Obama wants to delay the transition to DTV
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in some cases yes
Example is here in Minneapolis...
come 2/17/09 six out of 10 locals are moving around...
not moving is PBS, CBS, CW & Ion
moving to their analog spot is Fox, My, Ind, & NBC
moving to somewhere else is ABC (moving to the NBC DT slot), 2nd PBS (moving to the Fox slot)
some stations their digital signal is where an existing analog is...so right now they are running at low power and when the conversion takes place then they'll go to higher power on the new channel.
Here is a snippet of a station here in MN that just went on the air
so right now that PBS is at 35000 watts but on 2/17/09 (or just therefater) they will be able to bump up to 250000 watts because the ABC station is moving from digital 36 back to its analog spot (13).
Example is here in Minneapolis...
come 2/17/09 six out of 10 locals are moving around...
not moving is PBS, CBS, CW & Ion
moving to their analog spot is Fox, My, Ind, & NBC
moving to somewhere else is ABC (moving to the NBC DT slot), 2nd PBS (moving to the Fox slot)
some stations their digital signal is where an existing analog is...so right now they are running at low power and when the conversion takes place then they'll go to higher power on the new channel.
Here is a snippet of a station here in MN that just went on the air
so right now that PBS is at 35000 watts but on 2/17/09 (or just therefater) they will be able to bump up to 250000 watts because the ABC station is moving from digital 36 back to its analog spot (13).
so i guess we'll be waiting another 5 yrs before they shut off analog channels . any way people always wait
the last minute to get stuff done. (i live in a apartment)
i built a small 4 element yagi for my tv in my living room its on a 7 foot stand in my living room and i pull in my eau claire area digitals just fine. i made a handle too so i can move the antenna around. i using a old directv dish mount to hold my mast in place so i can move it. rabbit ears won't work i tried them.
john
the last minute to get stuff done. (i live in a apartment)
i built a small 4 element yagi for my tv in my living room its on a 7 foot stand in my living room and i pull in my eau claire area digitals just fine. i made a handle too so i can move the antenna around. i using a old directv dish mount to hold my mast in place so i can move it. rabbit ears won't work i tried them.
john
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IT doesn't really matter if they postpone it or not because the majority of the stations will power down when they want anyway. More than half of the stations in the 4 markets I monitor have already cut down their power 35-65%. If they have already figured out their upcoming yearly budget they will certainly stick with their own plans regardless of what happens with a postponement.
I hope signal levels increase after the transition. I did look at Tvfool and most listings show power to remain the same .
Another site I looked at showed we will be without an NBC affiliate after the transition. :down
I think around here its not going to go smoothly, as we are well over 60 miles from any major television station.
I have talked to other people in our area and all report very low digital signal quality and loss
of signal and intermittent signal loss.
I have a 45 foot tower and right now the best signals I get are from Columbus, but I lose the ABC
affiliate a lot and the FOX affiliate doesn't come in at all.
I have re cabled the tower and refurbished the antenna.
I am hoping that after the analogs are shut down,we may see better quality.
Some problems may be the result of co-channel / adjacent channel interference.
Another site I looked at showed we will be without an NBC affiliate after the transition. :down
I think around here its not going to go smoothly, as we are well over 60 miles from any major television station.
I have talked to other people in our area and all report very low digital signal quality and loss
of signal and intermittent signal loss.
I have a 45 foot tower and right now the best signals I get are from Columbus, but I lose the ABC
affiliate a lot and the FOX affiliate doesn't come in at all.
I have re cabled the tower and refurbished the antenna.
I am hoping that after the analogs are shut down,we may see better quality.
Some problems may be the result of co-channel / adjacent channel interference.
The digital planning started over 10 years ago. While it's been less than 5 years that broadcasters have gone digital, it's been serious only the last year. But broadcasters are required to run crawls about it. While only in English, we are now required to run it in both English and Spanish (although some quipment does not have the entier alphabet in it.)
I am glad the Senate has blocked this bill. If people mess around too much, 2/18/09 (yes, midnight 2/17 into 2/18 is the shutdown) might come before they do too much.
The fox station in this market shuts off their analog tomorrow.
I am glad the Senate has blocked this bill. If people mess around too much, 2/18/09 (yes, midnight 2/17 into 2/18 is the shutdown) might come before they do too much.
The fox station in this market shuts off their analog tomorrow.
I too think the date will only confuse people.
Alot of people are confused on this issue. I overhear them talking that they think they will have to buy a new tv or get cable or sat, witch is not true.
I saw on G4 that the unused frequncies after the cuttof will be used to do a free nationwide WIFI thing.
I wish the there was digital cable over the air, be sweet to get everything with one TV antenna, and the nice thig about it, you could run it thorugh a splitter instead of a multiswitch making it cheaper for people to have it in every room.
Alot of people are confused on this issue. I overhear them talking that they think they will have to buy a new tv or get cable or sat, witch is not true.
I saw on G4 that the unused frequncies after the cuttof will be used to do a free nationwide WIFI thing.
I wish the there was digital cable over the air, be sweet to get everything with one TV antenna, and the nice thig about it, you could run it thorugh a splitter instead of a multiswitch making it cheaper for people to have it in every room.
US Digital tried that already.
The frequencies are going to the auction winners. Qualcomm, Verizon, AT&T, just to name a few.
It killed HD for those stations that sold part of their bandwidth. Plus, it was another subscription model in a sea of such operating and proposed models.
Today the House Energy & Commerce committee was supposed to mark up the Waxman bill to delay the DTV transition to June 12, but the discussion was postponed. Waxman still insists it's necessary to delay it. "I have postponed Committee consideration of the DTV markup to give the Committee more time to assess the implications of the Senate action.”
Verizon has caved and said it's ok to delay, and Qualcomm has said it will hurt them to delay.
Here's the House draft they were supposed to work on today. Too much interfering, IMO.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/images/stories/Documents/Markups/PDF/dtv-draft-waxman_004_xml.pdf
Verizon has caved and said it's ok to delay, and Qualcomm has said it will hurt them to delay.
Here's the House draft they were supposed to work on today. Too much interfering, IMO.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/images/stories/Documents/Markups/PDF/dtv-draft-waxman_004_xml.pdf
With only 25 days as of this writing left until the Feb. 17 deadline, the US Senate now appears close to reaching a deal to delay the DTV switch deadline to June 12. The Senate committee chairman John D. Rockefeller (D - WV) says he has won support from Kay Bailey Hutchison (R - TX), the ranking Republican on the committee. A vote on the issue may be held on Monday.
The Nielsen company stated Thursday that 6.5 million US households are still not ready for the cut-off of analog signals.
One provision of the deal will allow broadcasters that are ready to turn off analog signals after Feb. 17 to do so if they choose. It would also allow public safety agencies to take over vacant broadcast spectrum as it becomes available.
My own opinion is the DTV deadline of Feb. 17 should remain unchanged. Those last few million hold-outs will just have to be dragged into the digital realm kicking and screaming or just plain do without TV.
Any American has to have been living under a rock for more than a decade not to know this cut-off date was coming. I think many of those hold-outs have been foolishly gambling as if the change would never happen. And some of them seriously think it never will happen and that they can keep on getting analog OTA signals forever.
There isn't any constitutional right for people to be able to watch TV. And there are numerous other areas of everyday life where we have to periodically replace obsolete equipment -like personal computers. Can anyone imagine the problems the computer industry would have if they had to get government approval and go through some long transition process everytime they changed an operating system? We would still be messing around with early 1980's era IBM PCs and black computer screens showing green monochrome text!
The other problem is the billions of dollars major companies like AT&T, Verizon, etc. have put up to buy that broadcast spectrum. Those companies will immediately start losing a lot of money on those business plans with the cut-off date delayed.
It's also not cheap or very practical for local TV stations to keep broadcasting 2 versions of their channel for months on end. They have to be able to take their DTV channel(s) to full power already.
The Nielsen company stated Thursday that 6.5 million US households are still not ready for the cut-off of analog signals.
One provision of the deal will allow broadcasters that are ready to turn off analog signals after Feb. 17 to do so if they choose. It would also allow public safety agencies to take over vacant broadcast spectrum as it becomes available.
My own opinion is the DTV deadline of Feb. 17 should remain unchanged. Those last few million hold-outs will just have to be dragged into the digital realm kicking and screaming or just plain do without TV.
Any American has to have been living under a rock for more than a decade not to know this cut-off date was coming. I think many of those hold-outs have been foolishly gambling as if the change would never happen. And some of them seriously think it never will happen and that they can keep on getting analog OTA signals forever.
There isn't any constitutional right for people to be able to watch TV. And there are numerous other areas of everyday life where we have to periodically replace obsolete equipment -like personal computers. Can anyone imagine the problems the computer industry would have if they had to get government approval and go through some long transition process everytime they changed an operating system? We would still be messing around with early 1980's era IBM PCs and black computer screens showing green monochrome text!
The other problem is the billions of dollars major companies like AT&T, Verizon, etc. have put up to buy that broadcast spectrum. Those companies will immediately start losing a lot of money on those business plans with the cut-off date delayed.
It's also not cheap or very practical for local TV stations to keep broadcasting 2 versions of their channel for months on end. They have to be able to take their DTV channel(s) to full power already.
6.5 million of a total 113.5 million US households. Five percent. So they are willing to screw things up for the 95% who ARE ready because of the 5% who are too stupid, or too lazy to care. Typical bureaucracy.
6.5 million unready, and nearly 13 million coupons still active or about to be mailed out. If Congress wanted to micromanage this process, they should have started a year ago.
Am I missing something here ?? If the analog signals can still be turned off right after the 17th then what's the purpose of the delay? Those unprepared will still have nothing to watch, and sooner rather than later...! (I realize perhaps not ALL analog signals will be switched-off after the 17th, but....oooh...what's the use...?!?)Bobby H...on behalf of our ever so insightful Congress said:
I've been writing back and forth a bit with the General Manager of the NBC affiliate in my viewing market (Wichita Falls, TX and Lawton, OK). I live north of the Red River in Oklahoma and have had trouble picking up their old SD analog channel in the past. She let me know they recently pushed their channel to full power - 1 million watts. Yeesh. I tried the "add digital antenna channels" search on my TV and the NBC station came in perfect. I may try hooking my antenna cable to my ViP722 and set it up to record Super Bowl XLIII.
With the kind of power KDFX is pushing on their DTV channel it will be costly for the station to continue broadcasting a full power analog channel alongside until June 12. On top of that the same company also owns the FOX affiliate in Wichita Falls. That station is still currently broadcasting at low power but is expected to be running at full power in a couple of weeks.
With the kind of power KDFX is pushing on their DTV channel it will be costly for the station to continue broadcasting a full power analog channel alongside until June 12. On top of that the same company also owns the FOX affiliate in Wichita Falls. That station is still currently broadcasting at low power but is expected to be running at full power in a couple of weeks.
