Obama Recommends Delay In Digital TV Switch 589
gregg writes "Six weeks before the nation's television stations are scheduled to convert to digital transmission, the Obama administration is asking Congress to consider a delay. In the most significant sign to date of concern about the impending digital TV transition, the Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta said the government funds to support the change are 'woefully inadequate' and said that the digital switch date, Feb. 17, should be 'reconsidered and extended.'"
Re:Really that big deal? (Score:2, Interesting)
According to this web site (http://dtvfacts.com/latest/530/how-many-americans-watch-tv-over-the-air/) approximately 15.5 million U.S. households watch TV over the air exclusively - presumably receiving analog (NTSC) signals. So a significant number of households will be affected. But they've already delayed the digital TV switch over once. I would recommend that they free up the necessary funds to provide the coupons for the folks who need them.
Re:Really that big deal? (Score:1, Interesting)
For my children it is. They only really watch PBS and we get super shitty reception on that as it is so I'm guessing in the digital tv world of 1's and 0's, they'd be watching a bunch of zeros.
You obviously live some place where you have more than 4 network stations; not so here or most other places in the U.S. for that matter. And the closest one causes the most interference for the other channels.
Can't wait till the reception goes to shit for some community out in Kansas and tornadoes hit. The lawsuits will flood the courts and even if I'd typically consider them as frivolous, they have just as much a right to the public broadcasting services as anyone else, especially in the event of an emergency.
Re:Really that big deal? (Score:5, Interesting)
I just hate paying for programming that contains ads. I mean, isn't that what the ads are for?
Yes, the ads are paying for the programming. But not for the access. That's what your cable bill is for -- to pay for the wiring and access to the programming.
Or to put it another way, are you surprised that have to pay a bill to your ISP -and- you see ads on cnn.com?
I really don't know why people find the cable-TV concept so confusing.
[and yes, I realize cable is a bit more complicated, in that there are arrangements where cable kicks up some money to a channel for carrying the channel, but that isn't enough to pay for most programming. The point still stands.]
Re:Hey, just doing you a favor... (Score:1, Interesting)
"Think about people in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, etc..."
Well here in central Nebraska, we are already set to go. Our local CBS PBS and NBC affiliates are already digital, and have switched off analog early. Analog only folks still get ABC and FOX for now, but they have been warned.
Also, if there is any kind of power outage in this area, TV is useless, as NONE of the local TV stations have backup generators. All of the major radio stations do have backup power, and stay on the air with live updates during storms. Everyone knows that, so we just grab a radio when we need current weather info.
Radios to receive digital TV sound? (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope there will be cheap radios that can pickup digital TV sound like there is now for analog.
During the recent long power outage in New Hampshire, we found it very useful to have a little radio that picked up TV sound. The coverage of the emergency seemed to be better on TV than radio.
Radios like that will soon be less useful.
TV in Los Angeles (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for everywhere obviously, but here in Los Angeles pulling the plug on the analog transmissions is a big big deal. Not just because of Southern California's population but because of it's LATINO population.
I work in this industry for a Low Power Analog TV station (one that broadcasts on 4 different stations locally and a bunch more across the country). And the transition represents about 80% of my workload lately (I do broadcast engineering and IT).
But back on point, a LOT and I mean like hundreds of thousands of Latino families in the area rely on OTA transmissions. When you pull their plug, you might say "great, now they can go outside, read a book, etc" but in reality they're not tuned in. So that means advertising revenue dries up for the station (as it has for ours and almost every other that caters to the Latino community as well as mainstream tv programming). That means more layoffs and so on down the line.
Speaking for my company and other smaller players this delay is a good thing. Eventually the analog stations will go away and that's fine and eventually the low power guys like myself will have a concrete deadline too, and that's fine as well. Just remember though, millions have cable, direcTV, Dish, etc but there are still MORE than a few out there that really rely on plain vanilla over the air TV broadcast.
Re:TV in Los Angeles (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for everyone, but --. I've been working on some facet of DTV for the better part of 10 years. My most recent project has been for a large cable/satellite TV provider to ensure they are transition ready. I can assure you, although there will likely be minor glitches in the 24-48 hours after the switch, I expect nearly everything to be operating normally on satellite and cable. (Even in cases where the broadcaster has changed channels, gone from UHF to VHF, or even changed transmitter locations.)
Over the Air: We're already on our second postponement. The spectrum has already been sold off, we are on borrowed time. Analog TV transmitters are on their last legs, they need to go away. I remember my first OTA 8-VSB receiver, was a DirecTV receiver, it was $700+ and worked poorly. Today, I am the proud owner of an Insignia brand $60 converter that I paid $20 for and will lock onto signals the original DirecTV receiver would never get. I got my coupon when it was initially offered, a little less than a year ago. (Early bird gets the worm) My locals have never looked so good with my $20 converter and $7 antenna.
I am so sick of seeing DTV transition soft-tests and PSAs about the pending transition that I can't wait for it to be over. It's not like you didn't have time to get your stuff in order.
Worst case scenario: On February 17th, you have to pay the full price for the box. $60 instead of $20, because you didn't pay attention. I got a parking ticket recently, I put money in the wrong meter. I was fined $30 because I failed to pay attention.
The boxes exist and are plentiful, if you didn't pay attention and get your free coupon when they had money for them - oh well. That isn't the fault of the Federal Government.
Re:MOD parent Up (Score:5, Interesting)
Nobody uses OTA... (Score:5, Interesting)
From my POV here in Rhode Island, it looks like most 'poor' people have satellite, the middle class have cable and fios. I attribute this to the sat. companies not doing a credit check, which the cable companies seem to do.
The upper-middle class are the only folks I see with 'regular' TVs anymore. They listen to NPR and tune in to PBS or watch the news, but that's pretty much it.
And the rich folks... I wouldn't know. They never invite me over. :-) I would assume they keep high-end HDTV setups, but rarely watch.
I do think that there is an inversely proportional relationship to how much TV you watch and how much money you make though. I don't really ever spot my well-to-do friends watching TV. I haven't figured out if it's because
more disposable income -> better things to do than TV
or
educated and motivated -> more disposable income
The funny thing was, I went over to my parents a few days ago, and they think they're all set because they have cable, which is true in the TV room; but then they flipped on their little black-and-white 4" TV in the kitchen for the news. I pointed out that they'll have to drop about two hundred bucks to replace -that-, to which my dad replied, "Screw it, I'll throw it away."
Come to think of it, I haven't seen -one- actual, installed DTV converter, and I was in a -lot- of houses in the last month. I also don't know anyone who consumes OTA digital TV.
I'll bet there are a -ton- of elderly folks in those huge apartment towers I see all over town that have bunny ears though... They're going to be pissed, and they vote.
digital tv switch (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Really that big deal? (Score:5, Interesting)
My mother still has broadcast TV. No cable. She's not the only one I know. There are a lot of lower income people that can't afford the high monthly prices of subscription TV. Don't look at just your own peer group to decide whether or not something is ubiquitous.
The snag though is that the Digital TV signal isn't that great where she is, and she's going to lose one of her favorite channels that comes in quite well over analog.
FCC Analog Nightlight Rules (Arstechnica) (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, they sort of are doing something like that.
Ars ran a story last week, FCC okays DTV "analog nightlight" rules [arstechnica.com]. Unfortunately, it's only for 30 days - seems like it should be 90 or 180 days. Also, apparently, this doesn't apply to all markets [multichannel.com], so I think the FCC is kind of messing up there.
Partly, though, I'm confused about how anyone could possibly not know about the digital TV transition and not be prepared for it at this point? Every time I try to watch OTA broadcasts using my digital converter box, I'm constantly being annoyed by text overlays obscuring the programming I'm watching, with messages about the digital transition. I've seen one possible explanation [hulu.com].
Still, I do agree with the parent - why not *permanently* leave one analog channel for information about the fact that TV has switched to digital transmissions, and also use it for emergency programming (like evacuation and health-related notices, severe weather coverage, disaster-related instructions and info, etc)?
Re:Really that big deal? (Score:4, Interesting)
Even better. There should be a second wave of more capable converter boxes that don't have the stupid limitations that were imposed on the current ones such as no digital audio outputs, no HD component outs, etc.
Re:TV in Los Angeles (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, and I can tell you about cases of people buying boxes, and then trying different antennas, and not being able to get reliable service. They live 20-30 miles from the transmitter. Analog's fine. There are a bunch of densely populated communities in the Northeast that fall into this category. It's not just people who didn't pay attention, it's also people who have tried multiple types of antennas trying to get any stable signal, and can't. And they live places where they can't use roof antennas for one reason or another.
If you're under 20 miles from the transmitter, it's great. But over that, and depending on the terrain, it gets crappy very quickly. So they're asking "what's the point?" and yelling and their Congressional delegation. And if Congress decides to delay it, oh well.
I'd love to see a PSA that actually mentioned that you might need to spend a good amount of time, effort and money working out an antenna solution, by the way. But that might have scared people off, I guess.
Digital switch in the EU (Score:3, Interesting)
Well here in the EU we are almost done with the switch. I am not sure if there are any regions anymore which are still analog.
It worked out pretty much without flaws.
People on cable basically didnt have to switch, a load of people have satellite receivers those did not have to switch either and many of them already were digital only anyway. That left out around 20% of the population with antennas. Those could get a 30$ refund on the converter boxes. And since the cheaper boxes were around that price it was basically getting such a box for free if you opted for the lowest possible option!
There were almost no complaints in the switch and there was a load of advertisement on TV on how to switch, so the rollout was more or less flawless!
Re:MOD parent Up (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know the situation in the USA, but in the UK digital TV is broadcast at lower power until the analog signal is switched off (otherwise it would interfere with the analog broadcast). Once the analog signal is switched off they'll increase the digital signal power. (I put that in the future tense, but some areas have already changed, and some won't change until 2012. OTA analog TV is very popular here, about 3/4 of TVs receive it).
Re:S/N Ratio and such (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like you are close in.
Actually, I'm not. I'm decidedly in the suburbs of one of the 5 largest cities in America. The signals are coming from a pretty wide arc.
Get rid of the antenna preamp. Most have a horrible S/N ratio and just add to the problem with receiver front-end overloading. Switch to a more onmi directional antenna. This would help with the multi path issue.
Forget the sales hype. DTV is in the same band space as conventional TV.
Already omni, same antenna I've used for a long time. Tried it both ways.
The problems in my area (confirmed by running a googlemap check on the transmitter locations) are:
- "new construction" semi-skyscrapers (~10-story buildings) that have popped up over the last 5 years in the oddest places wipes out 2 channels by direct LoS obstruction.
- Reflections from more of the semi-skyscrapers (I have double-phase ghosting from at least 3 analog signals, but they are at least watchable; the double-phase ghosting absolutely destroys 2 more of the DTV signals).
- Inability to see one signal (the local PBS station) because their transmitter was "relocated" to a 2-story building right behind the "downtown" area and completely blocked off; the old transmitter they used to send from is being entirely taken up by something else more "lucrative" for the downtown skyscraper owner.
What really sucks? Of the remaining 7 that I can get, two are the shitty-ass "we rebroadcast crappy Mexican TV shows for the illegals to watch" stations. I can get Fox, NBC, "UPN/WB/MNT/whatevertheyarenow", a Trinity Broadcasting (Televangelism 24/7! We Run The "Bible-Man [wikipedia.org]" Superhero Show!) station, a local "Independent" station that broadcasts a ton of "Classic TV" stuff (occasionally good), and of course Mexican Crap 1 and Mexican Crap 2. I lose another 2 independent stations, plus PBS, ABC, and CBS affiliates.