Some of our tv stations have already switched over





Senate OKs 4-month delay to digital TV changeover
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

By JOELLE TESSLER, Associated Press Writer

ADVERTISEMENTWASHINGTON —

The Senate on Monday voted unanimously to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12 _ setting the stage for Congress to pass the proposal as early as Tuesday.

Monday's Senate vote is a big victory for the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, who have been pushing for a delay amid growing concerns that too many Americans won't be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover.

The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.

"Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., author of the bill to push back the deadline. "I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time."

The issue now goes to the House, where Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has vowed to work with House leaders to bring Rockefeller's bill up for a floor vote on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama earlier this month called for the transition date to be postponed after the Commerce Department hit a $1.34 billion funding limit for government coupons that consumers may use to help pay for digital TV converter boxes. The boxes, which generally cost between $40 and $80 each and can be purchased without a coupon, translate digital signals back into analog ones for older TVs.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department administering the program, is now sending out new coupons only as older, unredeemed ones expire and free up more money. The NTIA had nearly 2.6 million coupon requests on a waiting list as of last Wednesday.

Jonathan Collegio, vice president for the digital television transition for the National Association of Broadcasters, argues that the Nielsen numbers may overstate the number of viewers who are not ready for the digital transition. He noted that the numbers exclude consumers who have already purchased a converter box but not yet installed it, as well as those who have requested coupons but not yet received them.

What's more, consumers who subscribe to cable or satellite TV service or who own a TV with a digital tuner will not lose reception.

Still Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal policy at Consumers Union, argues that millions of Americans _ particularly low-income and elderly viewers _ will pay the price because "the government has failed to deliver the converter boxes these people deserve just to keep watching free, over-the-air broadcast signals."

In 2005, Congress required broadcasters to switch from analog to digital signals, which are more efficient, to free up valuable chunks of wireless spectrum to be used for commercial wireless services and interoperable emergency-response networks.

Republicans in both the House and Senate have raised concerns that a delay would confuse consumers, burden wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting for the airwaves that will be vacated and create added costs for television stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, estimates that delaying the digital TV transition to June 12 would cost public broadcasters $22 million.

But Rockefeller managed to ease some of these concerns by allowing broadcast stations to make the switch from analog to digital signals sooner than the June deadline if they choose and by permitting public safety agencies to take over vacant spectrum that has been promised to them as soon as it becomes available.

___

Most of the stations around here are broadcasting in both digital and analog. However a June deadline will give me more time to figure out the best place for my antenna to be able to pick up all of the stations I now have via analog signal.

OH, NO! Now I will have 5 more months of explaining to my Mother that she will still be able to get TV since she is on cable!!! She just doesn't understand. She says her TV is already getting worse since they started broadcasting in that HD stuff. (She doesn't even have an HD TV!)

Well I could use more time. I have 2 TVs done but 3 more to do which 2 out of the 3 have separate DVD players plugged into the TVs.
Our cable company is taking it one step further from digital- I forget what the heck they call it but it still makes me mad because we shouldn't have had to get these darn converter boxes to hook up to our TV's.

I thought you only needed the converter box if you used rabbit ears, cable TV would autmatically convert regardless of the TV type...

That's my understanding also. The same with satellite.

Craziness to delay after all this time.....

If you have dish or cable you don't need anything else...

Nope our cable company is past digital and going to some other higher up thingy- I'll find out what its called- anyhow anyone with this cable company has to get converter boxes. The first 3 are free after that they charge you 2.00 a month per extra box!
Mom has a different cable co where she lives and she doesn't have to do a darn thing.

Not sure which cable companies you all are on, but there were a few that were just fined for making their customers buy cable boxes earlier this month.

according to a friend of mine who works in the cable industry their is nothing higher than digital/digital HD, your cable company is ripping you off

Oh yppaH - whatever it is it is what it is. It's a big company and I don't understand all the lingo but I'm sure if they were ripping us all off it would be a big item in the papers.

I don't like it- family members have called and had it explained to them and I half hear the crud.

I guess its something to do with quam-- which I take is nothing new.
I'm not getting a dish and the cable company is the only one out our way but the company has thousands and thousands of customer. So I'll deal with the boxes.

You mean like this article?

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/37892929.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

It's about the fines the FCC hit a few cable companies with regarding the conversion to digital.

There might be laws at the city or state level in certain areas that prohibit cable/satellite providers from requiring the separate rental of a decoder box to get their service. Personally I think that is just an underhanded way of hiding fees in their advertising. When my parents had cable TV, they had separate charges for each cable box and even for each remote control. So they advertise that cable service is "only $xx per month, but by the time you add the charges for the boxes and remotes, it's another $20 to $30 per month. If we did that as banks, we would get a not-so-nice letter from our regulator.

I've always refused to get the "Converter Box" since a TV or VCR is Cable Ready. But when I got my new 46 inch HDTV (my attempt to stimulate the economy in a capitalistic free market while it last), I had to break down and get the HD-DVR box to see the HD channels and the Digital Channels. Although I was able to work in two more boxes, HS internet and digital phone for $99 a month for the next 24 months. (Saving $35 a month) WOO HOO and I didn't need a GOV't bail out to do it.

gee, when I bought 2 flat-panel TVs, both were HD and digital ready and required no box to get the cable and music channels, went from 79 analog channels to 79 analog and 138 digital, plus 65 music

crud, looks like I'll be frustrating myself hooking up some boxes this weekend.

I don't even understand the whole switch. What was the

I'm on the hunt for TV's that have a Qam Tuner in them. Qam tuner is a electronic tuning device. It's the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted by the cable company. A qam tuner can tune non-encrypted, digital cable channels, without using a cable box.
This statement also says that many new digital televisions contain both a ATSC tuner and a qam tuner and are labeled as such--ATSC/QAM Tuner. Of course it also states that there is no FCC requirement that a qam tuner be included in new television sets.
Well they must have sent all those TV's with qam tuners over to foreign soil because I am finding it very hard to find TV's with a qam tuner. One has to read the box very carefully.
We did pick up a new TV this past weekend- yes we get all the digital channels but the question will be when 2/17/09 rolls on us will this TV pick up our local channels with the box. We'll see- we aren't putting the box on until we are sure we need it. And this TV did not state qam tuner.
I also ran out and got a new TV for the kitchen - this one has a qam tuner in it. So no box. It was very hard to find a TV with a qam tuner in it though.
I am tempted to run out tomorrow and pick up another TV (the same kind in kitchen) for the bedroom.
I've also decided I need to detox myself from this qam tuner crud.

pjs, you will have a bit more time to find what you are looking for. . .I heard this morning that Congress voted to delay the switch to digital until June (don't recall the exact date). Since I believe Obama is the one who suggested the delay to begin with, I am sure he will pass the measure when it reaches him.

Good luck in your search!

Thanks H. You know my sister said the same thing last night that it was put on hold until June but I haven't found anythiing on it that would verify that.

What's really bad is the people who don't have cable or dish and have to get the boxes. Someone told me those boxes have gone up in price - if that's true it's not very nice.

I read that the program is out of money, and that a lot of coupons that were sent out have not been used.

Our sons applied for them, neither received them even though their orders were confirmed; and they can't re-apply.

The article said that when the unused coupons expire, they will then be reissued.

I don't have a link for you, but I heard on one local news station last night and on a different one this morning about the delay. They said this morning that the delay would cost $650 million dollars.

I had heard that people were having trouble getting the converter boxes with the coupons, but hadn't heard that the price was going up. Local news here says they can still be purchased for about $40 at stores. On the report I saw last night, the reporter said he had just seen one sold on ebay for $41.

Stations here have already switched off of analog

$650 million, really?

Is this just a matter of people waiting until the last minute?
Pooh, I too requested a coupon - eons ago - and never got it. But then we got Direct TV and now I have too many sports channels.