Posted on 01/02/2008 10:52:25 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
The federal government doesn't usually give things away, but starting Tuesday broadcast TV watchers can apply for a gift that could keep their sets from going dark in 2009.
Via a toll-free hot line and Web site the Commerce Department will begin accepting applications for coupons worth $40 off a no-frills converter box to allow older televisions to receive digital broadcast signals.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
$40 bucks? We all pay for it.
Dish’s signal is already digital. Your boxes already convert to a format your TV can recognize, this won’t change. Any changes that do occur will be dealt with at the point where Dish transmits the information up to their satellite.
No problem, no worries, no phone call needed.
Dish already takes the existing channels and digitizes tham and sends them to your house, where the box puts them back into signals good for your TV.
The only thing that will change is on Dish's end. If your local stations no longer have a standard feed, then Dish will have to convert the new digital broadcast feed into a format suitable for satellite transmission. But once it gets to your house, everything will be the same.
You’re welcome. I got a cute little HDTV tuner that plugged into computer. Lots of HDTV stations. Just about all are clones or extensions of existing over the air stations. One Spanish station seemed to morph into 4 HDTV stations
I told a fib because we do have cable bundled in with our rental. But I personally almost never watch it. And I strongly suspect that the cable vendor is going to do away with the economical bulk subscription plans that permit residences such as ours to obtain basic service for less than $10 a month. When that is replaced with a $60-$70 digital subscription plan in a year or two, we really will get rid of it.
There is a small band of local over-the-air HDTV enthusiasts who maintain a lively thread on http://www.avsforum.com Everyone can find their own geographical area on there. I am doing this more as a “see-how-it-works” project than to actually spend any time watching it, but I guess Fox Sports is one of the available stations now so I will see the occasional event on there.
One think I like is that the local station engineers sometimes participate on the thread and answer inquiries (and complaints). The local hobbyists seem to keep these station engineers pretty honest as far as transmitter antennas, power levels, and HD programming.
Mark
The card I am getting is the HD-5500 from pcHDTV, which is by far the best choice for Linux. ( http://pchdtv.com )
I already have recording software setup — it is mythtv and is the same idea as tivo.
Carolyn
Thanks again!P>Carolyn
Shoo, go away. There are other nits that you should be picking.
No I’m just pointing out that you were wrong. And they aren’t nits, your statements were wrong. Maybe you should man up and admit you were wrong, 100% across the board. It’s really kind of pathetic and sad that you have to whine about being nitpicked when you get called on making 100% completely false statements.
Just out of curiosity, what is the matter with the person being responsible for their own TV and if they don't take care of it by that date, then their TV doesn't process the signal? That way, they don't spend my (and yours) money and they still sell the "swath of spectrum" you note. And BTW, someone I sent this to added the totals from the article and it comes to a 1.5 billion giveaway.
Digital, but HD is still a little ways off for the majority of content providers. I can’t believe the Rose Bowl wasn’t in HD on ABC.
The Rose Bowl wasn’t in HD?! That’s just lazy, you can’t tell me the Mouse couldn’t afford one more HD mobile unit.
Basically, the fed mandated the obsolescence of a good number of perfectly fine televisions.
Asking them to pony up for their decision isn’t so bad, and manufacturers have been including digital tuners in almost every new TV for the past two years (I think that’s also mandated by law).
If the goobermint mandated 100% ethanol conversion by 2012, would you feel bad if they ponied up for the conversions of older petrol cars?
I don’t think those qualify. For a tuner to qualify, it cannot output any high-definition signal:
Disqualifying features:
Outputs (General):
Digital Video Interface (DVI);
Component video (YPbPr);
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI);
Computer video (VGA);
USB IEEE-1394 (iLink or Firewire)
Ethernet (IEEE-802.3)
Wireless (IEEE0802.11)
Considering how many articles have been already posted about this you’d think people would read up before they posted.
What they are giving is a coupon which will be good for about 1/2 off the purchase of a converter box (digital tuner).
No, there isn’t a “right” to a converter box, but considering they are fixing something that ain’t broke and forcing an upgrade, I don’t see a problem with them using money they’ll get from auctioned frequencies to pay for the coupons.
Yes. Of course I don't believe the government should be interfering in the market, certainly not to that extent. The airwaves they have claimed are the public's and they are administering them. I don't have as much a problem with them trying to set standards (i.e. moving to digital broadcasts) and freeing up airwaves for other use as I do for them paying for people to convert their TVs because they don't want to pony up the $50 to $70 dollars for their own TV.
“Think of the rural people where it is not economically feasible for the cable companies to run lines.”
That would be me.
Applied for 2 coupons today -we’ll see what happens.
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