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Billion Dollar Handout To Upgrade TVs
db32 writes "SFGate has the story of the cutoff date for those rabbit ear antennas that some of us grew up with (Feb. 19, 2009). Now while the story of analog vs. digital TV has been beaten to death, still I think there is something more here. 'The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration... said it is setting aside $990 million to pay for the boxes. Each home can request up to two $40 coupons for a digital-to-analog converter box, which consumer electronics makers such as RCA and LG plan to produce.' Beyond my disdain for most TV to begin with, I am blown away that with all of our current problems — homelessness and crime on the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad — our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading peoples' televisions."
people who don't relize the government does more then one thing.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...compared to the money that was lost enroute to Iraq!
Seriously, the government knows that the incestuous US 'service' economy needs people to buy shit they don't need or it all collapses.
Blar.
Giving away the boxes makes perfect sense when one has all of the facts. The government wants to SELL the VHF spectrum and can't do that until they can move the current occupants out. I'd guess they will get more than a billion from selling off the spectrum so they are going to buy off the last holdouts.
Democrat delenda est
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses/
Ok, with the exception of the broadcast flag which has been struck down and not successfully resurrected, there is nothing of noteworthy DRM interest with respect to broadcast digital TV in how it compares to broadcast analog TV. The only thing people with antennas get different in broadcast TV is a signal that is perfect or *obviously* distorted. Depending on the quality of the set, the signal will most likely look better even than best-case analog signal.
I use rabbit ears (well, hoop antenna) with my Mythbox and ATSC tuner card just freaking fine and record to my hearts content (it's technically easier/cheaper to implement a perfect ATSC capture card, than a decent analog capture card, a decent analog card needs some sort of on-the-fly encoding, ATSC card just need dump the MPEG2 stream out. I don't have any problem recording TV at all.
Broadcast DTV is not DRM-encumbered at all. Cable companies enjoy a bit more DRM that is harder to break than their analog channel scrambling, but that is a moot point for ending analog broadcast TV and helping people to have the new standard accessible.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
You can still use the old rabbit ear antennas with an ATSC DTV decoder box. The digital channels are in the regular UHF band, so there's no need to get a different "omg DIGITAL!!" antenna.
The last time I saw this oft repeating story come up on /. the FCC expected to get somewhere between 8 and 10 billion dollars when they auction that spectrum. They can't auction it until analog TV signals are completely shut down and the frequencies are no longer in use by the current licensees.
If I told you I would give you $10 for a $1 bill, would you take it?
Shawn's Tech Articles
Not in Australia. The analog cut off date was put forward from 2008 because of the slow speed of switching.
DVB Tuner Boxes in the Australian Market are now available in the sub AU$50 price point. Theres little reason why they couldnt be at a similar price in the US. (Except the US standards are slightly more complex - but larger volumes should help this.)
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
Actually, the digital channels are broadcast on the same frequencies, so the antenna (Rabbit Ears) will still work.
Well, if one considers $89.00 affordable, you can buy one right now on www.newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16882107049/
How do I know? I just bought one and it came yesterday. I was able to get 15 HDTV/DTV stations without issue (basically looked like a DVD on my analog set but still pretty good). When combined with the $40 coupon that the government proposes to issue, boxes like these will be quite affordable.
While researching what was out there I also came across these other digital-to-analog converters as well:
(Microtek ZAT-600HD $299) http://store.microtek.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=2 85/
(Michley Tivax $159 New on Ebay) http://www.tivax.com/product1.htm/
Cheap D-to-A converters are starting to show up on the market, and I predict that by the time 2008 comes around they will be much more plentiful. Especially since most major cities are already broadcasting local channels in HD. I just didn't feel like waiting around for the $40 coupon. :-)
The government isn't going to sell the frequencies. They are already claimed by fire, police and other emergency response agencies across the nation as part of the Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Program. The current frequencies emergency personnel use is not capable of penetrating buildings. This was a finding of the 9-11 Commission. Also, the frequencies used by the various agencies caused all kinds of havoc such as one fire department not being able to communicate with another due to frequency range limitations. The idea is to get them all in the same range and as far as possible into a disaster zone. Katrina highlighted this same issue. So if anything, I suspect the date will be moved forward.
B.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
did you consider radio ? Sure you may not get the fancy colored maps (which are useful sometimes, I know) but most radio stations will have continuous and updated coverage of the natural emergency situation. I found radios to be reliable and if you get a shortwave, you can literally keep up with events from all over the globe from the safety of your basement.
I can't call BS on your other two examples, but I can for Italian. The USA is called "gli stati uniti", but in the four years that I lived there, I never heard an Italian call us anything but "Americani".
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
I just sent an email to the NTIA and my congressman... i suggest other people who think this is ridiculous do the same.
(this is offended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
The base reason for doing this is to conserve and rearrange our use of the airwave spectrum--analog TV is a very inefficient use of bandwidth. Once the conversion to DTV over the air is done, the freed spectrum will be redistributed via FCC auctions. The revenue from these auctions and licensing fees is likely to offset the cost of the TV tuner handout, probably several times over. Yes, we'll still be paying for it, but the cost will be distributed into the fees for new services, funding economic growth as they pass through the businesses providing the services. Overall this project is going to have a huge net positive effect on economic growth, more than offsetting the administrative cost of distributing the coupons.
Also a number of studies have shown that the federal government is in fact very efficient at delivering some services. The IRS is very efficient. Medicare operates with far lower administrative cost than any private insurance company. The Postal Service is far more efficient at bulk mail service than private shipping companies. Etc.
[rant]I'm sick to death of the over-hyped meme that the government is always inefficient. It's a marketing campaign by those who seek to supplant government services and profit off the greater inefficiencies. In fact for a private contractor to the government the incentive is to be as inefficient as they can get away with, because it increases their profit margins. Salaried and budgeted government workers do not have that option.[/rant]
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.