Does anything happen to satellite when broadcast SDTV is gone?

[Charade]

I read that the cable companies can't downgrade the signal quality of broadcast HD (down to SD) once the switch is complete. Do sat providers fall under the same regulations?

 

[navychop]

SDTV is not going away. Analog (NTSC) TV is going away.

When we convert to digital (ATSC) TV, we will still have mostly SD, just provided digitally. Some will be HD, but by no means all, or even most.

The cable rule against degrading HD (didn't know it passed) does not apply to satellite. I'm sure satellite will continue pretty much as they do now, with some reduction in HD signal quality, but still way better than SD

 

[Cyclone]

What will likely happen is that DBS (sat) will stop carrying the SD Local channels (the ones being shut off) and will just carry their HD channels. The Set top Box will do the converting to SD for older TVs connected via SD only cable connections.

I would expect the Sat companies to take full advantage of the confusion of the Analog shut off to swap out their legacy boxes for MPEG4 capable boxes. This way they can claim its not their fault for the inconvenience & cost of doing so.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I read that the cable companies can't downgrade the signal quality of broadcast HD (down to SD) once the switch is complete. Do sat providers fall under the same regulations?

I would most certainly think they can downgrade them. Once the switch is complete, the cable companies will be using boxes that convert digital to analog for people that have old TV's.