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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."
Hmmm, my programming source still seems to be up.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
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.
This is designed to get people off of their couch and out shopping!
As I have said time and time again, this has been a gigantic clusterfuck of enormous proportions.
1. 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.
2. When the TV was moved to digital, it should have been better than what was offered before. Yes, the quality is better (when you can receive the signal) but most of the time (even with good equipment) the signal doesn't come in, you lose channels, and they randomly drop audio and video. At least with the old way, if it came in most of the way, I could still see and hear what was going on.
3. 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. If you are seriously going to tell me that because I now have access to more channels, most of which rarely come in well after spending $20 on a box and $20+ more on rabbit ears or $40+ on a "HD" antenna, then you're wrong.
Boo on digital TV.
Frankly, I see something like this - the disruption of TV - as one of very few events that could get people off their butts to do something about their government. Spy on their phone calls? Eh... Take away their American Idol? Riot in the streets.
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
Turn off your phones. Grandma is calling.
Honey, signal's out. Could ya give the betamax a kick?
If grandma hasn't upgraded the old Philco black & white by now, she probably never will (until forced). As for the coupons, there was no reason they couldn't have extended the coupon program but still kept the original timeline.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"Across the country" Which country? My analog TV here in the UK is still working fine.
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.
Think five months for the transition is causing confusion? Try five years: the UK is in the process of doing exactly that. It started in 2007 and will not finish until 2012. In addition another, incompatible, type of digital TV will start to be rolled out from next year at the same time.
If you do not get your broadcasts over the air (ie you use cable, satellite, U-verse, Verizon, etc.), you are unaffected, period. If you have a television that has a decimal point or a hyphen on your remote in the numbers area (on the remote that came with the TV), you are fine. In this case, you may need to start entering stations in other ways, such as 11.1 as opposed to 11. The ONLY time you need to get a converter box is if you have an analog-only tuner in your television, as most 4:3 tube televisions have, AND you receive your television via antenna.
I'm in a spot were I'm at least 20 miles from any TV broadcast so nothing really comes in well - lots of the blocking, no sound and many times the "no signal" floating box. Oh, my microwave disrupts the TV signal.
20 miles and you don't get a signal? You either have no concept of distance or you don't actually have an antenna.
You stations may not be broadcasting full power yet. I believe they can go full power after today, or possibly that was delayed with the (optional) analog shutoff delay too.
(I think they may also change frequencies, but that's all automagically handled by the tuner.)
I don't know...the rate of people who abruptly stop watching TV the day they die is alarmingly high. I'm not ready to take that risk.
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Just as well.There isn't much good on TV these days anyway. Even the PBS stuff is getting kind of shitty - they take an hour to show and explain things that can be done in 10 minutes. Also, some of the nature shows are so depressing: shows loss of habitat, people in Third World countries who believe that Tiger Penis soup will give them a hard-on (when it's their cigarette smoking causing their impotence), catching and slicing off shark fins and throwing the poor things back in the water, poisoning reefs to catch stuff for Western reef aquariums, etc... all stuff that I can't do a damn thing about.
If people haven't heard what to do then they're not watching enough tv. They've had plenty of test blackouts scheduled with numbers to call if they are not receiving a digital signal.
My 90 year old grandmother was ready 6 months ago. She watches the least amount of TV of anybody I know. I really don't think it's old people that aren't setup.
But also
Confusion. Uncertainty. Who reigns, and who is merely the figurehead, its strings pulled by the other?
Personally, I vote (yeah right, as though we get to vote on this) for Confusion to reign. It evokes images of people running around with their hands up in the air, yelling hysterically. A Reign of Uncertainly merely makes me think of people grimacing, with their eyes darting back and forth.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
You sure the waste of money isn't that he is running a 50-inch rss-reader in his living room?
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.
Me thinks we will either have either a surge in domestic violence rates or a surge in birth rates as a result of this switchover. When you think about, TV is probably the most effective birth control device known to man... all the countries with high per-capita television ownership also have low birth rates.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Who with any perceptive acuity and fundamental understanding of economics thought that everyone would pay more to continue to see free television? Especially when the recession train was in sight?
The Congress and FCC? Well, there you go.
Over 12 months of wall-to-wall "PLEASE UPGRADE YOUR TELEVISION BY FEBRUARY 17, 2009!" covering the entire bottom of my screen.
If you haven't seen that by now and made plans you deserve to have your TV dropped on your head.
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.
After this wonder demonstration of government incompetence I say let us let them manage our Health Care and Health Care records!
At least we know they are demonstrably bad at most of what they do, so we won't have higher than normal expectations.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Here's a thought, when you make a plan...stick to it.
The few people who aren't ready for the digital conversion now will likely fail to be ready by June.
I agree... I'm so tired of the "old people don't know what's going on...." canard. My grandmother has asked me about it and knew it was coming, and she doesn't even OWN a TV.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
OMG incompetent guvmunt can't do nuthin right, right?
I'm so sick of this argument, especially as it relates to health care. We pay more and get less in return than the citizens in dozens of other countries. The difference? People in other countries ceded some and varying levels of control of health care -- a basic human necessity -- to an entity without a profit motive.
No amount of anecdotal "waiting lists" or complaints about phantom lawsuits driving up costs can change the objective fact, which is that we're being ripped off by the existing private system. It has failed to expand the reach of care, to control costs or to improve the health of the nation. Yet we continue to fall for idiotic "government can't do anything right" arguments despite all the real-world examples of governments that are succeeding in keeping their populations healthy while spending less per capita.
Finance has crashed, housing has crashed, oil is crashing, retail is crashing, now here begins the media. Maybe now I can get some peace and quiet.
Wapner. 12 minutes to Wapner. Must watch Wapner. People's Court. Eight minutes to Wapner. - We got eight minutes to Wapner.
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!
I don't think there's anyone who believes you need HDTV for digital.
I do think there are a fair number of guys who've told their wives this, to justify the HDTV that they'll be watching the NFL, NBA, MLB on in the coming years.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Because it affects our most isolated and vulnerable populations. the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.
Look around you.
Find out where these people live.
How these people live.
Four hours spent on a rural bus run can be very educational.
The third-rate nursing homes.
The group homes and apartments built on barren agricultural lots five miles from the nearest traffic light.
The tenant houses and run-down trailer parks you never gave a thought to.
$90 a month as a personal allowance.
Out of which will come your co-pays for therapy and drugs and blood work.
Capped at perhaps $300/yr.
Life-Line phone service at 10 cents a minute.
Some stations have the option to go back to their old channel as a digital station. That means that these stations will be giving up their second channel that they have been using as their digital channel. Here in the Los Angeles area the following channels will go back to their original channel. 7, 9, 11, 13, 18, 28 & 34. The rest will remain on their second channel while their analog channel goes dark. I should call some of the stations like channel 5 to see if they will be changing their logo, since their second channel that they have been using is 31.
Make sure that when the big transition day comes, that you perform a channel scan on your TV or converter box. That way you will be able to view the channels that have made the change.
Channels assigned for Los Angeles:
7, 9, 11, 13, *28, 31, 34, 36, *41, 42, 43
Here are some documents to look at from the FCC.
DTV Assignments
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A1.pdf
DTV Assignments Appendix B
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A2.pdf