Cool News
Millions Of American TV Sets Go Dark One Year From Today!!
I am – Hercules!!
One year from today, we will switch on our old Watchmans and nothing will come out. No channel 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13 for that machine unless maybe you make some mechanical alterations.
My shower radio’s VHF-TV audio bands won’t work anymore.
The TV frequencies we all grew up with – they’ve been around since the Great Depression – are going away.
If your non-digital TV at home is hooked and stays hooked to cable or a satellite dish, you probably won’t have any problems.
But if your analog TV gets over-the-air programming via rabbit ears or a roof antenna, you need to hustle out to Radio Shack or Best Buy or Circuit City or Wal-Mart and get a digital tuner. The government is handing out $1.5 billion worth of $40 coupons (up to two coupons per household) to cover part of the cost of these tuners, which run about $60 each.
Thanks to something called the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005, millions of U.S. television sets will stop receiving over-the-air signals on Feb. 17, 2009.
Less than 15 percent of U.S. households relied exclusively on over-the-air broadcasts in 2004.
The U.S. Senate barely passed the measure a little over two years ago. Dick Cheney had to fly in from the Middle East to cast the deciding vote. There's no word on whether he grumbled "Fuck Herc's shower radio" just before he pulled the trigger.
Uncle Sam can afford the $1.5 billion in coupons because the airwaves being taken away from broadcasters (already using different bandwidths for digital TV and HDTV transmissions) are being auctioned off for about $10 billion.
Learn more about the situation here.
Box Sets 50% Off!!
$44.99: Every Issue 1970-1998!!
Includes the incredible – and, until recently, hard to find – work of dead comedy geniuses Michael O’Donoghue and Doug Kenney!!!
-
+ Expand All
-
This will be the nail in the CRT's coffin. Thank god.
-
My citizens band radio?
-
Feb 17, 2008 3:07:39 AM CST
They'll just increase the cost by $40. Gotta love capitalism.
by flim springfield
-
This is bullshit! I have a non digital TV (nor do I have cable or satellite) and it'll be a long, long time before I afford one.
-
That's all. Just don't kill it. All I'm saying.
-
...If there is no more UHF/VHF signal, will the frequencies be freed up? Will this usher in a new era of pirate television?
Mr. Moe, you might be on the right side of a god damned revolution.
Fucking Fox News. Buncha assholes. -
Analog TV is the wave of the future!!!
-
Hot diggity Dog! I'm puttin you in the attic old sony.
-
you listen to the audio from TV shows on a VHF feed in the shower? dude, just listen to NPR and be normal.do one needs to hear the audio from Happy Days while they're soaping up their junk...
-
Hulk mash keyboard!
-
I really mean that, Herc. I got a good laugh out of the incredible expiring radio.
-
...that I found in a chicken coup. Fucking thing still works. Meanwhile, all these fancy flat screens and shit will be self-destructing in three years' time. Motherfuckers.
-
Feb 17, 2008 4:49:47 AM CST
I gave my sister my analog TV because I never watched it.
by the outlander
My PC has a built in HD tuner card, which I rarely use. Most of my viewing comes from Bittorrent & Emule.
-
I just the few TV shows I like online.
If it's not streamed online the next morning the major networks seem to put their shows online within a week anyway. -
was there an uprising after one of the chickens ran a"fowl" of the law?
was a faction of the chickens upset with the pecking order?
thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, twice on saturday. tip your waitresses... -
ahahah. I read that to my gf and she said "you're so clever, hun." I said, "I didn't come up with that." She said, "Well then, you're so clever for finding the website that said that?" It was swell.
-
Old TVs aren't just dead weight. All TVs will still technically be usable. But you'll need a converter box. Kind of like people with cable needing a cable box. So now people with rabbit ears need a box too.
But here's the crappy truth that isn't getting as much play in the news. Apparently the new digital signals don't travel as far as the old analog ones. That means that most folks using antenas will be losing some channels. You know how you have that range of channels, from the ones that come in great to the ones that are fuzzy and just barely there? Well, you'll be losing the on the cusp ones. And some of the middle of the road ones might now be harder to pull in. And if I'm understanding things some of those might not come in. I'm thinking with digital it might be an all or nothing situation. Like either the signal is strong enough to come in perfect or it's weak and you don't get anything. No "the picture is there but fuzzy" business. Bad signal equals no picture. -
and there is still no date and no debate either over ireland going digital. In the UK i think it is 2012 that they are switiching off their analog signal. But because the govt is so slow in rolling out broadband, They blame eircom and eircom blames the govt. customers get screwed. Nobody knows when Ireland will go digital and it wont happen for some time.
-
so there is still no date and no debate either over ireland going digital. In the UK i think it is 2012 that they are switiching off their analog signal. But because the irish govt is so slow in rolling out broadband, They blame eircom and eircom blames the govt. customers get screwed. Nobody knows when Ireland will go digital and it wont happen for some(40 years) time.
-
First, I'm going to call my girfriend up, and call her a stupid fucking whore. Bought a digital t.v. six months ago, and I've been taking shit for it ever since. One year from today, her T.V. will be completely useless. Even with a converter, she lives out in the middle of nowhere! Ha! You dumb bitch!
-
Happy Harry Hard-on will rise again!
-
This shit really pisses me off. Digital television, while 90% worthless, ain't fucking free. The muther-fucking FCC that takes money from the very people they are supposed to be regulating and the completely untrustworthy hot air bags of human shit that make up Congress have once again doled out a heavy-handed burden on those of us who don't want to fork over $49.99 for cable/satelitte. Fuck em all. I guess television will just be one more thing I will learn to live without.
-
As for the old style TV's you can't even give them away anymore. Even to po' trailer park trash.
-
You're still on VHF? I thought the US was advanced... We gave up on VHF 20 years ago...
-
2010 is the final cut. But most people have Digital now anyway but there are still many folks who are unaware (I think mostly old folks).
-
turn that tv off now. why wait a year.
-
Oh the humanity.
-
I think our cutoff is sometime next year, though I wouldn't be surprised if that gets bumped (again).
-
Please, you know he's listening to a Whedon show while he's soaping up his junk.
-
What will this do for the future of Channel 62? I want my Wheel of Fish!
-
That's weird. So those channels will be used in some capacity? But not for what they are being used for today. Interesting. Will normal tv's get whatever is being broadcast?
-
Herc's shower radio has a bottle of Jerkins and cheets on Herc!
-
Seriously. Does anyone know anyone that doesn't watch TV via some digital method these days be it cable, satelite, or digital terrestrial?
-
Most televisions bought after the Clinton presidency, or during, have a digital tuner in them. Your rabbit ears will still work if you also run them through your VCR which now a days most have a digital tuner involved in some way. If you're still watching television on an old The Outer Limits fucking television, please, spend the fifty bucks at the Wal Mart to get a new damned television.The government is giving everyone around 1200 bucks in May to do just that! Buy buy buy, spend spend spend! Commerce monkeys unite!
-
Laugh because people in this country are such TV addicts they need the Feds to support their habit.
Or cry because the Feds actually have that much power, and have worked hard to keep these sheeple so dependent.
Do yourselves a favor and Fuck the Feds...Turn off the idiot box and read a book. -
You do realize posting on Talkback is a lower form of mental usage than watching TV, right?
-
just in case. but next year by this time I hope to have a new tube and cable setup.
-
I've been looking at all the DTV websites, and I can't find out if my old SD cable box will still work properly or not.
-
So as a former employee of certain entities that led to my having knowledge I sorely wish I didn't, I've become a bit of a "what if" player. I'm not quite at the Little Tinfoil Hat stage yet, and the black helicopters aren't after me (yet), but I have been looking into this lately to figure out long term possibilities - and though this is probably totally off base, it's food for thought.
Check this link: www.sciencea gogo.com/news/200703152 15055data_trunc_sys.shtml
Now this is going to become an issue in the near future. Bees are a required part of agribusiness, which is an American staple. When this newly clear frequency becomes available, who is bidding for the newly-freed bandwidth?
Google.
What are they trying to get into? Cell phones. If they own the bandwidth that isn't operating at a bee-disrupting frequency, what happens when other providers have to move off the "beequency", do they have to pay fr it from Google? They are already offering huge amounts for it, should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Where did I leave my Phone scrambler... -
I want my HDTV everywhere, all the time. Yeah, baby.
-
Feb 17, 2008 10:40:14 AM CST
I've been looking forward to this, but correct me if I'm wrong..
by docbosch
I'm under the impression that the switch to digital signal will mean that TV manufacturers will stop making traditional, analog tube based TVs, and will solely produce flat screen, Hi-Def, digital TVs. Thus lowering the prices of those types of TVs. Am I right, wrong, or at least close?
-
They're not using the analogue signals so thet can sell them to the mobile phone companies. Or so I heard....
-
FUCK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS!
-
over here in the UK, but in stages by region between now and 2012. We get no discount vouchers on digital receivers though. We also get 0% of the spectrum allocated for HDTV. You gotta love the money grabbing/money wasting government in Rip Off Britain.
-
Y'gotta love it in Britain; it's where everything costs a fortune and nothing works. Diesel works out at $10 a gal. Taxes are high and local services are awful. Bah. *Shakes fist*
-
The elderly, or people in rural areas that can't "visit ur website for more informaon" are gonna greatly affected by this changeover. There is still a large portion of america that isn't aware this is going down, and if there's another 9-11 situation, or local emergency, they're screwed. How much would it really cost to keep analog around forthose instances? Instead of just pulling the plug, a one or two year period of info being broadcast about the digital era, and any livesaving warnings would've been a more sensible approach. This shit is ridiculous.
-
This is what people don't understand. The government isn't forcing you to buy cable. They are forcing you to buy a digital tuner, and you can still get tv for free. also you do not need a HD tv or a flatscreen. I really don't understand that post above about the guy's girlfriend having bought a tv that will be useless, that doesn't make sense.
-
Feb 17, 2008 11:22:50 AM CST
This is what our government spends their time and our money on..
by darthsnoogans
The only thing more ridiculous is the feds spending millions of dollars advertising the new paper bills (who the hell is your competition?) and chastising baseball players for lying about steroids (kinda like a crocodile telling an iguana that he's too reptilian).
-
OMFG, you are all whining about progress? Are you kidding me? I guarantee that if it was never made known that Cheney was the deciding vote, none of you stuck in the 50's retards would even give a rats ass and complain.
People, virtually nobody uses analog anymore, and if you do, then throw away your rotary phones, your diesel cars and your black/white 10" televisions and get with the 21st century. Bunch of predictable automatons, I swear!
-
George Orwell wrote about a tv that watches you. These new digital boxes will be able to record your viewing habits, what you are watching, purchasing habits etc. They will record this data about you and use it as a way to control your behavior.
-
also what about the people who live in apt buildings that dont allow cable or satellite...hey, i dont care, i watch most of my tv from the computer anyway...but this was a bad bill
-
No more harring bone pattern. No more video noise that makes watching analog tv like watching it through a screen door. And no one is going to lose their ability to watch tv. Just get the box that the government is giving you.
-
but they already know that.
-
Once your set has a digital receiver, your picture and sound will be perfect.
With the old rabbit ear antannaes you had to adjust and shift them to get the picture just right... or as close to just right as possible. Pay cable TV first became popular in dense urban areas where it was the only way to get reception.
But once all the networks are forced to transmit their signas digitally, regular TV viewers will have crystal clear sharp image and sound from their aerials without having to pay for cable. Unlike the old days of constantly adjusting the antannaes for better picture, with a digital signal, it will either be no reception at all, or perfect reception.
-
for once...
-
And I don't miss it at all. Addicting celebrity reality crap/gossip is all that is on anyway. BUT I did buy a Sanyo HD LCD tv a year ago and am enjoying FREE 100% crystal clear HD television broadcasts through my 12.00 digital antenna. I get about 14 channels total. The digital signal (for those of you worrying)is about 1000X more powerful than analog. I get my channels crystal clear even during the worst storms. I am hoping that free digital will hurt the cable monopoly or industry (sorry). You people ever think about the millions that cable channels make from advertisers as well as YOU. If you are going to throw commercials in my face every 10 minutes, I shouldn't have to pay you a fucking penny for your services. So long cable! Just wait until your favorite cableshows come out on dvd and rent the whole season.
-
Imagine what the poor guys who work in electronic stores will be going through with 1000 calls a day saying the tv they bought 5 years ago doesn't work.
Also the insane situations that will occur in return lines as customers become furious that they are being "tricked" into buying something for the "now broken" tv that they are brining back. I will go ahead and predict that this week next year will be full of police having to come to stores to handle situations.
Also these quotes:
"I haven't heard a damn thing about needing this box."
"If I needed this then it should have already been included in the tv."
"This is a huge con."
Also, the class action lawsuits as a tornado will crash through somewhere and people won't know because they don't have weather warnings anymore. Sure there's sirens but there's also lawyers just waiting for opportunity. -
Except that there's that little $40.00 the government is giving you to buy that shiney new converter box that will make it all better. No matter if you use rabbit ears for over the air or cable etc.
-
Feb 17, 2008 12:37:31 PM CST
Weak analog signal = fuzzy; weak digital signal = unwatchable
by brandloyalist
My childhood memories of watching Dr. Who via a snowy signal from NJN 23 aren't exactly fond ones, but when a digital signal's quality degrades, what you get is just totally unwatchable: image freezes, blocky compression distortion, and (worst of all) audio dropouts that make a program impossible to follow. I've seen an HD antenna in action at a pay tv refusnik buddy's place in the inner SF bay area. He had a set-top HD antenna with an analog converter - watched HD signals before he had an HD TV, as many will now be forced to attempt. There were two broadcast antenna arrays near him; he had to realign the antenna depending on which he was trying to pick up, and one was very difficult to pick up due to line of sight problems. It was rarely possible for him to watch the local NBC affiliate. The stations he could lock into came in quite clearly - more clearly than any analog signal he could get there, which is why he got the antenna - but there would be occasional bursts of digital artifacts and audio dropouts even under the best conditions. He still had the option of the analog signal for channels he couldn't lock in on the HD antenna.
Those 15% who can't afford or otherwise hook up to cable or satellite aren't going to have as many programming choices; they're just plain being given the finger by the telecoms and the FCC - which by the way voted in December to relax rules preventing media ownership monopolies in any given market. I guess if we want an FCC that actually serves the public interest, we should just buy our own.
Harry Shearer has been ridiculing the mandated HD changeover on his radio program Le Show from its very beginning. Just a shout-out. -
to get the coupon for the digital converter box for your analog TV. And you don't need a new HD TV, or HD cable, or even a cable converter box, or anything else. (but it sure would be sweet, if you did!) You do, however, need a cable TV input on the back of your TV. (for those using a TV made in 1960!)
-
First: if you have cable or have local channels on satellite then you don't need to do anything. They will keep working exactly like they have"Once your set has a digital receiver, your picture and sound will be perfect. With the old rabbit ear antannaes you had to adjust and shift them to get the picture just right... or as close to just right as possible. "Actually you wills till have to tune in the picture. Additionally people say that the digital signals are weaker and don't degrade as well. So rather than getting a snowy picture you will get a blocky picture or none at all.However, people say that the reason the signals for the digital signals will get stronger once they turn off the analog signals."I'm under the impression that the switch to digital signal will mean that TV manufacturers will stop making traditional, analog tube based TVs"actually crt tube tvs are still the best picture. They do make hd tube televisions. Being lcd or plasma has nothing to do with the resolution. A lot of LCD televisions, especially smaller ones aren't HD. However, people want flat tvs and people think hd=flat tv so prices are going down all the time."Laugh because people in this country are such TV addicts they need the Feds to support their habit. Or cry because the Feds actually have that much power, and have worked hard to keep these sheeple so dependent. These are the public airwaves. They belong to the people. THe FCC is holding auctions for the spectrum and will make billions from it. The very least they could do from celling licenses to the public airwaves is give us $40 coupons.They have already been advertising the change over like crazy and I'll be willing to bet comes November and December they will be nonstop stories about it. People who can't watch tv = fewer viewers = risk of lower ad revenue. The networks will do everything they can to make sure everyone knows about the switchover so that they don't lose any more viewrs.
-
Keep your rabbit ears to watch future 24-hour broadcasts of Dancing With The Scientology Stars!!!
$10 Billion huh? Always nice how our government is just giving away our national resources for micro-pennies on the dollar. -
Is called "Coaxial"....and not "Rabbit Ears".
-
then screw you. Technology advancements are not for the feeders of the world. Get a f'n job and then see the world like the rest of us. Or join the Taliban and live in caves.
-
Back then, we were telling everyone that this switchover was going to happen in 2006 (but, honestly, I thought it would never actually come to fruition).
But while this is great fodder for conspiracy theorists, the fact is this simple: it's not the TVs that are becoming useless, it's the TUNERS in the TVs. Just like how those old TVs with the UHF/VHF knobs couldn't get cable without a cable box to change channels, now non-digital TVs won't be able to pick up channels off the air without a tuner. I imagine that, after the changeover, every new product sold that will plug into your TV (DVD player, VCR, cable box, DVR) will have a built-in digital tuner. Chances are, if you bought a TV in the last several years, it has a digital tuner. Chances are this will affect almost nobody on this messageboard, since I imagine that most people either have cable or satellite, have a digital TV, or don't watch much TV.
And finally, in response to the question above about flat panel TVs, this is a separate issue. What's changing over is the broadcast frequency (related to the internal tuner that converts the over-the-air broadcast into picture and sound). This is unrelated to the difference between tube and flat-panel (although the switchover to flat-panel is almost complete now, since they are lighter and more desirable. But I still have my 34" Sony tube HDTV--it weighs more than I do, I can't lift it without two friends helping, but by god it has a beautiful picture). -
But let us not forget that years of television watching has rendered the attention span of many Americans impotent. I've seen the ads that inform of the switch but how many people pay attention to these commercials? There's a population out there who are not tech savvy and will not comprehend this switch and obtaining vouchers and there are others who do not react to oncoming change until it is too late. I'm not having sympathy for them but they will be the ones causing chaos and the media will be sure to exploit this for ratings. In the past, change in technology has brought more to the masses. Printed word brought books to everyone, VCR's brought movies to those who don't have theaters but this change will now shrink the availability of television media to the general population for a short term until there's probably some "door to door" effort to remedy it.
-
The idea that nobody uses analog any more is obviously contradicted in the story itself. It says that less than 15% of households rely on analog alone... Even assuming they're talking television households and not simply all American households, that's 15% of what Neilsons estimates to be over 115 million. Meaning the actual number of people who rely on analog alone is greater than the populations of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago combined. That's a hefty chunk of people.
-
We have this awards ceremony called the Irish film and TV awards. On any Irish tv station called TV3 they had one of thier reporters outside the event and when her name came up her title was entertainment expert. Does that mean there is some degree course that I dont know about. I have heard of car experts, animal experts and other experts. But entertainment experts new one on me!
-
Like it wouldn't have passed the next time around, anyway.
Grow the hell up, you sniveling snot-nosed wimps. -
If you're reading this on a computer you have the internet,right? So who the fuck has internet-access and not cable TV? I live in the middle of nowhere with people too poor to afford front doors,but they all have satellite dishs. Bitching about this is like bitching about the fact that they took down the telegraph wires and paved over the pony express routes. Get with the times people!!!
-
You can wave goodbye to it now.
Americans silently accept inferior products all the time. That's why we have VHS and Blu Ray. This compressed cr*p you'll be watching from now on is just like the reality TV you've forced down our throats by settling for it. You went to sleep AGAIN and woke up with this. Live with it. -
This is all a plot by SONY to sell the masses on Blu-Ray. I hear they promised Cheney they'd implant a PS3 in his chest if he voted for the switch to digital. Now he gets confused and thinks he's playing Gears of War when he's actually running around shotgunning people in the face. DAMN YOU CHENEY!!!!!!
-
OK. There are a lot of panicky, frightened little luddites in here, and I think I need to explain this so you don't hurt yourself or others:
HDTV and DIGITAL TV are not necessarily the same thing. HD is digital, but not all digital is HD.
You will STILL be able to use your old TV, and your old 6$ rabbit ears. You will just need a converter box (which the government is giving coupons for, so it won't break the bank) and you're good to go. You will be able to watch the same non-HD shows you've been watching all along, on the same NON-HD television you've been using since the Nixon administration.
Let me explain. The old signal was NTSC. They're selling that (and it will most likely be used by emergency services and big corporations for their projects) and when it's done, it's done. No more NTSC channels. What follows that is called ATSC. That does not mean "High Definition", but it does mean the signal is no longer an analog "code" but now a digital "code" for your TV to "decode" so you can watch TV. To "decode" the signal, you JUST NEED the converter box. You DO NOT NEED AN HDTV.
Got it? Your old TV and antenna WILL work. You will still be able to watch shows, but they won't be in HD. They'll look clearer and won't have ANY static or horizontal hold problems, because the signal is DIGITAL over-the-air. You'll have a better experience with your old P.O.S. TV, and all you'll need is one of these little boxes that goes between your antenna and the TV itself. Go get your coupons from the link above, and you're all set.
If you have a newer widescreen HDTV purchased within the last year, then you have a digital tuner built in (if you don't, you got screwed) and you won't need one of these converter boxes to pull in over-the-air digital signals. On top of that, if you have an HDTV with an ATSC tuner, you're equipped to watch these digital signals in HD, instead of in SD.
There will be no "pirate" TV stations. The FCC holds sway over the NTSC signals as before, it's just that they will be sold off to other entities with far more money than any little pirate operation could manage, and if they are pirated, they will still be policed as they are now. You won't get to hop on channel 5 with your homemade transmitter. Sorry.
So ONE MORE TIME:
"Digital" does not mean "HD", though digital signals do contain the HD information for those who do have an HDTV. If you do not have an HDTV, and don't use cable, you will still be able to watch TV as before with an almost-free converter box, and your plain old antenna (IGNORE "HD Antenna" sales. They're bullshit. It's just a regular antenna. There's no difference between them.)
If you pull in the digital signal with your antenna, and use a converter box to watch this signal on your old TV, it will NOT be High Definition. It will still look like it always did, with the exception that the signal is either there or it's not. There's no static, no snow, no ghosting-- You either have a full, clear, perfect image on the screen, or you have nothing. There's no "in-between" with digitial.
THAT is the only difference you'll see on your old TV.
Oh, and there will be MORE stations available, especially with local PBS stations who seem to be using the digital bandwidth to broadcast two or three stations of programming.
NOBODY has to get an HDTV to enjoy television once this goes into effect. NOBODY has to give up their rabbit ears. You just need to get your ass to that website and get a coupon to purchase a digital converter box.
And let me repeat this one more time: DIGITAL does not mean HD. It's just a different kind of signal. HD information is in that signal, but HD monitors are NOT required to enjoy digital television. -
cable TV, then consider this a blessing. Take the time you used to spend keeping According to Jim alive and spend it going to school or working a second job and improving your broke dick situation in life.
-
I tell you, that's how to get legislation passed today. Attach the words "Public Safety" to it. Is the "Fish Hatchery Funding and Public Safety Act" next?
-
Digital TV's are pretty cheap these days. You can get a decent oen for under 200.
-
Feb 17, 2008 3:48:47 PM CST
BRAMTON, glad to see theres still some U62 love out there
by george newman
A lot of jokes will be conceptually obsolete, but the SPIRIT will live on!
-
Well, isn't that what the Democrats do best? They want to demonize and vilify a decent man -- while they suck the cock lies of arrogant liberal "tax and spend" DemocRATs like Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton? Democrats love to blame EVERYTHING on Bush (from terrorism to global warming to earthquakes) while they fail to see the reflection of their own arrogant ignorance in a looking glass of truth. Liberals only tolerate themselves -- and those who agree with their far-left social extremism.
-
Feb 17, 2008 4:16:01 PM CST
ZeroCorpse: "or you have nothing" is what I'm getting at
by brandloyalist
I guess we'll see in a year whether the signals are generally strong enough that people using antennae don't end up with fewer watchable channels. I'll be happy to be proven pessimistic. But thanks for the lesson for us "little luddites"... if I'd known some condescending pedant was going to be patrolling this talkback, I'd have emphasized the analog conversion role of the all-in-one antenna-with-converter I got to see in use and been more careful not to conflate digital & HD in my post (I guess I did do that... note my subject line tho). Still I think people generally understand the difference between standard def and HD digital; anyone with digital cable certainly does. Standard def digital channels are those with big blocky patchworks of compression artifacts in fast moving scenes and areas of low contrast, and on the borders of hard-edged details... have to agree with msspurlock about image quality. Or maybe I'm just too close to the TV.
-
Title III. Digital Television Transition and Public Safety.
"(v) ADDITIONAL DEADLINES FOR RECOVERED ANALOG SPECTRUM.--Notwithstanding subparagraph (B), the Commission shall conduct the auction of the licenses for recovered analog spectrum by commencing the bidding not later than January 28, 2008, and shall deposit the proceeds of such auction in accordance with paragraph (8)(E)(ii) not later than June 30, 2008.
"(vi) RECOVERED ANALOG SPECTRUM.--For purposes of clause (v), the term 'recovered analog spectrum' means the spectrum between channels 52 and 69, inclusive (between frequencies 698 and 806 megahertz, inclusive) reclaimed from analog television service broadcasting under paragraph (14), other than--
"(I) the spectrum required by section 337 to be made available for public safety services; and
"(II) the spectrum auctioned prior to the date of enactment of the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005.
Section 337
(a) In general
Not later than January 1, 1998, the Commission shall allocate the electromagnetic spectrum between 746 megahertz and 806 megahertz, inclusive, as follows:
(1) 24 megahertz of that spectrum for public safety services according to the terms and conditions established by the Commission, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General; and
(2) 36 megahertz of that spectrum for commercial use to be assigned by competitive bidding pursuant to section 309(j) of this title.
In case anyone is confused, the actual title section of the funding measure relates to both digital television transition and public safety. What I posted above is a tiny portion of some clauses that address where the analog spectrum is going. Also, the auctions are over, the results will be known by June. -
How many does he own right now?
-
We know who Harry, Quint, Moriarty, etc. is. But who the heck is Herc? Just curious!
-
Well, that's what less than a page of an act of congress looks like. I'm sure someone on slashdot has summarized it. My only point was that 24 megahertz of analog is going public safety services, 36 megahertz was auctioned to private corporations last month. The checks get cashed by June and the bidders will be revealed (if not before then).
On another note, public interest groups were on Google's side before and during the auction. Google and NGOs asked that certain blocks of the spectrum be released for sale open access (bad for corporations, good for the people). I'm no huge fan of Google, but I don't see this as a point for the tinfoil hat crowd. -
I never use them.
-
Very true.
-
Are working well in the UK, you can pick them up for next to nothing and there's a broad range of programming available for free. I think most people in the UK have them now, though we're not going analogue free until 2010 as someone mentioned above. You DON'T need a new TV. From a lot of the replies above that seems to be something the government in the US isn't making clear.
-
dont act so upset, your parents will still pay for the cable.
-
Having just read the article, I notice AICN is hosting an ad for a VHF receiving radio that will indeed be obsolete in a year...
-
...you buy a box, you plug it into your tv, you're done. You don't need to get cable. You don't have to buy a new tv. And in the US, unlike the rest of the world that's doing this, you're even heavily subsidized to help you pay for the damn box in the first place.
-
A world of savagery, super science and sorcery, with Ukla the Mock and Princess Ariel!
-
He also predicted that Blu-Ray would win the format war.
-
Feb 17, 2008 7:05:18 PM CST
Everything will look great, but it will still be reality
by skywalkerfamily
crap.
-
Feb 17, 2008 7:24:10 PM CST
HD cable on your WinXP/Vista PC screen by way of Firewire
by brandloyalist
Almost on topic: a $20 Firewire cable may be all you need to watch gen-u-ine HD video from your HD, firewire-equipped cable box on your WinXP sp2/Vista x86/XP MCE PC. I gather it takes a little finagling, and results can vary depending on your cable provider and the channels you try to view, but it's working for a lot of users. My DVR is among the supported boxes, but unfortunately I recently jumped from Win2k to Vista x64 -- 2k was never supported, and no x64 drivers are available yet (but the guy who's been maintaining the driver has said he's working on it, woot). Driver's homepage (watch for added spaces):
http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/ -
"the airwaves being taken away from broadcasters (already using different bandwidths for digital TV and HDTV transmissions) are being auctioned off for about $10 billion."
Of fucking course they are. What a bunch of bullshit, kind of like the government claiming that they need to commandeer the land you live on so they can sell it to a company that needs to build a new regional headquarters. But hey, at least it's income that's NOT coming in the form of loans from the Chinese. -
Damn writers strike!
-
Perhaps I was not talking to you, specifically.
There are a lot of other people here, dude...
I used to tune in locals on my ATSC tuner (which I currently don't have) with a pair of $19 amplified rabbit ears. If you have a house instead of an apartment, you can actually mount an antenna and get a LOT better signal than I did with rabbit ears in an apartment... So don't worry.
Unless you're out in the middle of nowhere. In that case you WILL need an outside antenna, but that's hardly a big deal. Stick an antenna on your roof and point it to the place with the most signals. You can use antennaweb.com to find out where to aim.
The "luddites" comment was said with tongue firmly in cheek, because there are so many people here saying "I can't afford an HDTV." -- Really, these days you can get an HDTV for about $300 if you look around, and if you're OK with having a smaller one, you can grab a computer monitor with component or DVI connection and use that with your cable or satellite instead. You can literally get into HD television for less than $300 if you just put some effort and research into it.
Nobody says you have to have a 50" HDTV. If you're fine with 19" then there's a shit-ton of monitors that will display in HD. All you need is a tuner and an antenna or source.
Yes. If your signal is below about 20% you probably won't get anything tuned in. But that can be boosted with a $20 device from Radio Shack.
There's no excuse here. They've made it as easy as possible, and people need to accept that it's happening, and be ready for it.
Think you can scrape up $300 in a year's time? Then you can watch HDTV. -
So I don't need a new tuner? Just a converter box? I thought the major networks where going to have multiple channels, but the more channels the lower the resolution. If that was the case I would need a new tuner, since my 27inch TV only goes to channel 13 on VHF. Please clarify.
-
I'll never get in a fight. (End Scott Thompson imitation) *Blushes*
-
the box is the tuner. you plug in the box, turn your tv to channel 3 and use the remote on the converter box.
-
Here bestbuy has one on their website. Click on the picture and you can see the back of it and the remote. http://tinyurl.com/2psyob
Of course it is barebones and only has stero output. You want hdmi or dolby digital surround? They will sell you one for $180 http://tinyurl.com/3c2nkv -
Who doesn't at least have cable or dish?
And Herc.. "Rush out"? You have a YEAR to get either a tuner or cable/sat. OH NOES!!! -
and I don't mean progress, I love progress. Just that looking at that map someone posted, there's like 5 fucking different formats around. it's like pal/ntsc, except now it's even worse. And you know that everyone in the world will have a box that supports _all_ of these formats, except for americans, who'll be constantly whining about how there's a bunch of different formats. My country is aparently "assessing" formats, I hope we go with the japanese one, which seems likely since brazil already picked it up.
-
"Who doesn't at least have cable or dish?" Um, in case you weren't aware, there's this section of the population that are referred to as "poor." These "poor" people make something referred to as "minimum wage" and have to spend their money on "food" and "rent."
-
I have never paid for television. The only times in my life I've had cable were while I was living in the dorms in college and at my first off campus apartment where it was free. Fuck paying for TV. I have a DVD player and Lost. And the internet.
-
a blu light will guide us to a clearer world. he predicted blu ray Nostradamus
-
Brought to you by the big bang and kellogs!
-
Broadcast frequencies are supposed to be public resources, administered for the public good.
Selling off those frequencies, bringing in an amount which is piddling on the scale of the annual federal budget, is just another example of the US Government betraying the public trust for the sake of corporate interests. -
...working back in the early 90s. Towards the end, the only over-the-air stations we could even SEE was the local channel 5 and PBS stations. Everything else was pure snow and static... I HATED it! And hated the technology that literally FORCED us to buy cable just so we could watch regular TV.Does cable have some benefits? Sure... but 90% of it is crap I can't be bothered to waste time with and usually disgusts me when I do.And YES... I am grumpy when people mess with my TV! >:(That said, this won't affect me one way or another, since analog hasn't worked in my area for over a decade, anyway. It just brings back bitter memories and makes me wish I were a kid back in the 70s still watching New Zoo Revenue and Marvel Superheroes on UHF, when TV was still good.
-
It's tax season, so I got confused.
-
that shitty reception you were squinting at?
-
Lame as in there is very few logic behind them. There is no easy way to transition this technology. If there was an overlapping period, you'd still have people waiting to the last minute. You're right, if you have a TV circa 1975, you're screwed unless you shell out a few bucks for a converter. Big whoop. Technology is changing. Who cares if you're in a rual area. This change will get mention on the local news (as it has out here) and in newspapers. People will adopt it because they don't have any other choice. Please, for the love of god, stop bitching and go with the flow.
Go with the damn flow people. -
doesnt fucking fly. Where I live,a common game is to drive around town and catalogue the poverty. Homes without doors(only a curtain protecting them from the elements),20 year old cars on cinderblcoks,and wee babes wandering shoeless through the fields weeping in misery. What do all these poor fucks have in common? They ALL have a satellite dish/cable hook up and a giant flatscreen hi-def TV....TV's so damn big and flat you can see them from the road as you drive by. They may only eat dog food they bought with their food stamps,but by god even the lowest hillbilly on the block has a 52 inch flatscreen....
-
"Hey, there's something that almost everybody has... Let's make it obsolete. On purpose..."
Assholes. Meh... The only good thing on TV is South Park anyways... And I download that... -
How about, instead of coming up with ever more channels, each dedicated to increasingly more specialized subjects with fewer and fewer actual viewers, we just concentrate on coming up with better programming on the existing ones? What a concept. And it wouldn't require trashing the existing technologies to make way for more crap.
-
How dare this country move into the future with a digital signal and get rid of my beloved analog!!! How dare this country sneak this digital signal thing up on me. I mean it's only been known about for 3 or 4 or 5 years!!! That's not nearly enough time to buy a new TV. How dare this country expect me to buy a starter HDTV for a whopping $250 - $400. That's SO much money. Because after all, TV is a necessity to live. I don't know where I will be able to save that kind of scratch in a year.
-
Feb 18, 2008 8:26:00 AM CST
The goverment has no business handing out these $40 dollar coupo
by luscious.868
As somebody else pointed out the idiots who run this country are already borrowing 150 billion dollars from China so they can cut most of us $600 checks that will be used to buy goods made in China, so the hell with $40 coupons, those people who need a new TV can use their $600 check to buy one.
-
Here's a list of other things that economically challenged households do not have, and are NOT getting a $40.00 coupon to buy:
1. Xbox 360
2. Spinners
3. Hanna Montana tickets
4. clothes NOT from Salvation Army
Oh and who do we thank for this billion dollar handout so people can still watch TV? The Democratic Party. Thanks for taking my $40.00 and giving it to some crack-baby maker on welfare so she can still watch Maury while I'm at work.
So when studios abandon VHS tapes, will the government take another $40.00 from me so the same crack-baby maker can buy a Blu-Ray player? Democrats = experts at spending other people's money. -
here's the updates I've read so far:
1. oh noes TV stops in 12 months
2. Eli Roth bought a theater
3. The MPAA censors stuff
-
I didn't want "Those People' watching my shows anyway.
-
You are both bitchy little trolls that have shamelessly interjected political analyses that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the argument at hand. Run along and play while the grown-ups talk.
-
Very misinformed political analysis. I'm sure that the democrats shot your dog or something, but if you read the article your boy Cheney was the deciding vote, even flying in at the last minute to clinch the bill.
-
...meanwhile, sleazebag electronics retailers are busily pricing up their digital tuners... by $40!
-
Because its the government that said that broadcasters can no longer broadcast in analogue. The government didn't tell the studios to switch to Blu-Ray. The government didn't tell video game retailers to stop making older consoles. The FCC regulates public airwaves and chose to kill analogue broadcasting, so the government feels obligated to help not just consumers make the transition to help not just consumers, but broadcast station owners who were at risk of loosing 15% of their audience. Learn to look at the big picture here, people.
-
The big picture is that the US economy is swirling down a flushed toilet, and we're going to hand out tax money to people so they can watch television. That is what I would call a big picture.
Or one of Harry's much talked about giant HDTVs - that would be a big picture also. -
Naturally the politicians want to be sure the old people -- who vote -- can receive political ads and watch the evening news full of ads from pharmaceutical companies who happen to be among the biggest lobbyists of those politicians.
-
I live in the 21st century! Now, where's my jetpack...
-
feeling sorry for those folks on the poverty line. thise folks only have tv as their sole source of entertainment. some are barely have enough to eat and keep warm over winter. buying a digital tuner, they wont know where to go and how to hook it up. fine go digital, but dont turn off analogue, casue these folks wont have nothing left
-
if the govt. makes it illegal for poor people to watch TV - which this essentially does - and also hands out library cards with voter registrations, they might make this a literate country eventually.By which I mean a country where people use the Internet for something other than discussing the TV shows they watched the night before.
-
When you get the converter box, you will use it to tune your television stations in, and not your television's tuner.
At least that's how I understand it to work. The box won't turn digital signals into analog signals which you tune with your old tuner. It completely bypasses the tuner in your old TV and acts like a cable box, of sorts, which is used to tune in the new channels. -
People aren't getting the money, they're getting a coupon. The coupon can't be used to buy anything BUT a digitial converter, so no money is actually being given to the people. The corporations turning the $40 coupons in to the government are the only ones who will see any money out of this.
-
They advertise the boxes as "digital to analog converters" but they aren't really "converting" the signal into analog. They're tuning in the digital signal and outputting the content like a cable box or VCR does-- The "converter" box is indeed going to be your new TUNER. You WILL NOT use the dial or digital tuner on your old analog TV. The TV will become a monitor, and the digital-to-analog "converter" box will do all the channel changing, tuning, etc.
Think of it as a non-cable, cable box. -
Your buddy's antenna over-the-air setup may well have had problems, but that's because right now the digital signals aren't at 100% in most markets. They're broadcasting using limited power because they're also trying to keep the analog stations on the air.
Once the changeover is complete, expect all the digital signals to get a pretty big boost in power, and your ability to tune them in will increase quite a bit.
You shouldn't have the issues you saw on the setup you were exposed to.
Bear in mind, also, that picking up a signal depends highly on antenna placement. If he did it wrong, and didn't research which direction his signal was coming from, your pal's OTA signal may have been compromised.
Really, it's going to be nice once the switch happens. All the station resources formerly used for NTSC will be put toward ATSC, and they'll make sure their signal is easy to get in their broadcast area. You shouldn't see anything below 70% signal strength in your local area once the changeover happens.
Of course, if you're trying to tune in stations from another broadcast area, they won't come in well or at all. -
>Here's a list of other things that economically challenged households do not have, and are NOT getting a $40.00 coupon to buy:
1. Xbox 360
They don't know how lucky they are. I'm not exactly financially disadvantaged, but I don't have an Xbox 360, either. Though, in my case, it's because I DON'T want one. PS2? Check. GameCube? Check. PC games? Check. Xbox? Not on your life. -
> Once the changeover is complete, expect all the digital signals to get a pretty big boost in power, and your ability to tune them in will increase quite a bit.
Which still doesn't explain why the government feels they're needed.
As I wrote above, many of those specialty channels have very low viewership. Only the ridiculously low cost of the programming, not to mention ads-ads-ads, keeps them in business.
Too, someone at work has a cartoon posted outside their office which pretty much sums it up:
Two panels. The first one has a blurred image of ... something. The caption? "The old crap you've been watching on analog TV." The second panel has a much sharper image of ... something. The caption? "Same old crap, but on HDTV."
Which isn't to say it's ALL garbage (only 90%, maybe), but that I almost never watch broadcast TV on air any more. Shows I feel worth following, such as HOUSE, M.D., I wait for the season DVD set and watch it that way. In order, then I feel like it, without a 3 month mid-season 'hiatus', without all the ads and, best of all, without all that crap networks feel obliged to foist on us over the actual picture. Everything from station logos to intrusive banners telling you what you're watching. And they wonder why viewership is down? Feh. -
installing converter boxes for those too dense to understand how simple this is.
-
Digital TV and HDTV are not the same thing in this discussion. The poor will be able to tune in digital TV just fine. All televisions will have digital tuners, even if they aren't high definition televisions. Converter boxes will end up being around $10 - $20 for people to buy with the coupons, and they have a whole year to start saving up to get one.
While I do agree that the majority of TV is crap, there are some good shows, and a lot of people apparently like the crap, too. For those people, watching digital signals on their analog TV with a converter box will be no major change.
This is ONLY a change in the broadcast technology.
HDTV is a change in the device you use to view what is being broadcast. Nobody's requiring people to have HDTV. They're only requiring them to prepare for a change to a different medium for broadcasting.
Incidentally, I don't watch much broadcast TV, either. I got used to watching shows commercial-free via downloads, and now I just cannot stand sitting through a regular broadcast because it keeps getting interrupted by commercials every few minutes. Frankly, I don't know how I ever stood that. With digital downloads, there are no station logos, no watermarks, no advertisements, and you can pause, rewind, and replay them, same as with a DVR.
That's why I only subscribe to basic cable (for things like news or local television) and then do the rest of my TV viewing via the Internet. Between Apple TV and XBox Marketplace I don't need cable. What's more, I don't have to subscribe to Showtime or HBO to get their shows uncensored. Why should I pay for Showtime to watch one or two shows on that channel? Why should I pay for HBO when I only watch a couple shows on there? I can do far better just subscribing to the shows I want, and skipping all the rest. I pay only for what I plan to watch.
This means I don't have to flip past the Jerry Springer Show, The Real World, and a dozen informercials to watch Weeds or LOST. I just pick the show I want and hit Play.
And I don't think viewership is down. I just think they're stupidly focusing on the Nielsons when they're no longer relevant. They need to track downloads, not Nielson ratings. -
I've been thinking about it. I'm amazed how little people know about this topic. It's so simple, yet they're in the dark.
The industry should have done a better job explaining it. -
...More like $300, if you're single. The higher payments go to Chimpy's base: the trailer park bible-thumpers who all breed like rabbits. The more redneck-larvae Loweezy pushes out, the more money Billy Bob has to blow on his pick-m-up truck and 12-packs of Old Milwaukee.
-
Since your daddy Rush Limbaugh just got done finger banging you Aracdian, after he came out of his percocet coma while dreaming of how George W Bush felched his ass for coke money.
You have been fed a bunch of bullshit.. you sound like you have been listening to Ann Coulter or Fox News, either way, they are both screwed up and wrong.
Our Economy is screwed up cause of an idiot in the oval office and all of his greedy chronies in the REPUBLICAN party. The longer Bush is in office, the longer you will be without a blu ray player and all the other toys you want to fill in the voids you call a life.
If you vote for McCain, then you might as well be asking for another 4 years of Bushanomics that will not bring this country out of a recession, since he wants to piss away billions more in iraq, that could better be spent at home.. instead of a backwards country who will never have democracy cause its not thier breeding to want that.
With that said... shut and post your rants on foxnews.com -
I live in a major market type city but, due to a quirk of geography I am unable to get digital signals for CBS, ABC and FOX. I have a digital television and a well sited antenna, but digital signals are much more line of sight than analog and there is a giant cliff in the way for some of the stations. I have attempted to contact them to determine whether there is a plan in place to address this, but so far no response. O well, at least I get PBS.
-
is that Google intends to purchase the license for those frequencies so it can start handing out free phones that don't need a cell or WiFi connection to give you internet access (oh and phone calls;)
-
Dick Cheney is my hero
-
honestly is there really anyone left that actually gets TV out of the air thru antennae ? millions ? must be people that live on farms and in the mountains..are there really millions of them ?
-
to adress the question of whether the goverment is forcing everyone to goto cable.... YES they are... its the better choice then gettin this "converter" even with the rebates theyre giving out for them...anyone that isnt on cable by now should get it anyways...the minute i heard about it , the first thing outta my mouth was "theyre gonna force everyone to get cable, more money for the cable companies"
-
Due to American Idol, (gag!) Fox is now the #1 network in total viewers. The decline of civilization continues...
-
fox being # 1 aint evidence of the decline of civilization. the fact that american idol makes it #1 is ..lol
-
and proof that at least 30 million Americans are total morons!
-
hell as long as my atari 2600 still works on my old analog tv im still good...screw regular tv im going back to books
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts