Posted on 03/13/2007 1:40:29 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
Consumers who depend on old-fashioned antennas to watch television won't miss the 2009 Super Bowl, but their analog sets will stop working soon afterward.
Analog TVs will no longer receive a signal come Feb. 19, 2009, unless users update their hardware to receive a digital signal.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
You mean we'll be completely free of the idiot box idiocies in 2009? Hurray!
Rabbits ears?
I thought they were made of aluminum foil and coathangers.
"I thought they were made of aluminum foil and coathangers."
Exactly my thought! The aluminum foil industry is going to take a hit on this one.
Wow, the Democratic Congress sure was able to ram this socialist program through Congress in a hurry.
This has been in the works for years. Not unexpected, and not unplanned.
Celebrating too soon. There will be (in fact there already is) a signal converter for changing the digital signal into an analog signal for the older TVs. A broadcast will still be sent out over the air, but because all of the compression, a number of signals may be bunched under the same channel allocation.
When they went from rotary dials to keypads, I was lost.
Of course it's not actually going to be the end of that era. The whole point of the digital changeover is to get more channels in the VHF space, the rabbit-ears will stay they'll just be getting a highly modified signal that requires new equipment to sort through the channels and display the results.
Rabbit ears work for digital TV too.
Of course, you have to have a digital television...and I realize that it was analog TV's that the headline referred to.
But, technically speaking, if you're in the right location it is quite possible to get digital TV signals with rabbit ears on a digital, ATSC compatible TV - I know many people who do.
Nice to see the dems are no longer concerned about landfill space.
Not if PETA has anything to say about it.
We've never had cable. We didn't have the extra money for it when we got married and we just never watched enough TV later to make it seem like a worthwhile expense.
I watch 2 or 3 shows on a regular basis and turn it on for severe weather reports. My husband never watches it.
I still haven't decided whether to get the upgrade or to finally cave in to cable or dish.
"I actually know a Democrat couple that huddle around the Rabbit Ears every night. Together they make about 200k a year as well,it's funny as hell."
I use rabbit ears too....But the reason I have rabbit ears is that I have disdain for much of what is on TV, broadcast or non-broadcast....If they cut off the signals, not sure I'll care.
I cut off cable nearly 10 years ago because my kids were young and impressionable, and I didn't want them to be exposed to stuff potentially without a parent to put it in proper context for them. It made sense then, and I'd recommend it to any parent today - kids will eventually give up on TV and read books like mine did!
Well the big event of it is the GOP controlled Congress kept balking at the cost and delaying transition day, managed to push it off 10 years (probably the closest they came to actual fiscal conservatism the whole time they controlled Congress). The Dems on the other hand have never balked at a cost that wasn't associated with the military so they're going ahead with the old plan rather than pushing the date again.
Article in the San Diego paper yesterday about HD antennae. $90-160. Can get 20 San Diego feeds and whatever is in Hi Def if you have a HiDef TV with an internal converter (I guess less than 2 years old).
Oh, so this must be a socialist program that goes back to Clinton era?
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