[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

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?

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.