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Senate Approves 4-Month Delay In Digital TV Switch
DJRumpy sends word that the US Senate has voted to delay the switch to digital TV until June. "The transition date would move to June 12 from February 17 under the bill that was fueled by worries that viewers are not technically ready for the Congressionally mandated switch-over. It would also allow consumers with expired coupons, available from the government to offset the cost of a $40 converter box, to request new coupons. The government ran out of coupons earlier this month, and about 2.5 million Americans are on a waiting list for them."
And then it'll be December 17.
Seriously, I don't think this is that big of a deal.
Just make the switch and stop those annoying commercials.
This a bad move by an equally mismanaged program. They say that there was not enough funding for the demand for coupons, but then the number of coupons exceeds the estimate of TVs receiving through broadcast signals. Most of those boxes are now for sale on eBay. And this does not even touch on the lobbying from the cable industry and other vested $$$ interests. Bad move.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I'm not talking about the "will delaying the transition allow everybody who has been ignoring the constant barrage of ads to ignore them some more" debate. February 17 is (soon to be "was") a date all broadcasters must stop BY. It doesn't mean you have (had) to stop ON that date. A local broadcaster actually just turned off their analog tower yesterday.
I'm wondering if many broadcasters will just choose to switch over on the 17th anyway, as the ball is already rolling, so to speak. It'd probably cost them a decent amount of money and wasted resources not to go ahead with the original plan.
(I could be wrong; there could be wording in the bill forcing broadcasters to wait off.)
Seriously, if you're watching TV and your color TV suddenly is B&W on every channel, and so is your buddy's, even the clueless idiot is going to drag his ass to the TV asile of walmart and start asking questions. You still get TV, and HDTV is avalible, but SDTV is black and white which will prompt people to go to the store and at least consider a HD tuner.
moox. for a new generation.
The cable companies have been using the February switchover as subterfuge for their own plans.
For about a year, Comcast have been advertising that their customers can "keep on watching their favorite shows" after the switch with no changes needed. Very recently, the wording of their ads changed. Now all they say is that if you use their set-top-box, then you're covered.
I decided to call them and ask for the real answer.
Me: I see that you've changed the wording in your ads. Will my service change in February?
Comcast: blah blah blah blah affected blah blah.
Me: Would you please repeat that?
Comcast: blah blah blah blah affected blah blah.
Me: Wait. Will I be affected, or will I not be affected?
Comcast: You will be affected.
Me: How?
Comcast: You will lose some channels.
Me: Really! Which ones?
Comcast: We don't know yet.
Me: Well, how many channels will I lose?
Comcast: Between 7 and 10.
Me: I see. For a year you've been lying to us and you still won't tell us the truth. By the way, why does the Comcast have to change anything?
Comcast: We don't. The timing is coincidental.
Me: Fuck you!
I'm on the fence on this.
I'm on the fence about whether or not the change is worthwhile -- by all accounts the digital transmissions have worse reception and worse issues with multipath -- but if we accept that it's worthwhile it seems to me that we should stop stonewalling the change. Just get it over with already. Or cancel it and tell Verizon and AT&T to go pound sand (like they were ever gonna give us a third pipe anyway). Either way make a decision already.
They could delay it for 10 more years and there'd still be people out there that have no clue until the TV stops working and a big graphic comes on that explains why it stopped working.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The media is scared shitless that millions of households won't have converter boxes installed by the Feb. date, which, coincidentally, is during one of the "sweeps weeks" for broadcasters. Millions of eyeballs not able to watch tv will mean several millions in lost advertising revenue in a time when tv is already showing declining viewership among the more coveted demographics. Broadcasters prefer putting off the deadline till the beginning of summer when most everything on tv are reruns and viewership is at its lowest.
Obligatory Wikipedia page explaining this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
one problem right now is many DTV signals are not being transmitted at their final full power because they are being sent from temporary transmitters and in many cases on different frequencies than then their final assignment. the stations will switch transmitters and frequencies when the switchover is made.So looking at DTV today does not necessarily tell what the signal will look like after the changeover.
It is worthwhile. For this one reason. Gigawatts.
Using data from the FCC, http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/tvq.html I calculated the sum total effective radiated power of all TV stations in the US.
Total for ATV: 3.6 GW
Total for DTV: 1.5 GW
Savings before you factor in transmitter efficiencies: 2.1 GW.
I have no idea what the real efficiency of a TV transmitter is, but if it were 80% input to ERP you get about 4.5 GW of energy used to keep running ATV.
Over the 115 day extension that's 12.3 Terawatt-hours.
Over the 115 day extension that's 12.3 Terawatt-hours.
What's that in burning-libraries-of-congress?
C'mon man, use STANDARDS.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Horse shit, there is no fence. These assholes (government, network TV, viewers) have had four years to get ready for this. Anyone dragging their feet over a $49US converter box is just a lazy shit-bum. Remember folks, TV is a luxury item that you don't need. It shouldn't be subsidized. If you want to continue watching it, get a converter. Simple as that. You've all had ample time to get the converter. The fact that 2.5 million people are on the waiting list tells me that there are 2.5 million lazy sons-of-bitches that will NEVER get with the program as long as there are delays. Remember when Al Gore said we had ten years to fix global warming? These same fuckers are waiting for the government delay on that too.
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