My wife spotted this news release on one of the local stations websites:

http://www.wmdt.com/DTV/index.htm

They will be ending analog transmission early, in September instead of February. The main reason given is that they can't broadcast full power digital until they make the switch. Interesting. That explains why their current digital signal is pretty much worthless at my house.

I had heard that the transition was going to occur early in some areas of the northeast in order to work out bugs. Be sure and note how well DTV works in bad weather. This is where I think it will be most likely to die-just when you need it most. I also think that the issue is not just signal strength-it is an inherant weakness in the DTV system(One that analog NTSC does not have).

If I am correct, possibly this will educate some people in time to change some things(i. e. leave some analog broadcasting in place as some other countries are doing). (I just noticed that a bill has just passed in the senate allowing analog NTSC broadcasting to continue for four more years withing 50 miles of the Mexican border)

I actually wish that the trial was in the midwest where the most severe thunderstorms occur.

My ATSC STB Reception Ranking:

I live in suburban Kansas City, I use a $5
indoor VHF/UHF antenna (RCA ANT108)

1. Zenith DTT901/DTT900
3. Magnavox TB100MW9/TB100MG9
5. GE 22729
6. RCA DTA800
7. USDTV DB2010

There are picture problems with both my GE
my RCA STBs.

The GE seems to have an MPEG-2 video decoding
problem, the picture detail varies noticeably.

The RCA seems to have a downconversion video
problem, on the 1080i HDTV Tonight Show, the
picture shimmers when the camera moves up or
down a little.

Kirk Bayne
http://www.geocities.com/lislislislis/avdtv.htm

September 8, 2008 -- Wilmington, North Carolina will switch off its analog TV transmitters at noon today to test the scheduled transition to all-digital TV this February.

A poll conducted last month in Wilmington by the NAB found 23 percent of residents unable to name today as the transition date.

Many residents have already complained that the digital converters fail to pick up all local channels.

Pete

I have 2 sets hooked up (exclusively) to the digital boxes; one Wal-Mart RCA cheapie to my Zenith 25EC58, and the other is a Samsung 1080 (non-coupon) box with our Sony 40" tube WEGA set. Both get more channels than NTSC with rabbit ears, even out here in the boondocks!!!! We get about 10 channels from Los Angeles, and 2 or 3 from Santa Barbara. Also, I think I caught one from either San Diego, or possibly Tijuana. I can't wait 'til I put up a roof-mounted UHF antenna :)


***Our daily watcher; Sony Profeel 19" in the kitchen, is on DirecTV. Kay watches stuff on the non-air channels, otherwise I'd get rid of the DirecTV right now.

Charles

I have tried several converters, both coupon compatible and non-coupon compatible. All except the coupon compatible (sold by Wal-Mart) RCA have worked the same-fine in good weather, crappy in bad.

The RCA seems to have poorer reception and has crashed twice, requireing power cycles. (The other brand sold by Wal-Mart, Magnavox, seems ok.).

I wish that some of these trials would occur during windy/rainy/stormy weather. This would be a good test of how things will actually be next year.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2008/09/797-people-call.html

Pete

Democrats have urged a delay in the transition, but Republicans have balked, saying it would further confuse consumers. Late last week, the Dems reached a compromise with Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson that calls for the transition to take place on June 12, 2009.

Hutchinson says the bill would allow local stations to switch to digital before June 12, if they wish.

I say, just do it! Let's get it over with. This last minute delay won't change the fact that a handful of technically challenged or disinterested OTA TV viewers will get caught without NTSC broadcasts. Plus, surveys have indicated that millions of TV viewers will choose to not convert and simply allow their NTSC installations to expire.

BTW, I have bought two of the Walmart 'Magnavox' converters. One when they first came out and another a few days ago. Both do the job, but an automatic volume control feature on converter boxes would have been nice as it would save me from making volume adjustments after channel changes or during high-volume commercials.

If it wasn't for the crazy subsidy scheme, the boxes would probably be a hell of a lot cheaper. Noone will sell a box below the subsidy value while they are still operating.

---

I agree. The $40 coupons have probably added at least $30 to the price of the boxes. If they can sell them in the UK for as little as $25-$30 (even with their higher sales tax), then they shouldn't be $50-$70 here. The coupons are also forcing them to dumb down the boxes by eliminating features like QAM tuning, component video, digital audio, and HD output. For $60 they should be able to output full HD. The chips used in these boxes are already capable of many of those features, but they are turned off in software.

That may be due more to patent royalties than the subsidy.

Supposedly, one Chinese manufacturer complained that the royalty for an American ATSC set was about $20 USD, versus about $2 USD for digital sets sold in the EU.

Congress delays digital transition until June 12, but I don't think it means that LOTS of stations are going to wait and continue to pay to power two sets of transmitters
for ~ 4 more months.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-02-04-digital-tv-transition-postponed_N.htm

Well, that means we'll have to postpone our "farewell to NTSC" viewing party too. Dang, and the beer was cooling so nicely! Hmmm, June... Maybe we'll have a picnic.

We were looking forward to watching Jay Leno go to snow in the middle of his program; guess we'll end up watching Conan now.

The chips used in these boxes are already capable of many of those features, but they are turned off in software.

Some of the boxes may be flash memory updatable, and many boxes have marked internal circuit board traces and holes that may be the input port. Be interesting if someone figures out a hack to modify the software...
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=99426&d=1216149040

Look at the lower left corner of the above picture (Which is the board in the Channel Master CM 7000, this picture was from a thread where I mentioned how to make this box be B&W only, for vintage B&W TV sets, http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=174290 )

I have been asked what I will be doing for the end of NTSC.
Here's what I wrote to fellow AKer and TV nut Dave Sica.

My plan for tomorrow is to: run the two hi-def sets in picture-in-picture analog
mode for four different channels, the 'modern' 14-in RCA in analog mode (the
fifth channel), the CT-100 (that's six), and finally the Hauppauge card in this
computer running the seventh analog channel, for a glorious ending to NTSC....

Long live NTSC!
Pete

I've got a VCR hooked to my 15" Zenith B/W and it'll be recording as the picture goes to snow here at 7:00 AM tomorrow, and have a camcorder aimed at some sets in the shop.

I'm finding it hard to type over the noise of the raster on my CTC-7. I feel like adjusting the channel knob, but I know I won't find much on.

Many (but not all) of Chicago and Milwaukee's TV stations choose 12 noon to shut down analog transmissions today. I was lucky enough to come home for lunch and watch the end of a broadcast era on my CTC-7. I was disappointed to find no real recognition of the change on many Chicago stations. I was however able to pick up WISN 12 out of Milwaukee, which put on a nice compilation of great moments of their broadcast history since 1954. It was somehow fitting because I purchased this TV in Milwaukee and I'm sure that it wasn't the first time some of those historic images were scanned across the screen.

As predicted, at 12 noon, WISN flashed their old WTVW test pattern, displayed a brief message Channel 12 1954-2009, and flipped the switch.

For the many people who are welcoming digital TV today, I was glad to have the opportunity to join the few who chose to look back and say goodbye to an old friend.

With people scrambling to get a converter box at the last minute I found one at Goodwill today still sealed for $9.99 :banana:

It's a Funai made Magnavox, I've never even used the Insignia I bought with the coupon but I figured maybe I could hide it inside the cabinet of one of my old sets to make it Digital ready.

Why did the stations so drastically reduce POWER ?
The one time we had the chance to make things totally different and better the Federal Cookie Cutter government commission ruined things for me !

---

Why would you change from UHF to VHF? Surely thats a massive step backwards for building penetration and multipathing?

In most cases, a step backward for building penetration, but a step forward when it comes to multipath (also a step backwards for household electrical noise).

VHF also has an advantage through trees and hills, but the real appeal of going back to VHF highband is saving on electrical power. A TV transmitter is generally expected to operate 24/7 and the electric bill for a 1000kW UHF DTV station can be huge. VHF allows more "paper coverage" (coverage according to rules but not necessarily in viewability, and assuring cable/satellite carriage) for a lot less money than UHF.

Looks like that is what WBAL wanted was guaranteed CABLE coverage and not too worried about the few over the air households that are still left.:tears::no:
They went back to their original Channel 11 VHF channel , so rabbit-ears are useless just 8 miles from the transmitter.

Ghosts on VHF won't vary as much than on UHF, especially doe to broadcast towers bouncing around from wind. That tower shake can make the broadcast antennas move a substantial fraction of the carrier wavelength on UHF vs VHF. That means that ghosts at receivers are varying too quick for most DTV receivers to process out the ghost conditions.

Of course the main motivation was mentioned in a post above, to get paper coverage and cable must carry at low electric bill costs.