DTV Transition Mostly Smooth, Windows Media Center Problems

dritan writes "While most of the transition to digital seems to have gone smoothly, those who use Windows Media Center saw their screens go dark. Users are complaining that Media Center did not pick up changes to channel assignments that took place on Friday. Someone forgot to update the static channel lists distributed with the program guide. Users either have to wait for Microsoft to fix the problem, or manually edit the configuration files." Reports indicate that the FCC received upwards of 300,000 calls on Friday from consumers seeking late help with the transition, but they were prepared, with over 4,000 operators available to handle problems. The FCC's DTV website also had over 3 million hits on Friday. Both phone and Internet traffic have now tapered off, and supplies of converter boxes appear to have held out just fine.

Comments

Re:Really Cool things happened.

[crazyprogrammer]

The weird part is that there are a couple of stations still broadcasting analog and normal programming

The countless number of PSAs that aired concerning the DTV transition stated that low power stations would not be affected. Are these couple of stations you speak of major network affiliates for a large metro area or a local community college station?

It is reasonable

[ratboy666]

A bit thin skinned?

First, Microsoft has in excess of 80 to 90% of the market, and Linux is "desktop irrelevant" at 1 to 5%. Given those figures, isn't Media Center the ONLY TV application that matters? If there is a problem, it really only affects Media Center, right?

So, it's not "Microsoft Bashing". It's simple reporting. And, on a tech oriented website, I would certainly expect some tech slanted coverage.

I call BS

[DrJimbo]

IIRC, this reason for this forced transition was to get small rural communities to switch over to DTV. I live in rural New Mexico. All our signals arrive here via repeaters.

Only one out of five stations (ABC) made the transition. NBC simply went off the air (because making the transition to digital would be too expensive). PBS is also off the air but this may be becausetheir repeater got hammered in a storm.

So right now our local station, FOX, and CBS are still broadcasting in analog while ABC is only digital. The Zenith converter box I got (because it had analog pass-through) does not pass through analog signals without loss so I have to actually replug wires to switch stations.

For my little piece of rural America, this transition was about as smooth as sandpaper toilet tissue.