U.S. DTV News & Discussion

[tenstu]

This is good advice - and something I have been trying to get 'others' in my house to do!! I keep telling the kids that it is better to use 17-2 for Wordgirl recordings!!

I don't however, watch much of anything myself that is in SD and do wish that some of these available sub-channels were put to better use.

I also wish our Toronto stations would get on this bandwagon as well. My personal requests would be 5-2 - CBC Newsworld, 9-2 - TSN, and 57-2 - Rogers Sportsnet , but that is for another thread....

[Yuprules]

HDTV101 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4

The fake commercial ROCKED. Proves that delaying it would had done nothing, now it's just confusing people more. She was the perfect lady for it!

[artthe1]

On Analog 18 Fresno, I found this:

KVPT is no longer broadcasting an analog signal.
You can still receive KVPT by preparing your
television to recieve a digital signal.
KVPT is partnering with Comcast to answer
your questions regarding the digital transition.

To learn more, call:

English 800-956-1673
Spanish 800-956-1674

Then it mentions kvpt.org/digital

I assume this is the Nighlight service some stations are doing? It's a PBS station, BTW. The others are still analog.

[HDTV101]

Originally Posted by Yuprules

HDTV101 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4

The fake commercial ROCKED. Proves that delaying it would had done nothing, now it's just confusing people more. She was the perfect lady for it!

Yeah gives a new meaning to the term "Digital Divide"

The term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all.

[zounder1]

I ran across this recently and was not sure where to post it in this forum. So Stampeder, please feel free to move where you think it makes sense.

ION Television in the states has delayed their switch to digital OTA until March 16 in 20 major markets:
http://www.ionmedia.tv/press/press.cfm?id=146

Now this got me wondering what markets those were:
http://www.ionmedia.tv/press/press.cfm?id=146

So it looks like the transmitters closer to Canada are not going live March 16 but a more nebulous "later in 2009".

For Toronto folks that means WPXJ will be switching to digital some time later in the year.

For those not familiar with ION Television you can check them out here:
http://www.iontelevision.com/

I'm not waiting with baited breath for this channel to go digital, but it will be one more channel for potential OTA reception.

[zounder1]

Doh. The second link above should be:
http://www.ionmedia.tv/press/press.cfm?id=142
That link lists all markets that ION transmits in. For some reason I can not edit my message above to correct it.

Cheers.

[foxfan]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/124067

[alebowgm]

foxfan, That was bound to happen eventually...

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by foxfan

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/124067

As they say on Slashdot RTFA...

I probably needn't tell you which choice a 70-year-old Missouri man selected on Friday, after he couldn't get his DTV converter box to work. According to reports, after the Joplin resident lost his cable and fussed with the DTV box for a bit, he gave up, and eventually turned to the oldest of analog solutions -- good old-fashioned firepower -- to get the television to start working.

1. Oldster has his cable TV service cut off
2. Gets roaring drunk
3. Tries to get his DTV converter box working, but is too drunk to figure it out
4. Loses it entirely and fires off a couple of rounds at the TV

And people try to blame it on the DTV conversion. Sheesh. A much more detailed story is at http://www.joplinglobe.com/joplin_me...yword=topstory

[Nester5000]

ION TV digital delaying launch

ION Television in the states has delayed their switch to digital OTA until March 16 in 20 major markets:
http://www.ionmedia.tv/press/press.cfm?id=146

I think you misread that. ION is already digital, it's the HD that's being delayed. In fact, Ann Arbor's (Detroit) station shut off their analog signal on Feb.18/09.

[stampeder]

The transition has been painful in large part because the NTIA has had to put millions of consumers on a waiting list for the $40 coupons it is distributing for digital converter boxes, after it spent the $1.3 billion initially provided for the coupon program. The stimulus package President Obama signed into law allocated an additional $650 million for the program.

Thanks to that extra funding, the NTIA should be able to mail out about 2 million coupons per week, McGuire-Rivera said, getting coupons to the millions on its waiting list in less than three weeks. The agency is also expecting to run its coupon program more efficiently now that it has expanded the number of banks issuing the debit card coupons and enhanced its waste, fraud, and abuse checks.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10189629-38.html

[Monobloc]

I think the remaining 4 million people on the waiting list should be getting their coupons by the end of March. I see people who were put on the wait list at the beginning of March have an expected mail out date of March 27th.

Since it's a first in/first out deal, that means everybody who has been waiting since January should already have their coupons. The Stimulus deal did approve coupon money. But the coupon money didn't get sent out for about 2 weeks after the Stimulus passed. (procedural issues)

[300ohm]

The Stimulus deal did approve coupon money. But the coupon money didn't get sent out for about 2 weeks after the Stimulus passed. (procedural issues)

See, thats where goverment accounting is really screwy. No more money was really needed. The money from expired and unused coupons didnt go back into the "pot" for other converter boxes like normal people would expect. Instead it went back into the general fund, where it could be used for other things.

[stampeder]

Wednesday's DTV transition oversight hearing in the House Communications, Technology and Internet Subcommittee showed once again the stark political divide in the view of that transition.

What is a "phased" transition to Democrats was branded "scattershot" by the other side.

Republicans said the delay to June 12 was unnecessary and a waste of $650 million, while Democrats said it was necessary to making sure millions of viewers did not lose their signals and to clear up confusion caused by the previous administration's handling of the program.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/art...Transition.php

More useful information for Canadian authorities on how not to do the digital transition.

[alebowgm]

From this weeks NorthEast Radiowatch newsletter...

And on May 4, religious WNYB (Channel 26) in Jamestown will pull the plug on its analog signal

http://fybush.com/nerw.html#ny