US Switch To DTV Countdown Begins 293
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."
I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Digital change over (Score:3, Insightful)
I take it you and none of your peers use wireless?
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)
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:greedy (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought there were a bunch of coupons given out to get it for practically free?
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
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:We're Doing this for You ... r Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)
The delay was unnecessary (Score:5, Insightful)
The only way to get the masses to switch is to force it upon them. Hence the continuing popularity of Windows XP.
Only lost one (Score:3, Insightful)
in austin, I have only lost one station in the transition, a spanish language channel that was very weak in analog. I get 6 digitals. (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, WB & PBS). The nice thing for me is one of the stations broadcasts weather on a 2nd channel, so I get a radar 24/7, which lets me see where it is raining. For me, its all a plus to switch to digital. Much cleaner signal and HD. the only negative has been slower channel surfing since signal acquisition is slower. This is all with indoor rabbit ears (like 12 bucks).
Re:Analog nightlight? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:2, Insightful)
You fool. The money the government raises through spectrum auctions offsets what it would otherwise have to raise by taxing people and selling securities. The government is the people.
Re:Let me be clear (Score:3, Insightful)
What broadcast range limitations do you speak of? According to the FCC ATSC should surpass NTSC's coverage in distance: http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/ [fcc.gov]
Now there are issues with any stations broadcasting below channel 7 in the VHF band, but FCC is allowing those stations to kick up the output power quite a bit to compensate for that.
Finally... (Score:4, Insightful)
I am psyched! My wife and I were getting Direct TV until a few weeks ago. We recently got a new TV and tried to tune into the digital channels over the air and were pleasantly surprised. In fact, the increased quality of the network channels for free prompted me to cancel our basic cable (well, dish really) package instead of paying MORE to "upgrade" HD cable.
I figure why pay pay to watch commercials when I can get them in HD for free?
The cable company was a little disappointed, but they can go die. I can't believe they expected me to pay MORE money to upgrade to HD digital service when low rez analog service was going away anyway.
The best part is that you get to keep the dish on the roof! Bonus!
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:1, Insightful)
And of course, none of those analog-to-digital converter boxes can be battery powered ...
Umm, why not? My $50 UPS will keep the converter box feeding my battery powered B&W TV for at least 15 minutes I'm sure, and if you don't have a generator then you can't be that concerned about a disaster.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)
While I get what you're saying, and I don't think the analogy is completely useless, you have to keep in mind that satellite and terrestrial signals are completely different in terms of reception and signal propgation. A satellite signal needs two things: accurate alignment of the dish and direct line of sight between the satellite and dish. So while inclement weather does tend to mess with these on a satellite receiver, neither is strictly necessary for a terrestrial broadcast, whether analog or digital.
Now if your reception of the digital signal was marginal to begin with, then yes, bad weather might degrade the signal enough to make it unwatchable. However, digital receivers seem to vary considerably in the ability to compensate for a spotty signal. Some do quite poorly (just show a black screen with "no signal") while others might show a blocky mess but the audio will at least be intelligible.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We're Doing this for You ... r Money (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I hope my government is this vocal and helpful in getting everyone coordinated to switch to IPv6 and HTML5.
Do you really want the government to have the authority to tell people what network protocols they can and can't use? You might think they would use such power to spur adoption of IPv6 and HTML5, but I suspect they would be more inclined to ban BitTorrent, TOR, and FreeNet than IPv4 and HTML4.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:1, Insightful)
"The government is the people."
No, the government is a REPRESENTATIVE of the people. And a pretty crappy one at that.
Re:seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Let me be clear (Score:3, Insightful)
I especially despise that my previous neighbors in the fringe are considered "acceptable losses" for some stations in our area - but only stations that broadcast PBS. Of all the programming to crank up the wattage for, PBS would be the highest on my list.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:2, Insightful)
The money the government raises through spectrum auctions offsets what it would otherwise have to raise by taxing people and selling securities. The government is the people.
You must be from Bizarro-U.S.A., or you traveled here in a time machine (I'm guessing from around 1830 - did the federal government sell securities then?). Unfortunately, in the United States that the rest of us live in, the politicians who control the wealth of the government actually look at every new source of income as an opportunity to find new ways to repay those who got them (and will keep them) in power (hint: it wasn't The People). They also seem to work just as hard to continually find new ways to leech even more money from the citizenry.
Re:seriously... (Score:2, Insightful)
As mentioned in many of the above. Good luck to those on the fringe who can't get a good signal, or with portables that can't use a DTV tuner, etc etc.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)
His grandma represents way too many people who have no idea. Just as disturbing is what kind of stupid does it take to put the IR receiver on a surface that is likely to be obstructed?
The kind of stupid that is more aptly named "not familiar with a specific technology." Some people weren't born with innate knowledge of IR recievers. Some of those people aren't geared toward testing where things have gone wrong, or else fear things they don't know.
Your compassion for the elderly and non-technophile population is astounding, by the way. People like you give computer professionals the arrogant and annoying stereotype.
Re:I have already faced my worst nightmare (Score:2, Insightful)
sorry, you're wrong. The money raised by spectrum auctions goes to buy bombs for Iraq and Afghanistan, and to bailouts.