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Senate Passes Another Bill To Delay Digital TV Transition
An anonymous reader tips news that the US Senate has passed another bill to delay the transition to digital TV. This is the second such bill to pass the Senate; the first was narrowly defeated in the House. The new version has an important difference — it would allow the transition to take place gradually over the four-month period between the original transition date (February 17th) and the extended date (June 12th). TV stations around the country could choose when they wanted to make the change, allowing those who have already begun plans to stop analog transmission to continue their shut-down operations.
There should be No digital TV conversion ever... Total techno-blasphemy for me to say this in SlashdotLand, but it is never-the-less true.
The 20th-century is over. This means that the idea that there is always going to be a new exciting technical innovation that should be implemented as soon as possible is outdated. We need to keep the technology that works, regardless of how old or inefficient that it is.
The 21st-century, which we are on the verge of entering, will be categorized by rapid transformation in some technical areas and very slow change in other areas. Analog TV works. It reaches everyone. It is the only mass medium that reaches everyone. It should not be abandoned in order to give the spectrum away to various corporations. These are public airwaves; public spectrum.
I am beginning to suspect that the conversion to digital TV from NTSC will never happen. As the economy continues to collapse and more ethnic groups and larger numbers of people enter the poverty class, it will become less likely that the government will allow this transformation to occur. In June the deadline for conversion will be pushed back again. Eventually the Digital TV conversion, like the space program, will be abandoned and forgotten.
Except among the Slashdot crowd. Don't mod me down to minus a million for saying this. Respect free speech that includes opinions that differ from yours. This is what makes the USA great, not its technology.