Complaints Pour In After Digital TV Test 537
djupedal writes "'Even if all goes smoothly, next February's digital television shift is likely to generate hundreds of thousands of complaints from television viewers around the country.
A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals, according to figures collected after the test.'"
I expected as much... (Score:3, Insightful)
The "over the air" hold outs will see how bad life without cable or satellite and will have no choice but to buy a subscription TV service or else they cannot watch Dancing with the Stars anymore.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Kill off the competition (Score:1, Insightful)
"A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals"
I thought that was the entire idea behind this digital TV shift. A government sanctioned way to kill off one of the major competitors to the almighty cable company.
BTW, I have an old "pocket television" that I have used for ages that will no longer work after analog is dropped. A digital converter box would be larger than this tiny TV! Does anybody make a modern pocket sized TV with a built in digital tuner? Perhaps I should just take a step backwards and get a pocket radio.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Heh, but that won't happen. Supply and demand will kick in and I think we'll all see just how many people there are in the world. I imagine supply will be about 1/2 to 1/4 what the demand will be, so prices will go up.
What I'm really wondering is, in the interest in quality and features, is it better to buy a new TV now, during the rush or after it. If companies suddenly do better, they may have more money for R&D and make better products afterwards. Then again, companies may strain to get products out and get cheap on quality.
Re:Just get a better antenna! (Score:3, Insightful)
Ya, it's rough. I mean, people have ALWAYS had TV to stare at for entertainment.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Numerous Issues yet to be Seen (Score:5, Insightful)
We will see additional complaints once this is rolled out to areas with more geographic diversity.
Ghosting (an effect of multipath reception, where the tv receives the signal more than once) is an annoyance with analog sets and occurs in areas with serious terrain, skyscrapers, or airplanes flying overhead (none of which really affects the Wilmington market). With a digital set, it can cause a complete loss of signal as the logic hardware may not know onto which signal to lock. Reviews online indicate that a good directional antenna and a quality digital converter box can eliminate those issues.
The way that this transition will occur muddies the waters further. Every station is broadcasting digital TV in the UHF band right now; post-transition, many stations will revert to broadcasting digital TV in the VHF band. Though we have the opportunity to read reviews for which antenna-receiver solution works best for UHF digital TV signals, people will only have the opportunity to read reviews on how this works with VHF after the transition.
Finally, the inexpensive converter boxes eligible for the coupon are of varying quality. There are some that have been recognized as excellent (The Zenith, the Channel Master, the Echostar), there are some that are awful (the Digital Stream, the GE).
Re:Hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
After. TVs improve a lot like computers do, now, and five or six months, while not an eternity, is still quite long.
But you can *always* play that game. If you want a TV now get one now (if you can afford it). OTA digital has already started broadcast in most markets, the picture is much better, you'll probably get more channels, and a few of them will be HD, even.
Re:Bad Analog Signal? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's true. Most people grew up with analog static and other artifacts, so they probably don't even notice it that much.
With digital TV, I could deal with occasional choppy video and pixelation when someone walks around the room if it weren't for the damned audio dropouts.
That's my pet peeve about digital TV. I can't figure out why they didn't allocate ~10kHz of bandwidth for a backup analog audio channel to switch to if the digital decoder fails. A brief audio dropout can make you miss enough important information to ruin the point of watching an entire show. Even a scratchy low-fidelity backup audio track would mostly fix that.
Re:I expected as much... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I expected as much... (Score:5, Insightful)
The image/sound quality associated with one's definition of "watchable" is inversely proportional to the product of their frugality and their desperation to watch the show. Any 12 year old with semi-scrambled "adult" stations coming in via cable will tell you that.
Some people will tolerate a crappy picture and incomprehensible audio rather than pay for subscription service - Those people have now switched from poor video/audio to no video/audio and are upset.
At least that's my guess.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Analog degrades "gracefully", while digital is pretty much all or nothing.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Or you could just continue to use your current TV and ignore the whole unnecessary and unneeded HD signal bullshit. I refuse to buy a new TV that supports HD and I plan on running the three I have into the ground before I upgrade. If at some time in the future I can no longer watch any TV (I have DirecTV currently) I'll just stop watching it all together but I have a feeling that different options will be available (as they are now -- such as torrents, streaming, etc).
WorstBuy, TV manufacturers and the government are drooling over the added revenue. Remember that money that the FCC got for selling off the spectrum? Yeah, I do too. Can someone explain to me why the set top boxes that we will need to get OTA HD for standard definition TVs cost anything more than $0? You can't because it doesn't make any fucking sense what-so-ever. The spectrum belongs to the people and thus *all* of the money gained from any sale goes back to us.
Hey FCC, I'm still waiting for my check.
Re:I expected as much... (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly right. My parents have a lake cabin that is about half-way between the two nearest television markets, right on the edge of the range for both. In the past, they have been able to get most broadcast channels from one city or the other. Many of them are pretty snowy, but watchable.
This summer I helped my Dad put up a new HD antennae, in preparation for the upcoming switch. The monstrous thing was the size of our driveway, and mounted at the top of a 75 foot pole.
It couldn't pull in a single digital channel.
I'm not against the switch, but this is exactly where people will have issues. . . in the places with poor reception a degraded analog signal is better than a digital signal that is too weak to decode.
You don't understand... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What benifit anway? (A landfill full of TVs?) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:4, Insightful)
If giving up a habit that is proven to make people stupid, obedient, and ignorant makes me an elitist then I guess sign me up.
No, choosing to to give up TV doesn't make you elitist. Ridiculing those who don't make the same choice as you does.
Re:I expected as much... (Score:2, Insightful)
And to further compound this, during a storm earlier this year, it took out my digitals all together. I have a 60+ element antenna on my roof and receive all of my stations in 90-95% signal quality. When the storm came through I lost all my digitals, but still had my analogs. Sure, the analogs were degraded in service, but I was able to watch shows and more importantly, the news showing the big giant red storm coming to my house. I didn't have DirecTV at the time, but based on my experience with dish services is that I would not have that service either.
So we are moving to an all digital era where a storm comes through and wipes out everything and everyone. Radio is the last major service to be in the analog stages but they are even moving to digital, slowly. I guess we will have to leave it to the HAM operators.
Re:Mmhmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But the hillbillies will kill us all! (Score:2, Insightful)
A hillbilly without his wrestling shows is a very dangerous individual. Well-armed and high on crystal meth, they are nigh unstoppable. The only way to save ourselves is to hole up at our universities and libraries. They're the only places hillbillies will never go.
"I'm from Hollywood!" Andy Kaufman
I use one, and I still get sucky reception. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Silver Sensor, which is now being made by Philips, is not a panacea. I live in a neighborhood where there are lots and lots of multi-story apartment buildings. I live in an area ringed around with mountains...it's the Valley, after all. All this conspires to cause what broadcast engineers call Multipath Interference. Basically the signals are bouncing off multiple objects and careening around like billiard balls. So I get weak signals, "drifting" signals, and worse.
The best way to deal with Multipath is to have a large outdoor antenna, or better yet, multiple antennae which will cancel out a lot of the interference if placed correctly. However, if you live in an apartment building, good luck getting your landlord to consent to putting up an antenna farm on your roof. Sure, there are probably ancient '60s vintage antennae up there on the roof, but they haven't been used in decades and are in sad shape.
This gets worse in an urban setting. Big city, lots of big skyscrapers = digital broadcast TV FAIL [wikipedia.org].
At least in rural areas that are mostly flatland you have a fighting chance of getting a decent digital broadcast TV signal. All you have to do is make sure your antenna is high enough to get a line-of-sight to your local transmitters.
This is the dirty little secret of digital broadcast TV. Multipath is going to KILL digital broadcast TV in heavily populated areas with large buildings. It's also going to KILL digital broadcast TV for people in mountainous regions.
The vaunted Cliff Effect [wikipedia.org] is not the whole story, either: if you have a marginal signal that is strong enough for the digital converter box to lock onto, but not enough to really pump out enough bits, you wind up with what I call the "Max Headroom Effect." The picture pixellates, the sound stutters like a CD with a skip, and you are left with something even worse than no picture.
Basically those $40 gift cards are a boondoggle...welfare for Chinese electronics companies and American and European holding companies that subcontract to said Chinese electronics companies. The digital converter boxen are not enough: you need to have adequate antenna or antennae. Of course, the gift cards could have included a rebate for approved antennae. But that would have meant the FCC would have had to dig deeper and spread even more welfare to electronics companies. So this half a loaf really is worse than nothing, because the taxpayers have to bend and spread and get ready for the gov't HOT BEEF INJECTION. If the FCC hadn't sent the gift cards out, it would have had the same results.
Instead of trying to broadcast digital signals over the air, the US should have handled the digital transition this way. On February 17th, 2009, BROADCAST TV IS GOING DOWN. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Go to your local cable company or satellite service and request "Lifeline Digital Tier" if you are low income. (you might have to present evidence of this for means-testing) The cable companies and satellite companies would have to offer a low-cost package as a condition of keeping their franchise. This would free up the craved broadcast frequencies, low-income citizens would keep their TV reception, and a lot of valuable real estate on mountaintops would be freed up for other wireless uses.
This is only the first signs of the coming DTV trainwreck. This is almost like the added consequence of alcohol prohibition coinciding with the Great Depression...TV is not necessarily a necessity, but entertainment is a nicety of living that provides a little cushion and a little escapism in bad times. Prohibition made the Great Depression psychologically worse, if only a little. The DTV debacle will coincide with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But hey, shit happens, right?
Re:The opiate of the masses (Score:1, Insightful)
Television, the drug of the nation [youtube.com]
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Techno-nerds vote much less than do old folks or pissed-off folks .
What about pissed-off, old, techno-nerds like me?
I'm really starting to wonder if the Federal government can literally no longer do _anything_ right. They're like Microsoft, so big, bloated and corrupt that whatever good work is being done at the low levels is completely eradicated by the clueless, cowardly and flat-out evil management up top. The difference is, I can mostly avoid Microsoft.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I use one, and I still get sucky reception. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's bad to provide bread and circuses rather than effective functional government. It's stupid (possibly suicidally so) to then take the bread and circuses away too.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
I need an outdoor antenna the size of a 747 to get analog signals as it is, and even so the picture is none too good. What kind of antenna will I need to get a barely viewable digital signal??
A Boon for Internet Television (Score:2, Insightful)
I'll probably watch the season premiere of The Office online tomorrow since the local digital transmitter has been down the past few days.
The problem with digital... (Score:2, Insightful)