change-over was supposed to be in 2006.

We could have not let them have that extra free $15 billion.


OK, to be honest, it wasn't "free", it was payed voluntarily by private companies that want to exploit the extra bandwidth.

Maybe it will be used for something you're interested in or need. Such as hologram machines so you can pretend it's still 1975. :D

TV make money from advertising dollars same as any other media. The more people watch, the more they can charge for advertising. Take the super bowl. The cost to advertise on the super bowl is huge because they have a large audience.

The digital channels are better for sure. So it's not all just hype.

I do wonder though about the wisdom behind this "coupon program". Every single converter box I've seen (and I looked in three different stores) was "Made in China. So who's really making the money off our federal government (translation: our tax dollars) here? Seems like a thinly-veiled handout of taxpayer money to the Chinese to me.

A US-govt mandated change requiring a device that the US govt is paying for? Should have put a stipulation of "Made in the USA" on that there bubba.

We're on cable, but I ordered the coupons so I could get a converter for a spare 13-incher if I want to set it up in the garage or spare room.

BTW, it's not a coupon. It's a plastic card like a credit card... there's even a hologram-ish seal on it. Why they needed to go to that much trouble and expense is a mystery to me.

We don't have any newer LCD TV's... so all our sets are in the 4:3 aspect ratio... largest screen is a 27" G.E. After the changeover, is the digital signal gonna show up on these screens in 16:9 with the black bar at the top and bottom?

I don't mind that at all... and prefer it when watching movies... just curious.