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Confusion Reigns As Analog TV Begins Shutdown
As TV stations across the country switch off their analog signals, uncertainty reigns. Some 691 stations will have converted to digital broadcasting by midnight tonight (some interpreted the mandate as going digital by Feb. 17, not during Feb. 17, and shut down yesterday). This represents about a third of TV broadcasters nationwide. No one can say how many of the estimated 5.8 million households unready for the transition are in areas served by the stations that are switching now. The FCC added to the uncertainty by imposing extra conditions, making it unclear until last Friday exactly which stations would be switching at the beginning of the transition period. The article quotes a former analyst at Barclays Capital who said the whole process has been "botched politically."
If you've never read it, go read "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster. It was published 100 years ago and still remains remarkably relevant and prescient. ..bruce..
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
But how will they know what to buy?
But, most people don't have money to buy anything....
I do, however. I was at Sam's club the other day, and surprised to see one of the latest Samsung 52" LCD 120hz flatscreen tv's for like $1789 or thereabouts. Wow..that looked nice, and I need a nice tv for my bedroom. I'll hook it to my mythtv box I'm rebuilding.
Hey..speaking of mythtv, I've got a question. I'm currently renting, and wanting to go do the mythtv client server route in the house. I was at this point (renting) hoping to avoid running cat5 all over the place. Can wireless work fast enough now for a myth client server system? For HD content? I've got my server with a HDHomerun pulling QAM off the cable, and ATSC over the air...
I've been seeing dual channel wireless stations going for about $100...not sure what the cards cost. Would this be fast enough to stream content throughout the house? Do any of the dual channel cards work well with current linux drivers?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I can't be the only one who just bought a DLP projector, hooked it up to an old computer, and configured it to boot to Hulu.com. With a bluetooth mouse, that's video on demand and zero need to get over-the-air broadcasts.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The American public should have received a check (not a tax credit, not a credit card looking coupon, etc) for the total sale of the spectrum divided by every single citizen of this nation.
How about NO, it costs a hell of a lot of money to print and distribute checks, better they just not charge me as much or give me more back on my rebate check. The cost of the 2008 rebate checks was $84M, personally I'd rather they save that cost and use the money to feed more poor kids or something.
This was all unnecessary anyway. I don't care about opening up spectrum for other services when I am not directly benefiting in any way, shape or form by the change over.
How about if your life gets save because first responders are able to talk to one another, is that good enough for you?
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
I've tried a N router with a 2x2 link, in the 130mbps reported connection speed, and I still got random stutter with 1080p content, but not with 720p. It might have been environmental issues reducing the bandwidth available, but it's not acceptable anyway.
I ran 22 gb lines through my house :)
After that, they put up the old Indian Head test pattern and audio tone for a couple of minutes. At the stroke of midnight, it cut to static. It was just like nightly sign-offs when I was a little kid, and it almost made me misty-eyed.
The one that went out this afternoon showed a bunch of snippets from the past 50 years, then they showed a live coverage of one of their engineers out in the transmitter shack pushing the "OFF" button. The instant cut to static was good for a laugh.
1. $13 billion in revenue; that would be around $100 per household. Not a huge amount, but not insignificant.
2. Yes, YMMV. I get some channels with amazing reception now, and others are now unwatchable. Overall, I would rather have stayed with analog.
Forgetting about the elderly?
Also, the MythVideo plugin *does* not stream, so you have to share (via SMB or NFS) the directory between the Front and Back ends... This makes those sort of files play too slowly as well.
Pete/Petri "damn, my chainsaw is clogged with 1's and 0's again." --clyde
According to the spreadsheet that was compiled it looks like most or all their stations said "screw it" and converted en masse. Where I am, only a couple rerun stations went for it.
And the use of 8VSB modulation means that stations *theoretically* can cover more distance with less power than COFDM, but it also means moving receivers are out of the question
ATSC-M/H has been developed to allow existing ATSC (8VSB) stations to also deliver signals to moving receivers (M/H means mobile/handheld). It basically throws a ton of FEC on the low-bitrate M/H signal.
Exactly. I took about $300, built a mythtv box, and signed up for netflix..
Ongoing costs for netflix: ~$108 a year.
So far there's nothing I've wanted to watch I can't get OTA, on Hulu, or on Netflix. And I get to watch it when it's convenient for me... Less money, more convenience.. Not bad IMHO.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
Colorado PBS affiliate KBDI can't delay. Their analog transmitting antenna was badly damaged, and it's not worth the cost to fix it for a few more months' service even if they had the money (and like most PBS stations, they don't have much to spend). Besides that, repairs on that mountain really should wait until the weather improves--which isn't likely until May. Such is life when the antenna is at 11,500 feet!
Why the heck are we getting a story posted on this almost daily? Who cares? I've read the threads, and it's not a big deal. Anyone with half a brain will be fine. Anyone else, well, maybe there are survival of the fittest selection standards still hitting us, on occasion. I don't see that as a bad thing.
Wrong. EVERYONE without exception will be fine. TV is not a life critical resource. It's not like they are upgrading the electricity and if you don't have the converter box yet then you might freeze to death tonight. This is the boob tube. We're talking about Survivor, Wheel of Fortune, and daytime soap operas.
I'd say that the people most likely to thrive are those that don't bother with the so called "upgrade" and give up TV altogether. I'm one of those households that they are saying is "unprepared." I haven't bought a converter, I wouldn't get one if they were giving them away. I feel like I am perfectly well prepared.
I'm repeatedly surprised at how cronic TV junkies are so boring to talk to. Worse, how they are so afraid that they'll be murdered, kidnapped, or attacked by terrorists if they go out their front door.
Give it up! It's rotting your brain! This is the perfect opportunity. Shred your converter box coupon and read a book to your kids.
-- QED