This question is getting old, very fast. "What will you do with your old TVs after the digital transition?"

I consider it a stupid question because people who ask such a question are not ignorant to the digital transition, thus they know about the converter boxes that are available. Its a simple concept, just like hooking up your VCR or DVD to the TV. Ive been asked this question all the time, at work, at estate sales, anyone who knows that Im into electronics, and even many people on the internet (youtube in particular). I don't get upset, it just the fact that the same question never ends. Ive never been asked something like "how good do the converter boxes work with the old TVs?" That I think is a good question because not everyone has an old TV to see how good the new technology works with the old.


I have many youtube TV videos and everyone tells me about this "digital transition" and if I know about it etc. Heres what I have to say: If Im savvy enough to be able to record videos with a digital recording device and upload them to them to youtube for everyone to see (which is a hint that I can use computers and that Im "up-to-date with technology"), then I would probably know about the digital transition and that I have a converter box for my old TV sets.

Perhaps everyone is asking you the same thing.

000

I ran into a casual acquaintance at the hardware store yesterday, an older man, who was asking about which box would change the channels once he connected the DTV box to the cable box. He was doing this because he didn't want to pay extra to upgrade to digital cable.

I think some people are still confused about this. I'm waiting for the signs on the lightpoles: "Will Hook Ya Up For DTV - $49, Call..."

I get that all the time, and then when I tell them I don't have one of the boxes, they think they have top explain it all to me. Since I started buying DVDs, I started watching so little TV over the air, that it just didn't seem worth it to me to buy one. Eventually I'd like to set up something like was in another thread here, with several boxes and modulators, mainly so I could still use my remotes, but that's not a top priority for me now.

It's like the customers that come into my repair shop asking:
Is a tv "cable ready" if it's got a threaded coax connector on the back.

A guy asked me the other day; it did rub me wrong for some reason. He has seen my collection, has watched me demonstrate my oldest set (630ts) with a DVD player. But he couldn't help from asking, "What are you going to do..."

Really, it is just their way of showing how smart they are while making conversation. I'll admit I've done similiar things plenty of times before.

I would rather say that it is their clumsy way of getting your take on the whole situation.

No one ever asks me what I'm gonna do. Everyone assumes everyone else subscribes to cable, because I live in a market where cable saturation is >95%. That means no one is in a rush to buy a new TV.

I don't bother telling anyone that I use the outdoor antenna for both TV and FM. I don't dare mention that I still use a VCR for timeshifting, because then I'll look like a Luddite.

People have an amazing capacity for asking rude and/or insulting questions, and I'm not usually in the mood to come up with snappy responses.

Tom

I have not had this question asked of me yet, but many times over the years I have had people see my old sets and ask me "What are you going to do with them?", period. I usually say something like "I don't know... What are you going to do with your house plants and the pictures on your walls?".

Most of the time, people come in here & see all the old radios 'n' TVs stuck everywhere, they get a very worried look on their faces, like I'm the Creep of the Week that they saw last night on CSI or Lawn Order...

One more silly question

I'm in Austalia so things might be different.

I have a circa 1981 AWA TV. I'm pretty sure they were Australian made. It's 68cm and has a beautiful woodgrain veneer and to this day the colours are intact.

I grew up with tuning early devices to such TVs but I can't get the STB tuned. I have the correct cable.

The TV has a dial UHF tuner for ONE uhf channel. The other dial selects the channels but the push-in-tuner-knob seems to only fine tune. There are no other tuning facilities.

On this TV I could get the VCR working on a UHF channel but it wasn't clear. Can't get anything with the STB.

Sorry if you have answered this a dozen times.

Lee

bhundu What is your question? Perhaps you should start a new thread to call attention to it.

You may have to wait for some of the Australian members to chime in...there are some unique things going on there.

I was eating at a restaurant on Saturday, and an 80-ish gentleman overheard a discussion I was having with someone else at the table about the transition... He came over and asked if his rabbit ears would work with the converter box, as he'd been told yes by someone, and no by a salesman trying to sell him an HD antenna. I told him that if he can get local TV on UHF now, he's fine with his rabbit ears, or even a large paper clip :) . I live about 50 miles from the nearest TV transmitter, and 100 miles from some, and I get all the digital channels just fine on rabbit ears.

Charles

[QUOTE=Adam;2420002] Since I started buying DVDs, I started watching so little TV over the air, that it just didn't seem worth it...

I don't watch much OTA TV either, preferring instead to watch DVDs and my old VHS videos. These days, it's easy to get DVDs of many classic TV series and even current series' past seasons through Netflix or by purchasing boxed sets at Borders, Amazon.com, etc. so I think many other people are following your lead. I'm not saying (or trying to) that OTA television is dead, but with so many viewers doing what you and I are and getting most of their so-called TV "fix" via DVD, video on demand on digital cable, or video over the Internet, the commercial OTA networks are losing viewers--maybe not left and right (yet) to the point that they are in danger of extinction, but they don't have as many people tuning in today as they did before DVD and even before prerecorded VHS cassettes.

Whether the digital transition, which, BTW, will probably stay right where it is at February 17 this year (I read this in one of the e-newsletters I get in my inbox concerning the TV industry and, these days, the DTV transition in particular) will be pushed back is all but a moot point now, because there are far too many things which can and probably will go wrong if the transition is pushed back. One of the worst of these problems, again according to the info I read in my e-newsletters, is the very real possibility of confusing the public, who have been bombarded with information over the last year or so stating in no uncertain terms that analog TV will end on 02.17.09. The other big problem driving the push for a change in the transition date, as everyone knows by now, has to do with the government having run out of money for the converter box coupon program. Not wishing my post to become politically-oriented or controversial, I'll leave it at that.

There has been no mention to the public, however, of any possible change of the shutoff date, which I think is a huge mistake. If the cutoff date is to be changed, the government should make a real effort to inform the public of same so that people won't be left in the dark when the transition actually occurs.

On this TV I could get the VCR working on a UHF channel but it wasn't clear. Can't get anything with the STB.

Here in South Africa, all VCRs were/are sold pre-set to output on UHF channel 36. In Oz a similar convention probably exists.
STBs probably come pretuned to some channel too. Most likely NOT 36, since it would interfere with VCR users.

Either way, the STB should have a preset trimmer (small screw hole) by the RF output, where you can change the UHF frequency it sends out, and bring it into the range of what your TV set can pick up.


I have some AWA broadcast compressors I got 2nd hand: must be late 1950s, eraly 1960's - they are the most INCREDIBLY built pieces of equipment I've ever seen.

Does your AWA have controls that look similar to this?

130434

This is from a 1980/1981 era Thorn set which is a sister brand of AWA.

If so your set should be able to tune in a UHF signal without any problems.
Once the VHF tuner (upper control) is set to U, the UHF tuner is active and by turning the lower UHF tuning control, you can tune in your signal.

If you have an earlier set, quote the model number and I can be more specific.

One more silly question
On this TV I could get the VCR working on a UHF channel but it wasn't clear. Can't get anything with the STB.


What STB do you have? I have yet to see any STBs sold here that have a built in RF modulator. The RF out jack on the back is just a pass through.

You need to run the output from the STB through a VCR or external RF modulator to use it with your AWA set.

I get asked that same question Doug was talking about all the time . I also get a lot of people asking "is it cable ready" or when i show a black and white tv i get asked "can it be converted to color " . My family thinks i have a screw loose for collecting all this stuff but i have a love for this stuff . I have a lot of tvs and a lot waiting for restorations however i like collecting them and displaying them for show .

I think the thing to do when posed stupid questions like this is to answer the question with a question. :)

I ran into a casual acquaintance at the hardware store yesterday, an older man, who was asking about which box would change the channels once he connected the DTV box to the cable box. He was doing this because he didn't want to pay extra to upgrade to digital cable.

I think some people are still confused about this. I'm waiting for the signs on the lightpoles: "Will Hook Ya Up For DTV - $49, Call..."

Did you tell your acquaintance that there is no need for a converter box if he already has a digital cable STB (settop box) and digital cable? In fact, as we know (your acquaintance may not and likely doesn't know this if he asked you this question), the DTV converter boxes are not meant for (and will not work with) cable--they are meant to be used between an OTA TV antenna and an older analog television to enable the latter to receive DTV signals, again as we AKers know all too well.

Your acquaintance, not unlike tens of thousands of other folks in the US, has a lot to learn about DTV. I'm surprised he hasn't heard about the transition by now, or if he has, he might not understand it. If he already has digital cable (which I suspect he does), however, he has no need for what he calls "the DTV box", as his digital cable STB will bring in every channel on the cable in his area, including local broadcast channels.

I have heard chatter that several stations may be disappearing off of local cable providers after the conversion takes place. People who don't have digital cable, but analog cable, they might be loosing some stations. For those of us that are using HD QAM tuners, I'm wondering if they might eventually be rendered useless as the cable providers attempt to force people on to there more expensive services.

I think that a lot of people still have no idea what terms such as HD, QAM, ATSC, or even Digital means, when it comes to there TV's. Most of the questions that get asked, are probably genuine.

Since I have cable I have no worries. I plan on keeping my 80's Mitsubishi t.v. till it dies...

My Zenith box has the option of cable/antenna in the menu.

Did you tell your acquaintance that there is no need for a converter box if he already has a digital cable STB (settop box) and digital cable?[\QUOTE]

Of course! He told me he has a non-cable ready TV, and he uses a VCR to tune in cable channels. He doesn't want to upgrade to digital cable - I think he has the "mandated by law" basic 20-channel cable package.

[QUOTE=Jeffhs;2431154]
Your acquaintance, not unlike tens of thousands of other folks in the US, has a lot to learn about DTV. I'm surprised he hasn't heard about the transition by now, or if he has, he might not understand it.

The problem was that he didn't understand it. He thought if he did not have digital cable, he wouldn't be able to receive cable channels without a converter box. From talking to him it seems he mainly watches network news programming, and his understanding of the transition was mainly from the scare banners and word-of-mouth. I've read where some stations have run a public service program explaining the change, but so far I am unaware of such a program airing on a local New Orleans station.

On a side note, WVUE-TV, which was the first (and only) station to end it's analog broadcast thus far in New Orleans, has not transmitted a DTV over-the-air signal in several days. Teething problems, I guess.

The FCC just fined several cable companies for "stealing" peoples analog channels. See:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/396825_fcccable21.html?source=rss

I am not sure this will do any good. So far Time Warner has stolen 3 of my channels.

As soon as I get another means for high speed internet in my neighborhood, I am going to ditch Time Warner for satellite.

Quote from WWL-TV's "DTV Countdown" page (www.wwltv.com/dtv/):

Your current television will work as it does now until analog broadcasting stops. Under federal law, analog service will continue until most homes (85%) in an area are able to watch the DTV programming.

Wow - I totally missed this. Guess it's all the scare banners and countdown clocks we're barraged with. Now, how exactly would they determine 85% of homes could watch DTV? Are they testing signal coverage, or estimating the number of coupons distributed in an area? And what about that 15% who are unable to pick up a DTV transmission in their area - "too bad, you have to pay for cable or satellite now." Fifteen percent is not an insignificant number - put it in perspective, 15% is:

15,750,000 American households
159,295 Chicago households
113,549 San Francisco households

Even after the transition is over, your current TV will not become obsolete. A converter box can be used to receive broadcast DTV signals and change them into the format of your current television. In addition, if you use your analog set with a multichannel pay service like cable or satellite, it will continue to work as it always has. [B]Even with a converter box, however, your current analog television will not be capable of displaying the full picture quality of DTV. To enjoy the full picture quality, you must have a DTV set.[\B] Subscribers to cable and DBS services should contact their providers regarding converter boxes for those services.

I think they should have a disclaimer about picture quality vs. signal quality.
Or are they implying high definition?

Also, am I the only one who finds hi-def digital programs somewhat more tiring on the eyes after a while?

That part about your TV working as it always has if you have cable should be modified to "your TV will work as it always has until the cable company steals your analog channels and places them on premium service"

I, for one hope those 15 million households scream to high heaven to their representatives. Although some of released spectrum may be used for emergency services, most will be used by corporations(many of whom have a sorry track record with customers already) to make yet more money. To me, this is essentially theft from the American people.

That part about your TV working as it always has if you have cable should be modified to "your TV will work as it always has until the cable company steals your analog channels and places them on premium service"

I don't think the FCC will allow the cable companies to move broadcast channels to premium levels of service. I also believe the cable providers may be violating who knows how many laws by "stealing" analog stations and relocating them to premium tiers. The broadcast channels in any given area are the stations people watch most of the time, and let's face it--cable service was never free. We pay for every level of service there is on every cable system in the US, even the bare-bones local-channels-only service.

The government is making much too big a deal over the DTV transition, and has from its first announcements of same back in 2006 or thereabouts. From those dire warnings that "all televisions will go black after xx.xx.2006" to that ridiculous nightmare scenario stating that there will be millions of analog TVs being put out for the trash (because unmodified analog TVs will not receive digital signals), and everything in between, the campaign to educate the public about DTV has become, IMHO, one huge, overdramatic soap opera.

As I have said in my previous posts, sheeeesh! What a mess! The viewers who use OTA antennas and live in poor-signal areas will be affected the worst by the switch, no thanks to DTV's "all or nothing" nature. These people could get cable if they are in an area served by a cable provider, but those who are not, or who cannot afford cable and must make do with OTA, are going to be left in the lurch if their TV reception is anything short of darn near perfect. This is due to digital television's "all or nothing" nature; with digital, you will either see a picture or your screen will be blank--no snow as with weak analog signals. Who is going to tolerate watching the evening news, for example, when the picture is breaking up into squares (pixelating) or disappearing altogether because of weather or other reasons?

This is already happening with the cable system here in northeastern Ohio. I was watching a football game with a friend of mine last Sunday when the picture suddenly froze, and the sound went silent as well. I don't know if this was an issue with the cable provider or the local TV station, but I bet there were plenty of viewers throughout the area who witnessed the same thing my friend and I did--and they probably (even likely) did not like it, one bit.

I see this kind of freeze-up every now and again on the cable here; I wonder if anyone else has seen this on their local cable systems. The local channels, at least in my area, are being carried on the cable as analog signals, and will be until 02.19. If I am seeing this kind of interruption now, I almost hate to think what may be in store once everything is digital.

Hehehehe...This is going to be a Clusterf*ck of monumental proportions...What w/the current economic problems & all, a "perfect storm" is a-brewing, I think...I'm sure you fellers have read in the past of all the surveys that say that people would rather do w/o easy access to food & water than they would w/o TV, once they have had TV for awhile...Imagine what depriving a nation of TV junkies like America will be like...

I live about 30 miles from all of our local transmitters. In good weather, I have now trouble getting ota DTV from all the local networks, even with the lower power being transmitted now.

However, let a thunderstorm enter the area and all bets are off. Picture freezng, sound quitting, rampant on all channels. This is another disaster waiting to happen, at least in tornado alley.

I did read that in the UK, when the switch was made, people who could not receive ota DTV due to their location were offered free satellite TV. I do not see why we do not do that here with Qualcomm, AT&T,Verizon, etc footing the bill. This sould be only fair as these companies are planning to benefit from the analog TV spectrum.