US Switch To DTV Countdown Begins

s31523 writes "In February lawmakers postponed the switch from analog to digital TV. Now, the new June 12th deadline is upon us with no sign of another delay. CNET is reporting that the President himself has stated, '... I want to be clear: there will not be another delay.' So it looks like it is going to happen, for real this time. Even with the delay, there are still estimated to be millions of unprepared viewers. Local stations may participate in the voluntary 'Analog nightlight' services in which TV stations agree to keep an analog signal turned on in addition to their digital signals to provide information about the DTV transition and to notify unprepared TV viewers of emergencies, such as hurricanes."

Comments

I have already faced my worst nightmare

[elrous0]

I'm not afraid of the switch tomorrow. I've already spent the last few months getting repeated phone calls from my grandma complaining about the funny new box we put on her TV so she can still get her damn Judge Judy.

The last one was the best. Grandma called up and informed me that her new remote was broken. So I called my cousin, who drives over to her house and finds that the "broken" remote is the result of grandma having put a fucking doily on top of the box (blocking its IR receiver). I shit you not.

I love my HDTV. But it's a demanding love.

Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare

[CastrTroy]

There's tons of people who are going to be cut off because of this. Analog TV has much better range than Digital TV, and has much better tolerances with a bad signal. Think about when there's bad weather with your satellite dish. The picture is either there, or it's completely gone. With analog, you get varying degrees of static depending on how bad the signal is, but when there's bad weather, like hurricanes or blizzards, you can make out some of what's going on to get the news.

Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare

[DaGoatSpanka]

During a hurricane or blizzard, turn on the radio if you can't get TV signal. A hurricane will more than likely kill power and my TV doesn't take batteries like my radio!

Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare

[DigitalSorceress]

During a weather emergency, the TV not the first place I go for relevant information. Noaa.gov, weather.com, and/or a local AM "News and weather station" are my collective first choice.

However, I do know what you mean. If someone really is relying on the TV during really bad weather, analog would probably be more fault-tolerant.

Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare

[Ron Bennett]

The pixellation / loss of DTV video is inconvenient, but the loss / breakup of the audio is downright annoying.

It's a shame there's a lack of redundency for the audio channel in the ATSC standard to reduce the "cliff effect" on the audio portion.

NTSC for all its faults, and it has many, degrades gracefully and remains somewhat usable well out into fringe areas.

On a related topic, the U.S. version of DTV results in a noticeable delay to change channels / reacquire signal.

Ron

Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare

[westlake]

Analog TV has much better range than Digital TV, and has much better tolerances with a bad signal.

The short and simple solution to this problem is to do what your Grandad did in 1950 and his Grandad in 1925:

You spring for a good external antenna - and you install it by-the-book.

seriously...

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone hasn't figured out they need to pick up a DTV tuner, and gone out and obtained one by now, but they can sit there and watch the static. There has been AMPLE warning that this was coming, so even stupidity and laziness wont cut it for an excuse.

Re:seriously...

[tttonyyy]

If someone hasn't figured out they need to pick up a DTV tuner, and gone out and obtained one by now, but they can sit there and watch the static. There has been AMPLE warning that this was coming, so even stupidity and laziness wont cut it for an excuse.

I work for a company the supplies a large proportion of the world with digital content distribution equipment (as a s/w engineer, it's a rather cool job - quite a lot of what people watch/hear has been touched (not necessarily in a good way ;) ) by my code).

Your observation is easy to say from the viewpoint of someone technologically aware - but you have to recognise there are plenty of people that just "don't get it" because even a basic level of technology is more than they want to get to grips with. These people don't understand how cordless phones work, and have little interest in internet connectivity. The whole digital television thing is a blur. But, they are happy like that; the digital switch over is just an annoyance they don't understand.

I don't think that makes them lazy or stupid - its just a different set of life values that people in our demographic don't understand.

Maybe one day our kid's kid's will be complaining about how we haven't had our brains flash frozen for inclusion in the AI singularity grid. Don't we know organic matter will be obsolete in a couple of years? :)

Thankfully until then the progress that I do understand pays the mortgage - and I hope the numerous beers don't dull my excitement over new technology - though as I get older, I feel that certain inevitability that it will. Maybe one day we'll be left watching the static too...

Re:We're Doing this for You ... r Money

[CastrTroy]

No matter how much they try, the US can't mandate anything to do with the internet, because it doesn't own the internet. You can tell everybody in the US to switch to IPV6, but that isn't going to make everyone else in the world immediately comply. Same as a shutting down internet gambling. You can shut down the US based ones, but you can't shut down offshore ones.

The delay was unnecessary

[theurge14]

The only way to get the masses to switch is to force it upon them. Hence the continuing popularity of Windows XP.