Slashdot Mirror
US House Kills Proposed Delay For Digital TV Transition
An anonymous reader writes "The Digital TV transition delay bill has failed to pass the United States House of Representatives. By a vote 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date, the bill has failed as two-thirds of the votes are required for it to pass. The delay bill was once perceived as inevitable, [but the House] has now apparently made February 17th the date of transition once again. Now the question remains, will they attempt to pass it again by the deadline?"
well, they do ahve that problem of trying to figure out how to get away with stealing a(nother) trillion dollars from the taxpayers ... for the children will be the eventual justification, of course
But not communicated clearly.
For over the air you need the converter.
For dish (and the others), you are already set.
For FIOS, I believe you are set.
For those on cable it is different.
If you already use a digital cable box, you are set.
If you use cable but no box, your TV is the tuner you have to look at the age of your TV.
If that TV was made in 2004 or is newer (it might be 2002 I got to go look again) you are fine since federal law required that TV to have a digital tuner in it.
If you have an older TV and are using cable you may still need the converter. Cox cable has not been clear as to weather I will need a converter box or a new TV. Some say they will continue sending analog signals over the cable wire while some say they will only send digital signals over the cable wire. I have called 4 times 2 one way 2 the other. My computer is doing the recording so that is fine either way. I would like a straight answer as to if I need to replace/get a converter for my TV (it is from 1996 so no digital tuner in it) or not.
Seriously, I don't get why the FCC even decided to mandate a transition to digital. Let the free market do it, if theres enough people who want pure analog TV let them, if theres some that want digital let them broadcast in that. The sane thing is for the FCC to not "sell" public airwaves only to keep a registration of who is using which ones so theres no interference.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.