The Switch to Digital TV or: Shut up about it already!
 

These days it's hard to avoid the news that in the US, analog TV will be going away forever in February of 2009, and if you're one of the very few people who doesn't have cable or an HDTV, you'll have to get a digital converter. Ok, I get it, but I'm really tired of hearing about it everywhere I turn. Flyers in electronics stores? Fine. However, my local ABC station now puts this information in their morning news ticker every day, and the other night the Fox affiliate scrolled the information over the top of their prime-time programming in the style normally reserved for huge breaking news. For God's sake, this isn't happening for another 10 months, and the few old people and hermits who would be affected will probably be just as clueless when February 2009 rolls around.

Is this starting to annoy anyone else? Do you know anyone who still uses only rabbit ears for their television viewing?

/rant

I do.

I signed up for a couple of those 40 dollar vouchers. I'm just hoping that by the time next year rolls around, the boxes won't cost much more than that.

Don't you live in middle of nowhere Idaho? Can you actually pick up more than 2 TV stations?

I don't watch a hell of a lot of TV, nor do I go to major retailers too much. But I know about it, yes.

And you KNOW some people are going to be all "WAIT WHAT?" come February. You KNOW it.

I do all of my tv watching online now anyway, so no I didn't know about this.

I had heard something about a bunch of tv's becoming obsolete, but it was a commercial for HD tv so I just assumed everyone was being forced into buying an HD set. Otherwise ain't got a clue.

I live pretty close to the capital, so all the major networks get broadcast here.

I get decent reception for Fox, ABC, PBS, and whatever that station that likes to play reruns a lot is.

If I had an antennae in the attic or on the roof, I'd get CBS and NBC decent enough that I'd actually watch those channels.

So that's a total of....6!

I know my dad's pretty annoyed with this switch. My parents have cable tv and everything, but my dad's invested a whole lot of money on a tower with a rather expensive antenna atop it to catch television stations from far away (we live on the gulf coast, so picking up stations two states away isn't unheard of). He also signed up for the voucher but is now currently looking for a specific converter box that does something special that the regular ones at walmart/best buy don't do. Personally, doesn't effect me, but there are people out there who do both and it will affect them also.

Now I haven't been keeping track of the switch that much. Don't worry I've seen enough commercials to know it's coming but what exactly does it help by getting rid of the analog signals?

Getting analog TV off of the waves means that we have a big spectrum of strong signals that can be used for something else now. I've heard people throw around the possibility of ubiquitous or at least more widespread wireless internet, although not being familiar with the technology and the possibilities myself I can't say if that's true or not.

I do know that the spectrum currently used by analog TV broadcasts is at a lower frequency that than used by most (or all?) wireless services, like cellphones, and thus it penetrates barriers easier, offers wider coverage, and suffers less interference. Removing it from the hands of TV channels and putting it to potentially awesome use somewhere else is a great move, if you ask me, and should have been done already.

Three of the whopping five stations we have here ramble on about it a lot too. Nearly every ad break there's a bunch of 'stars' that start breathing heavily about the greatness of digital. "Now you can watch repeats in digital high definition. It'll be like you're not watching a repeat at all!" I'll wait 'til HDTVs are the same price as SDTVs are now. And obscure novelty knock-off companies are making them, like Palsonic. See you in eight years!

I barely watch TV anymore. All the shows I end up giving a shit about like Lost or Heroes get shoved around timeslots so much I give up.

Hey zeph, where do you go to get a voucher for one of these things? I don't want enough TV for $45/month for cable to be worth it, and I'm right in LA so there's supposed a shit ton of TV stations I can pick up with an antenna.

I applied for a coupon at https://www.dtv2009.gov/ApplyCoupon.aspx

I don't really watch too much TV so I don't really care, just grabbing a converter box for the hell of it since I don't have an HDTV.

I'm getting pretty annoyed at this as well. It's great to inform people about it, but similar to nutty they've started putting it across the screen as if it's breaking news here as well. It's just kinda ridiculous to do it so early, and I shudder to think how bad it will be closer to the actual date (it'll probably be permanently plastered onto every channel).

For me, this really isn't an issue. The only time I heard about this was my grandfather mentioning this sometime last summer. Basically the same deal as Idlechill's father. However, he said it was happening Feb 2008, so I dunno if he had it wrong, or if something changed.

I'm sure though there will be SOME people who have had no idea that any of this were happening. Will be slightly amusing to frustrating depending on how they react to this 'surprising' change.

The switch to digital in the UK has had a good push for the past 3 years. A digital set top box costs around £10-£30 which you can use with your existing antenna.

The amount of channels you get for free is brilliant at anywhere around 30 whereas usually you get just 5. Why people have not made the switch over is beyond me.

I already have Sky Digital so I am sorted.

Parts of the analog spectrum have already been auctioned off. I don't remember the details but it was something like one group vs another group and google. Google wanted it to supply free wireless internet everywhere or some shit. The other group wanted to charge for it. I would have to check again, but I don't think google got it..

Other parts are going to be used for emergency services.. and that's all I can remember.

Either way, it is being done to free up those frequencies. The move will give you a better picture (hopefully) and will offer much more bandwidth for broadcasters.

I've known about it for years now, but I'm sure there are those who are still clueless. I'm also sure there will be a lot of retards who throw a fit when their TVs go off and they cant watch their soaps and game shows anymore. I'm thinking old people and white trash who don't know better.

EDIT: Okay, I was a little bit mistaken. I double checked and google merely wanted to keep the airspace open and unrestricted to everyone, not offer a network to connect to. My bad. D:

The same website that the guy who posted below you is the one I used.

As far as I know, the current analog spectrum that's being auctioned off for billions of dollars has better range than higher frequencies.

I'm afraid that I'll LOSE station reception, but I really don't know what frequency all the stations are being switched to.