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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?"
Senate wants to allow procrastinators to procrastinate even longer, House doesn't.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Thomas says this is a rule suspension vote. It takes a 2/3 vote to suspend the rules and pass a bill. Usually this is reserved for bills that are not very controversial and have broad support.
This failure just means that the bill will have to go to the rules committee. After a rule is passed and the bill is brought up under that rule, a simple majority is all that is needed to pass the bill.
This is just a very small bump in the road to extend the deadline.
In the Houston Chronicle this morning there was an interesting blurb about the delay. Basically, the networks want to delay the switch-over because they don't want it to happen in the middle of the season. They are afraid of losing viewers (and thus advertising dollars) from people who aren't ready for DTV. They'd rather wait until spring/summer when they are airing re-runs.
One Subject at a Time Act by Downsize DC would prevent that!
Call your Congresspeople and tell them to support it!
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
I say pass a bil that requires ALL analog transmitters to stay online for 1 month.
Broadcasting a red screen with "If you did not expect this, YOU ARE STUPID!" on it in flashing black letters.
Most cool Japanese products never get here because they are convinced we are really dumb and could not understand them. And honestly I'm starting to understand why they feel that way.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'd support this except for a few key issues (you clearly haven't thought this out):
1) Reds in NTSC are either illegal (out of gamut) or very close to black (bad for black and white sets)
2) solid color borders and constant flashing cause bandwidth issues to crop up, making the content illegible
3) Part of the issue with delaying the shut-off is that MANY full-power TV transmitters are on their last legs and new parts are unavailable.
4) You don't need the "If you did not expect this, " part.
5) You are stupid.
Video Production Support
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
Well, how will the children ever learn how to properly manage debt if we don't give them any debt to practice with?
They are in Hawaii, why would they be watching TV?
I got fucked by this crappy legislation.
How come you feel that the government owes you a converter box in the first place? You don't have to watch TV. (In fact, I don't know why anyone would want to, but that's a separate issue.) Watching TV is not necessary for your well-being. You obviously have a computer, or access to one, so you can get your news off the internet, or that old-fashioned thing called "radio". (NPR actually does a pretty good job of reporting the news ever since the Republicans spanked them back in the 80s).
So, why does the government owe you a converter? If it weren't for the government, TV programs would have been exclusively digital before this. Maybe you have good reasons, and I'm missing something, but I'd like to hear what they are.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
This transition only affects over-the-air broadcasts! If Cox is pulling your analog then it's a pure coincidence.
If you have a CATV-compatible television (and it's been a very long time since anything other than that was manufactured), then you, the cable-TV subscriber, will be fine, even without a digital receiver box.
The problem is that Cox, COMCAST & others have been misleading customers into thinking that they must upgrade to all-digital service, or their TVs will go dark. That's just not true.
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
Maybe this is such a hot issue because when millions of Americans wake up to a non-functional TV, in the middle of winter, with no way to keep their brains sizzling away on a diet of Oprah and Survivor, they'll actually start to think.
It will be like that WALL-E moment when the chair-dweller has her video feed disrupted and realizes "I didn't know we had a pool!"
My fellow representatives, do we really want Joe and Jane six-pack to wake up and see the pool?
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Because the government seized a public asset (the radio spectrum) and sold it to a private entity (the entertainment and telecommunications companies) and so they have some responsibility to make the public whole.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.