Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

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Bigglez
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Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

Post by Bigglez »

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
"The Senate acted responsibly to give the Obama
administration time to attempt to bring order to a
mismanaged process." (Jan 26, 2009).
More here.

"USA Today" reports the $1.3 billion dollar program
to offset the cost of buying converter boxes scraped
bottom on Sunday (Jan 06, 2009).
More here.
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Joseph
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Post by Joseph »

I gave up TV a few years ago in anticipation of the trouble from DTV. :smile:
Bigglez
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Post by Bigglez »

Joseph wrote:I gave up TV a few years ago in anticipation of the trouble from DTV.
What "trouble"? Our Satellite dish has been
receiving digitally-encoded RF from the sky
for many trouble-free years.

Assuming you are in the United States, and pay
Federal Income taxes, you are sharing the burden
of this program.
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Joseph
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Post by Joseph »

The trouble is from trying to get reliable over-the-air reception. I think TV should always have remained free, so I didn't like when cable came onto the scene.

We pay for the program and give into the cable lobbyists who knew dtv would increase their business. people will just get cable instead of messing with the changeover themselves. The ones who try and can't get decent over-the-air reception will give in and get cable too.
Bigglez
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Post by Bigglez »

Joseph wrote: The trouble is from trying to get reliable over-the-air reception. I think TV should always have remained free, so I didn't like when cable came onto the scene.
OTA (Over The Air) terrestrial TV is free. Always
has been, and there are no plans to change.
The cost of keeping it free have been burdened
on the Federal tax payers, whether they use it
or not.
Joseph wrote:We pay for the program and give into the cable lobbyists who knew dtv would increase their business. people will just get cable instead of messing with the changeover themselves. The ones who try and can't get decent over-the-air reception will give in and get cable too.
Is that bad? Why would anyone not use the best
option available to them (i.e. cable service when
OTA is not practical)?

The cable operators are in a tough business, the
cost of external plant and maintenance is very high.
They have to compete with Satellite services and OTA.

Gone are the days of the "big three" in broadcasting -
a parallel paradigm shift to the "big three" of autos.
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dtief
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Post by dtief »

I got my 2 converters - just in time, unless they print more coupons. The way my CATV company has been slowly moving the channels we watch to their ridiculously expensive digital tier, we will be back to over the air (exclusively) for TV.
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Joseph
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Post by Joseph »

Gone are the days of the "big three" in broadcasting -
a parallel paradigm shift to the "big three" of autos.
I think you are right.
Bigglez
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Post by Bigglez »

dtief wrote:I got my 2 converters - just in time, unless they print more coupons.
I've seen coupons with expirations in March,
so they are probably of a new batch issued
after the program halted at the end of 2008.

This latest move by the new Administration
must be unwelcome news to the factories
that actually make the boxes!
SETEC_Astronomy
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Post by SETEC_Astronomy »

The house didn't pass the bill, the date for the switchover remains February 17th, 2009.
Bigglez
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Re: Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

Post by Bigglez »

Bigglez wrote:Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
"The Senate acted responsibly to give the Obama
administration time to attempt to bring order to a
mismanaged process." (Jan 26, 2009).
More here.
Congress didn't pass TV turn-off delay bill

Nielsen Co. estimates that 6.5 million households have not converted TVs to digital.
stevech
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Re: Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

Post by stevech »

Bigglez wrote:
Bigglez wrote:Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
"The Senate acted responsibly to give the Obama
administration time to attempt to bring order to a
mismanaged process." (Jan 26, 2009).
More here.
Congress didn't pass TV turn-off delay bill

Nielsen Co. estimates that 6.5 million households have not converted TVs to digital.
I recall other estimates that there were in total not that many over the air TVs in actual use today. Much less those that don't have an almost free converter already.
Dean Huster
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Re: Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

Post by Dean Huster »

The original "cable" wasn't really intended as the profit-making mess that it is now. CATV back in "the old days" was more of a help for smaller communities in fringe and deep-fringe areas so that they could get decent reception. There wasn't any satellite stuff going on and headends were primarily tall towers with lots of single-channel, high-gain, highly-directional antennas, each pointing to a specific station, many of which might be a hundred or more miles away. Now that the infrastructure has been laid with lots of taxpayer and subscriber monetary support, your present cable system is the high-priced access for terrestrial television, satellite-served programming, Internet, telephone, local access, etc. I know that in our area, cable TV is a lot more expensive than having a satellite receiver system. I don't know why folks put up with it unless they're eating up the high-speed Internet access and phone system all tied together.

Dean
Dean Huster, Electronics Curmudgeon
Contributing Editor emeritus, "Q & A", of the former "Poptronics" magazine (formerly "Popular Electronics" and "Electronics Now" magazines).

R.I.P.
Bigglez
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Re: Analog TV Switch Off postponed ('til June 09)

Post by Bigglez »

Dateline: Wed February 4, 2009
The House, by a vote of 264 to 158, passed a Senate bill that would reset
the death of analog TV to June 12, a measure President Barack Obama is
expected to sign.
More Info Here
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