Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FCC Speeds Up Digital TV Signal Deadlines

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the forced-upgrades dept.

sbinning writes "The FCC, in a 4-0 vote decided that all medium-sized televisions, screens between 25 and 36 inches in diagonal, must be able to receive both digital and traditional analog signals by March 1. This is four months earlier than the commission had decreed three years ago. Now if they just mandate more intelligent programming."

7 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. I never did understand... by leeharris100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I still don't understand why the FCC feels like they need to interfere with the standards of television. Can someone please explain why this is a necessity?

    1. Re:I never did understand... by grumling · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The FCC created the 800 MHz cellular and two-way radio bands by chopping off the top of the UHF TV band.

      And the NAB (TV station lobby) is still mad about loosing that one. Even though there never were any stations on the air above channel 70, and even though the UHF stations never made a dime until cable and the Fox Network.

      Once a business gets something from the .gov (for free in exchange for "serving the public interest" whatever that means), it becomes something they are entitled to, much like welfare. I'm not so sure modern "local" television meets the FCC requirement for free bandwidth anymore, but the day the FCC charges a broadcaster for spectrum is the day we'll all need descramblers for our televsion.

      The only reason there was so much spectrum allocated in the first place was because of RCA's influence over Washington after WWII. If the broadcast stations would have allowed some flexibility in spectrum management, this mess may have been avoided.

      --
      "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    2. Re:I never did understand... by unitron · · Score: 4, Interesting
      "What I'd like to see is a transverter box of some kind that I can hang off my antenna that will shift the frequencies received back into the normal TV band and convert from digital to analog (which would technically not make it a transverter, but you get my drift). Has anyone seen anything like this on the market?"

      What you're asking for is a block converter.

      In the earlier days of cable when many if not most TVs still had rotary tuners, the cable companies put channels other than 2-13 on other VHF frequencies. The cable boxes from the cable companies generally tuned one channel at a time and shifted it to VHF channel 2, 3, or 4 so that you could set your TV to that channel and then choose channels with the cable box.

      There were aftermarket devices which shifted the cable channels up to the UHF broadcast frequencies simultaneously so that you could tune them in with your television's UHF tuner. They were called block converters because they converted a block of channels up in frequency at the same time instead of one at a time. If you put a splitter on the output you could watch two different cable channels on two different televisions at the same time without needing a cable company cable box (or paying rent on it) for either set.

      It might be possible to come up with something like that for broadcast digital channels, but don't expect anything like that for cable and satellite channels. Satellite and cable companies, especially cable companies who see "cable ready" televisions and VCRs as having cost them a fortune in lost cable box rentals, aren't going to want to surrender even that much control. The cable companies can hardly wait to go completely digital and re-use a lot of the analog frequencies for other revenue opportunities.

      So whenever you hear about how great digital is going to be for the consumer what they really mean is how greater the number of opportunities for spending money the consumer will have.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  2. Faster by mboverload · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope they also mandated them to include metadata in their broadcasts.

    If you dont know digital sets are able to recieve special content like the name of the program all off the air.

  3. What percentage does the switchover apply to? by MDMurphy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you believe the 90% number for cable/satellite homes, then only 10% get their TV over the air. I get mine via DirecTV, so a switch in the local stations won't affect my home TVs at all, just the little Sony LCD one I have. Cable TV doesn't have to switch over then either.

    So of the 10% getting their television over the air, I'd sure guess that a large percentage who aren't interested in cable or satellite also aren't buying new fancy TVs every couple of years. Their choices are probably going to be buy a new TV or switch to satellite or cable and continue to use their old TV.

    So is it only a portion of the 10% that would be affected when the big switch happens?

  4. Re:Say goodbye to $200 32" sets by stratjakt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This has nothing to do with HDTV, but standard resolution digital signals.

    I should reiterate, since /.ers don't seem to understand this. THE FCC IS NOT MANDATING OR FORCING ANYONE TO SWITCH TO HDTV.

    A digital tuner is cheaper than an analog one. Once the analog yoke is thrown completely, it should shave a few bucks off production costs, and since there's healthy competition in the field, it should translate to lower prices on the shelves.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  5. My favorite part by adminispheroid · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From the article:
    Television manufacturers and retailers supported the petition, while broadcasters opposed it.
    So what's missing here? That's right, there's apparently no interest in what consumers want.

    But we do have an option, since so far the FCC hasn't ruled that every home is required to have a TV.