Obama Recommends Delay in Digital TV Switch

[sandor]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Not to mention I know nobody who relies on an antenna. It seems everyone has cable or sat nowdays. I wonder what the stats really are.

I have never paid for television in my life and rely completely on my roof top antenna. I have been running (sage) with ATSC (digital) tuners and my rooftop antenna since 2004.


The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that 11-20% of US household (like mine) rely solely on OTA signals for television. And then 5-27% of cable and satellite users also use OTA.

[jimwhite]

I believe the only real problem with the digital switch is the lack of portable digital capable TV's.

HORSE POOPY.... You get better emergency info (without commercials) on RADIO'S... most people have one of those !!!

Hawaii is switching early on Jan 15

Interesting... Obama's home state...

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by sandor

I have never paid for television in my life and rely completely on my roof top antenna. I have been running (sage) with ATSC (digital) tuners and my rooftop antenna since 2004.


The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that 11-20% of US household (like mine) rely solely on OTA signals for television. And then 5-27% of cable and satellite users also use OTA.

Yep. I'd say half my customers who purchased converter boxes or antenna's have Directv, who doesn't offer local channels in my area.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jimwhite

HORSE POOPY.... You get better emergency info (without commercials) on RADIO'S... most people have one of those !!!

You obviously have never seen the weather reporting in Oklahoma when tornadic weather is about.

[Wakecrash]

For all major change their can be issues and some inconviences to work out.

Every issue I have seen on this thread has a work around, perhaps it will cause some difficulty and add some expense to a few, but to use these as excuses to delay a major change, that has been in the works for years is ridiculous... Nothing can mover forward with that kind of mentality.

[davephan]

The February 17th date seemed to be poorly selected date, arbitrarily selected without much thought. February 17th is in the middle of winter. Many homes in northern US have snow and ice on the rooftops in mid-winter. If rooftop antenna work has to be done after the analog TV shut down, it would be more difficult or impossible to do during the middle of winter.

The $40 coupons expire in only 90 days. Many people have expired coupons that cannot be renewed. If people have two expired coupons, they cannot apply for new coupons.

The digital signal is free of the analog signal snow, ghosting, and fuzziness. However, the digital signal is subject to pixelation and rain fade if the signal is not strong enough.

Dave

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by davephan

If rooftop antenna work has to be done after the analog TV shut down, it would be more difficult or impossible to do during the middle of winter.

If work needs to be done on the antenna, it has probably has nothing to do with the switch to digital. Those signals are currently being broadcast in the UHF frequencies. So unless the antenna was VHF only, it won't matter. And in my area most of the broadcasters are going back to their original frequencies (VHF requires less power to transmit). I vote that we just do it now.

Wayne

[stevech]

in my city, the broadcasters did a terrible job of explaining who needs converter boxes. Way too wordy. KISS.