By MARK NIESSE
Hawaii’s first-in-the-nation switch to all-digital TV went smoothly, with volunteers handling about a call a minute to a special hotline and only minor technical glitches reported.
Experts from six teams made several house calls for last-minute hookups, said Chris Leonard, president of the Hawaii Association of Broadcasters.
[…]
In Washington Friday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill to delay the Feb. 17 nationwide shutdown of analog TV signals until June 12, but Democrats said they would bring the measure back next week.
So far, so good.
Politicians jostling each other to see which butt to kiss for votes. The single-digit % still relying on OTA analog or the networks and content providers who’ve already scheduled in the changeover.
Funny… I heard it was quite the opposite.
We need to just do it and be done with it. If there are problem deal with them. Otherwise we are never going to do it.
Thirty years ago we were going to go metric and then we lost our guts and for thirty years we have been neither.
Now half the kids and adults can’t do math right in either system.
Why, because people like my grandmother were afriad they couldn’t figure out how to buy a jug of milk and others were afraid they couldn’t figure out how to put gas in their cars!
I’m with the Republicans on this one. Full steam ahead.
To think I’m siding with Republican majority gives me pause to rethink my position, but I’m good.
It would only be FUNNY if buried in the switchover legislation was a requirement to go metric at the same time. Imagine the fun then. If you don’t know what one-tenth of a centimeter is====you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
It’s funny, Ronald Reagan, a Republican was the one that killed the conversion to metric. Conservatives hate change. In the case of the conversion to to DTV, the Republicans love big business so they want it done. Only the poorest American’s (myself included) are using over the air TV. But don’t worry about me, I bought my settop box two years age.
Just get on with it. The only reason the digital boxes cost $60 is because the manufacturers know that the government is subsidizing $40 of that. There’s about $5.00 worth of parts inside, and they can be sold at $10.00 for a profit.
The faster we can take away the coupon program the better.
I think the main concern is whether the “switch over” will effect some televised sporting event. They managed to put this thing off until after the Olympics and Presidential election (and Inauguration). And I think Feb 17 misses the Superbowl too (or does it). But it will probably screw up the NASCAR broadcasts for those who still watch it on old analog sets, and are more concerned with their brand of beer, than what model digital converter to buy. And you can bet that makes both NASCAR and the beer industry, nervous. Television interrupt could cost them dearly, during this time. Bet they ask for a Bail Out.
I’m less concerned about the change over, than I am about the transmission power they use. In most locations, they promise to boost the digital transmissions, once they’re not burdened with the cost of the analog transmissions. And that should alleviate a lot of the “fringing out” complaints about the new format. But will some stations merely keep their present broadcast power as is? Save themselves some money, and hope the viewers will accept the weaker transmissions as the cost of the new technology. I’ve heard NOTHING said about stations boosting their power, as if the government doesn’t what to force the Tv stations into it. You’d think it would be a selling point to mention that digital broadcast will get stronger. But somehow I’ve missed hearing anything about it. I just know from a couple of technical websites, that they plan to. You’ll also have to rescan all channels on or after Feb 17, as they will shift allocated frequencies around. And the boxes won’t do the rescan automatically (I think). A few channels in my local will be moving down to the VHF band, after Feb 17th. While some others up in the UHF band will be bumped around too. Their station should mention the need to rescan, on the faithful day (post-Feb17). The power increases will probably follow after that (let’s hope).
@Larry
I take slight offense to that comment. =) Some of us use OTA and are not “poor.” We’re just tired of paying $100 for crapptastic choice of channels.
Frankly, there are less than 15 channels I want, and only 3 I’d consistently watch (Sci Fi, Food Network, and Discovery). I don’t care about WE, or CNN Sports or whatnot.. Sadly I can’t pick what channels I want I have to buy an obscene tier 3 package to get them.
So it isn’t just poor people that use OTA TV.
– Ben
If you were a smart consumer, you went to Radio Shack and bought the VU-190 at fire sale pricing of $20-50.
Digital Reception is absolutely guaranteed when you hook up your box to an antenna thats 13 feet long, has 57 elements and can pull in stations from 180 miles away.