Wilmington, N.C., next Monday will be the first city in the U.S. to make the switch to digital TV as Federal Communication Commission officials and local broadcasters conduct the first widespread test of the conversion to digital TV.
At noon, TV broadcasters throughout the Wilmington area will shut off their old analog TV signals and broadcast only in digital, providing the first real test of the mandated switch to digital TV. Congress has mandated that all TV broadcasters switch to digital broadcast in February. In an effort to help test the switch for the rest of the country, Wilmington is making the switch five months early.
Once the switch happens, old TV sets that rely on over-the-air analog TV signals will no longer work.
The transition is expected to affect more than 15 percent of U.S. households, which rely on free TV broadcasts. Wilmington is actually in better shape than most communities with only 7 percent of its households, or roughly 12,600 homes, being affected by the switch.
There are a few folks who expect widespread panic.
I figure the least-informed will presume their set died – go out and buy a new one – and will come home with a digital set that works and never realize what happened.
When Seniors can’t get their soap operas any more, expect to hear the SCREAMING, WAILING, AND GNASHING OF TEETH(OR DENTURES) !!! – from the Advertisers !!!
TV is over-rated.
Minor point
Wilmington will be the first market to cease analog television broadcasting.
I’ll tell you that there are a lot of different digital converter boxes on the market. Reading reviews of them can be tiresome. They vary in price and performance, and only a few are actually available for purchase at any given store. I lucked out and got a nice Venture brand box. With the $40 government coupon, it was only $10. I like it so much that I’m planning on picking up a spare with the other coupon. The coupons take about a month to arrive, and expire in a few months. They give you two coupons. A lot of people used to buy new TV sets for the Olympics, as I did years ago, but this year I got a digital converter box on the last day of the Olympics.
How many people really get their TV OTA.
#5: I get my OTA channels OTA.
How many people really get their TV OTA.
More than zero.
The problem I have forcing digital is that, like most digital media, it’s all-or-nothing. Analog TV degrades somewhat gracefully… you may have a lot of snow and audio static with a weak signal, but you get SOMETHING. Most digital receivers just pretend that a weak signal isn’t even there.
#7 – You’re right. I can get a great digital signal (BTW #5, I’m still OTA) until a big thunderstorm hits; then I get nothing, or a 1 second blip every couple of seconds, making TV unwatchable. However, I can switch back over to analog and continue viewing my program with just a little bit of minor static.
Another thing that destroys the digital signal is line noise from motors – for example when my wife is using a mixer in a kitchen, you’ll see horizontal static lines on the analog side, but the digital converter totally loses it.
There are going to be a lot of angry people, once the complete switchover happens.
I get my tv ota, and digitally. It’s great
I get TV OTA, right now I get the 3 major networks and public tv, with the Digital Converter I get 1 major network some channel I have never seen before (my TV?) and 3 public TV channels.
People may notice.
I always have gotten my TV OTA. I refuse to pay for television, on principal. I got the converter boxes a few months ago, and Voila, three times as many channels as before, but still not much worth watching except reruns of Get Smart and Perry Mason :).
But, the media blitz regarding the changeover (in Los Angeles) has been overwhelming. I’ll wager that half of the converter boxes sold here are to people who don’t get their signal over the air to begin with.
Yes, there will be a really, really dense few who will wake up on Feb. 10, 2009 with no picture. These are the same kind of people who get hit by trains while walking, and we really don’t need them sucking up the oxygen.
The timing and method of this Feb 2009 cutover it not good. Here is why.
(1) The people who will be most impacted by this are the same people who are going to be most impacted by the high heating bills this coming winter. Their budgets are going to be slammed, and then they will have to pay more money for a converter box. In addition, most Americans get their Xmas credit card bills around this time.
(2) It will be right after the new president takes office. If this goes badly, like I think it will, then they will be blamed. Not the Bush administration under who’s watch this program was mismanaged.
(3) Because of the way the are doing the switch over in many markets, setting up a conversion box ahead of time won’t prevent you from having to reprogram it all again in Feb. Right now many stations are broadcasting both analog and digital. But after cutover, they are moving the digital broadcast over to the analog frequency.
For example, some are moving their digital broadcasts from the UHF to VHF bands.
This is stupid for 3 reasons. (a) They could have replaced the analog frequency broadcast with a message about the cut over. (b) It makes everyone have to reprogram all the digital OTA receivers to the new frequencies. (c) The consumers have no idea if their antennae and receiver can pick up digital broadcast on the new frequency as well as the old digital frequency.
(4) By doing the whole country at once (except for this little market), it sets them up for massive failure when they get slammed by enormous demand for converters by those who waited. They should have converted market by market over a two year period.
I finally applied for my $40 coupon.
They said it would take SIX WEEKS to deliver?
Six weeks? Who takes six weeks to deliver a stupid coupon?
I don’t know why you can’t just print them off from your home printer are maybe just pick them up from the store.
My best distance with digital tv reception was a one-time reception of Tampa stations. A distance of 300 miles. I’m pretty sure a healthy dose of tropospheric scatter was involved.
When buying a converter be sure to get one with analog pass-through. It will cost a bit more but will be worth it up to Feb 2009. Also some low power stations remain analog for awhile.
Greg Allen,
The coupons are actually plastic credit cards. I’ve got my two after about 6 weeks.
WmDE,
I used my coupons and bought the Zenith DTT901, which cost me $20+ $40 coupon + tax at Circut City. This model has analog pass through. I have not had a chance to test them yet because I’m still researching the best antenna solution for my mom’s house. Here is a link to CC’s page about this box.
http://tinyurl.com/6y9jsv
But I have to say based on the quality of the boxes I’ve seen at Radio Shack, Frys, Target, etc, this one seems like the best of the bunch. At least it is from a company I’ve heard of. I opened up the box and it seems rock solid and well built. The manual was well written too.
#5, upwards to 20-25%
NOT including LOCAL channels, that DISH dont supply. They install a Standard antenna so you can get them.
#12
CORRECT, and it SUCKS.
Digital signal:
Lip sync problems, IT TAKES MORE POWER to send the signal, but the OTA trancievers, HAVE NOT IMPROVED.
60%+ signal or NOTHING, I switch to Analog and i STILL can see the signal, EVEn at 20% I can figure out whats going on, and AUDIO is still there.
Audio NOT there, i switch to analog and its FINE.
Im waiting for an EMERGENCY STORM…I DONT think its going to WORK very well. When you SAT flies away, When cable corp is DOWN and cables RIPPED UP from high winds, OTA is still there.
#14,
you GOT get smart and Perry? WHERE?? I get Roseanne, talk shows, SOAPS, According to JIM, REBA, and 5 channels of PBS…
#15
AND some channels ARNT switching, I still have 2 that havent. and they will be LOST.
ALONG WITH:
the BOX should be $20, its CHEAP.
Channels switching, I can go to 11.1 but you CANT switch to 11.2 directly…THATS STUPID, you goto 11.1 and then UP channel to get 11.2,11.3 and so forth.
#17
AND RABBIT EARS SUCK, if it ISNT local(within 15 miles) or you have hills, bumps, TREES and NOT direct line of sight. MUCH worse then ANALOG.
#18,
YOU DOG…
I couldnt get them in this AREA…
those are supposed to be VERY nice.
But STORES are NOT shipping them, they want you to be PHYSICALLY THERE for the coupon.
I went thru LG(?) to find them(made for Zenith) and they couldnt FIND a shop near me..WE even have a BB close by. And Radio Shack WAS SUPPOSED to have them, but NOT the stores NEAR ME..
I got the Data Stream 9950, WHICH isnt to bad.
Digital TV will kill the movie industry.
Ron Larson,
Thanks for the buyers tip. I will definitely look into that model. Honestly, I have no idea what to look for.
I’m a ham radio guy and I built my own di-pole antenna for my TV and it pulls in a pretty clear signal. I’m hoping I can use that for the digital.
I watch nearly all my TV doing time-lag on VHS tapes. It’s a cheap, low tech solution that I’ve done for years but I’ll finally have to give-up
I get the four broadcast networks + couple oddball channels here in Portland and I have more TV than I can ever watch. I have no desire to spend fifty or a hundred bucks on cable or Sat TV.
Is there a DVD recorder that can can be programmed to record digital TV? I’d be pretty interested in that, if it wasn’t too expensive.
21,
YEP,
Look at the Philips 3575.
Its a DVR with HD, and DVD recorder..
Shopco has them on sale for $250..
PS,
Its NTSC and ATSC…analog and digital.
Psst.
Updated NEW model is the dvdr 3576.
# 20 The Pirate said,
“Digital TV will kill the movie industry.”
Why?
A different form of modulation with a bit sharper picture cannot fix the content of the utter crap that the networks broadcast.
#25
iT ONLY MAKES THE fine print SMALLER.
There is some good points to digital Tv. It usually adds a new channel (if not now, then in the future) or two, to each base channel (x.1). And these are not affiliated under any of the current networks deal. So their station owners are free to use them, and program them, with whatever they can. So if you’re fed up with the crap that Fox, CW, MyTv, and the others, demand that stations carry. Now your local stations have the breathing room to experiment and carry what the community likes. Not what some rigged rating system dictates.
These new digital channels should be mandated to remain unaffiliated with established networks, and not be subject to their programming arrangements. But be more a tune to community needs and preference, or not exist at all. This way large media corporations can snatch them up too, and express their political and economic values on them. Added channels should be probationary to community usefulness. Not just more channels for infomercials.
#25
Because failure to see a joke is your fine point.
I have worked for ABC TV for thirty years in engineering. Currently a news photographer and ENG technician, (you know, the big obnoxious trucks with the microwave dish). It is my firm belief that America would have been much better off if the FCC had mandated frequency reallocation, but had NOT told the population about it. Read a book, people. Or at least surf the Internet and read THAT.