Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Others Fined Over Digital TV Notices

Ian Lamont writes "The FCC has fined 11 retailers and television manufacturers for violating rules relating to the 2009 digital TV transition. Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Sears, Kmart, and Wal-Mart supposedly failed to place notices near analog-only TV sets warning customers that the sets did not have digital tuners. In part, the required notice reads: 'This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.' The fines total $6.6 million."

Comments

Just the cost of doing business

[hairyfeet]

With the money they make on cheapy tv's this is just the cost of business. Wally world still sells a ton of cheap analog 27in.

Re:Just the cost of doing business

[hymie!]

if you cost ANY company 6.6 million your ass would be fired and there would be hell to pay. RTFA. The fines (plural) total $6.6 million. The largest fine (for a merchant) was $1.1 million

Re:And will any of this $$$...

[Megane]

Actually, they did ban the manufacture, import or interstate shipment of analog-only TV sets a little over a year ago, which was two years before the analog broadcasting cutoff. That doesn't mean that there weren't six months or more of analog-only TV sets in the warehouses. And this also applies to VCRs, DVRs, and any other device which has an NTSC tuner, but no ATSC tuner.

Also, this only applies to sets with a tuner. Tuner-less sets (aka "monitors") are exempt.

Re:And will any of this $$$...

[cdrudge]

Those are UK Freeview tuners. Which are cheaper specifically because they do not receive HD. The US went for HD from the start, which costs more initially, but it also means that we won't have to toss out a bunch of electronics all over again to maybe get HD by 2012, like will happen in the UK. Some of us have been getting HD for over four years now.

DTV != HDTV. The cheap or free tuners (after coupon) are not high definition, they are only standard. The US is switching over to a digital television...which just happens to include some high definition programming.

Re:And will any of this $$$...

[BUL2294]

DTV != HDTV. The cheap or free tuners (after coupon) are not high definition, they are only standard.

You need to clarify your statement here. The converter boxes are required to down-convert all ATSC digital channels, both HDTV and SDTV , including 16x9 1080i, using an analog connection (RF, composite, or S-Video) to a TV/VCR/display. RF and composite connectors are required of all converter boxes available thru this program. S-Video connections are permitted, but anything higher than S-Video (specifically DVI, HDMI, Component, Ethernet, Firewire, and 802.11 wireless) is expressly prohibited.

Not every HDTV channel has a multiplexed SDTV version of that same channel, and requiring one would use up bandwidth, degrading the primary HDTV channel's picture mode (i.e. down from 1080i to 720p).

NTIA at the US-DOC has a very readable document listing the requirements for a CECB--a Coupon-Eligible Converter Box. It's too bad that the NTIA didn't "lock-down" the design more as CECBs will have differing feature sets (i.e. program guide, S-Video, etc.)