[live+let_live]

I love conspiracies, they’re lots of fun. But this is just the evolution of the technology. Digital is better. It uses narrower frequencies than analog.

[raybbr]

I love conspiracies, they’re lots of fun. But this is just the evolution of the technology. Digital is better. It uses narrower frequencies than analog.

Then explain why Congress is mandating the change over to digital vis-a-vis a "better" technology? Where are the market forces in a mandate by Congress?

[Robert Drobot]

"....this is just the evolution of the technology. Digital is better...."

What has that got to do with the type of appliance I choose to use in my home, and the Congress hustling for a 'must buy' product from China?!?!?!?!

[TomGuy]

I love conspiracies

Conspiracies?

Read the comments out of McCain's mouth in post 29

McCain basically says that the government is creating mandates so that businesses will profit.

[Hot Tabasco]

It uses narrower frequencies than analog.

I noticed my latest HDTV's (that have the built in HD tuners)have the capacity for probably thousands of channels. Example, my channel 7 is standard digital and 7.1 is the HD counterpart.

And my newer Pioneer has channels not yet assigned signals such as "7.???" ......etc. I guess the number of channel possibilities are now infinite.....

[HangThemHigh]

"I love conspiracies, they’re lots of fun. But this is just the evolution of the technology. Digital is better. It uses narrower frequencies than analog."

Does narrow frequencies mean more channels? Surely there is some real reason for this beyond boosting WalMart and the Chinese, et al.

Since when does Congress have anything to do with progress?

[Magnum44]

It uses narrower frequencies than analog.

Which provides more bandwidth for users. There is almost certainly a component to this where they can sell more channels, but the real reason is they were out of bandwidth and had demand from more users. 10 years ago I was not happy about this, but in the time since, most people have been able to transition to new compatible TV's and there are always converter boxes for the old diehards who want to keep their RCA console.:)

[dr_lew]

Here’s my own sort of mini-conspiracy theory. I think that after conversion, the non-HDTV signals processed through the mandated “box” will be noticeably degraded from what we have been used to in analog. I base this on my experience of having viewed analog channels on an HDTV system. The digitization of the analog signal produces a sort of paint-by-numbers effect, noticeable for example when watching golf tournaments, where the picture is composed of slightly different shades of green. The result is a “splotchy” appearance, and once you notice it, you can detect it in a variety of situations.

I don’t know for a fact that this is the way it will be, but I vehemently suspect it.