Posted on 01/06/2009 7:38:33 PM PST by TornadoAlley3
No! The converter IS needed for older TVs on an antenna, but not needed for an older TV on cable, simply because cable is not changing from the 525-line analogue system, yet.
An HDTV can receive both the old and new signals, and thus no converter is needed.
Among 0bama voters, the number of people who are aware that the change is coming is probably very low. Among 0bama voters, the number of people who know who Joe Biden is is very low.
I don’t see where it’s government’s responsibility to pay for my TV. I ordered two of the discount cards and promptly shredded them in a heavy duty paper shredder at work. Hopefully that was $80 that the few remaining taxpayers won’t have to cover. In the end I guess it didn’t matter since they’ll just print more currency if they run out.
I ponied up and bought two converters, sans coupons. They work well, and I enjoy they new channels...but I wish somebody could explain to me WHY we have to do this. Who does it hurt if stations keep sending analog? BTW, our local station is doing 30 second tests, where they shut off analog. LOTS of people are discovering they have problems (mistakenly believing their HD set has an HD tuner in it). It will be fun to watch the ‘analog’ refugees on the news, demanding government action.
If each analog station multicasts several digital TV stations, we will have 7 times as many channels to watch. HDTV uses more than one of the subchannels, so any stations broadcasting HDTV signals will have fewer subchannels.
The bottom line is that we will have better over-the-air TV and more channels to watch. It's a good change. Get a box or a new TV.
In brief, analog uses more spectrum than digital. We’re running out of spectrum space. The extra space freed up by shutting down analog tv will be used, in large part, by public safety.
No, I haven't. I've seen some pretty wild stuff on the HDTV displays at Costco, but I really don't watch the tube. I'm chomping at the bit for the snow to melt so I can get the Roadliner to the house. We have about 4 inches of new snow since yesterday. The temperature started up about 5 PM after the last front passed. Now it's up to +37F. I'm hoping for some of it to melt, but the forecast just has more coming.
I watched the youtube video. It was too dark to see much detail. The description sounded like a pretty dangerous stunt.
0bama's civilian security force could probably use the spectrum.
I wonder why the video didn’t display well for you. I watched it in normal and high quality and the lighting and definition was really very good. This is a 22” Westinghouse widescreen in “text” mode — in “picture” mode would be brighter yet.
The video shows two things that never occurred to me to try — jump up onto and ride off of a 10 story building. The ride down appeared 100 times as scary. Got up to at least 55 degrees here today. Nice after the single digit stuff.
I waited until last Friday to get the plates for the Roadliner. Now they are good through Dec 31, 2010. I spotted a dyno test for a Stratoliner on YouTube. The Stratoliner is the Roadliner with factory luggage, windshield and passenger back rest. The stock bike produced 91 HP at the tire and 122 ft-lbs of torque at the tire. There's a few videos of bozos burning the back tire and doing donuts on asphalt with a Roadliner. Seems a waste of good rubber. Some good weather would be really nice.
I could barely discern what the guy did on the bike. Perhaps the version I watched just didn't have good lighting.
That’s cool. I don’t have any services and have not yet bought any HDTVs, the convertor boxes seem to work pretty good. I get a lot of channels.
The government action amounts to a taking of value from everyone who had a currently functional piece of TV equipment,whether viewer ,broadcaster,or studio.
I note the howl if the government tries to mandate more "efficient cars and light bulbs,why give them a pass on digital tv?How would everyone like it if all vehicles lacking air bags were ordered banned from the roads tomorrow?
Every household ought to have been mailed several coupons of the value of a basic converter and able to be applied against the purchase of a higher featured converter or DTV if desired.
The switch to digital will require boxes for my bedroom TVs,living room TV,kitchen TV,garage TV,'and how do those boxes work with any of my little 5 portables(color) and especially my pocket TVs for stadium ,camping, or office breaks?Not very well,since the converter mostly plug in AC and are larger than the tv!I'll bet there are millions in like circumstances.Never mind cable(none goes by my house) or satellite(I can live with the channels which the local stations had been broadcasting in the format neither of us asked to be changed).
It is odd how many conservatives (people who generally oppose change and government over-reaching) think being forced to buy new appliances is good.
I'd say you didn't think it through.
The single analog broadcast may be replaced by six digital ones but each of the SDTV channels will not carry as much information as an analog channel.Digital video will pixellate or show blocks when the picture changes rapidly.The digital TV signal is processed and compressed so that those parts of the picture that remain static aren’t resent continually as with analog.Analog voice and video has built-in redundancy which allowes the listener or viewer’s brain to compensate for varying signal-to-noise ratios.Digital either shows a great picture or none at all,with the annoying frozen pics and blocks in case of interference or weak signals.
I live in a deep fringe area. I could receive up to 10 analog stations with a good UHF-VHF antenna and good conditions. Only 4 stations came in clear most of the time. I could usually watch the others even though they were snowy. Now with the converters, I can watch 12 stations if the weather conditions are ideal. I can only see 2 a good part of the time. I would rather be able to watch TV with snow than no TV at all.
Why do I like the Dish converters? Because you get the same 7-day program menu of all channels like the Dish satellite receivers, so you can see and program everything you want to watch over the coming week. Also, with the DTVPal Plus, the tuner is really sensitive. With the Dish box, my daughter gets 19 clear digital stations already, and with the antenna connected directly to a new JVC flatscreen tuner, she only gets 10.
There are other outstanding DTV boxes out there which have S-video outputs and smart antenna connections, so do some research online.
That has everything to do with it. If you have an HD-capable television with a tuner there is no need for the converter box.
There was a limited number of cards available. If my two prevented two from being used in the end, then it did save taxpayers money. I did think it through, maybe you didn’t read the fine print in the program.
Over the holiday a local TV station broadcast a 1/2 hour program on how to hook the darn things up. After watching the first 5 minutes of the program I had my unit hooked up and working properly. I lost, actually lost channels I normally receive on analog. The step that seemed omitted from my directions...the need to scan for channels. LOL. Whoever wrote the directions assumed we all had some experience with fancy TVs!
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