I did! The first picture is of WGBC channel 30 (NBC) minutes before it went dark at 11:59 PM. The second picture is the blank raster from the VCR after they flipped the switch. Seen on a 23" 1969 Zenith tube-type B&W console.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0003.jpg

Next, we have a picture of WMDN channel 24 (CBS) just before it said bye-bye. The last picture is the blue raster from the vcr after they throwed the breaker at 12:01 AM. CBS programming will resume on analog channel 30 (former NBC channel) starting at 6 AM and will run until 2/22, according to the latest update on their website. The reason for this is because they are taking the digital CBS feed off the air in order to do tower work. Seen on an '81 GTE-Philco 19" color TV.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0004.jpg

The only channels that remain are WMAW-14 (PBS), WTOK-11 (ABC), and a low power religious station (47). WMAW has been running crawlers claiming that they will stop analog on 2/17; but, I don't know exactly what time. WTOK will stay on the air for an undetermined amount of time, mainly for emergency broadcast. I'm sure the LP religious station will stay on longer, since they are not required to switch.

I just checked my '66 Admiral B&W and channels CBS2, NBC4, FOX5, ABC7, WOR9, and CW11 are still alive and well. Guess the switchover will happen on June 12th here, afterall.

I really like both of those sets, BTW!

We're talking multiple death dates here. Anyone know the birthday of analog tv (1st broadcast)? Just curious.

Well, I found the answer (sort of). It depends on how you ask the question.

They also explain what happened to channel 1.

http://www.oldradio.com/current/bc_tv.htm

No analog deaths in Detroit as of 9 AM, Feb. 17th 2009. I am already hearing a few people griping about no digital reception in areas that did switch (from other, non-tv boards).

It appears that the event will be rather boring, with no send-off, just "off". Not even the freakin' national anthem. How very "digital".

Typical of the corporate culture media-giants. :thumbsdn:

Those are some VERY striking pictures... Wow. The end of a 70-year event!

I know that KTLA ch. 5 in Los Angeles is continuing analog until June, but I haven't flipped around the rest of the dial, or checked Santa Barbara (also receivable here where we live). I'll do so now, as I'm curious.

Charles

You know what, Carmine? I have to agree with you. The national anthem used to be a nightly occurrence on multiple, if not all, broadcast stations. What the heck happened? I know, 24 hour TV, but IMO we lost sight of something along the way. Patriotism has gone down, sadly.

You know what, Carmine? I have to agree with you. The national anthem used to be a nightly occurrence on multiple, if not all, broadcast stations. What the heck happened? I know, 24 hour TV, but IMO we lost sight of something along the way. Patriotism has gone down, sadly.

Its been hijacked with a bunch of false "patriotism" and the loss of a lot of other good stuff, but I'll leave it at that.

KAIT 8 Jonesboro (ABC) is going along with the 6/12/09 date, Unsure about KEMV 6 Mt. View (PBS/AETN). I will flip around when I get home from work.

Just now read on AETN's page, that They have shut down analog on KTEJ 19 Jonesboro. No word on KEMV 6 which is our local PBS. Since I can't get their digital AT ALL at my house (the analog is clear as day), I'll miss out on it I guess.

KAIT-DT comes in fine so I won't lose ABC.

All analog checks will be done using my 1979 RCA XL-100.

True. And it's probably best to leave it at that before I get started, lol.

But yeah originally Fox 5 was going to do the transition on Feb 17th, but according to their website it's now scheduled for June as well.

4 more months of rabbit ears, guys! :thmbsp:

This PDF shows stations (in red) that went with the Feb 17 shutoff.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-221A5.pdf

Thanks for the link - I was disappointed that I couldn't be home to see what happened (I'm in Atlanta right now.) Looks like the only station I received that went dark was WXXV out of Gulfport, Miss., which doesn't really serve greater New Orleans.

On the other hand, Fargo, No. Dak. is left with one last station - WDAY-TV (ABC) - which was it's first station too.

Ran the checks, We still have KEMV 6 and KAIT8, and surprisingly, despite AETN saying KTEJ 19 was being shut off, I am still receiving it. (maybe that shutoff is tonight?)

Not very many off yet around my area, Looks like I will have most of them until June 12th. Well, I better recap a few more roundies.

I did! The first picture is of WGBC channel 30 (NBC) minutes before it went dark at 11:59 PM. The second picture is the blank raster from the VCR after they flipped the switch. Seen on a 23" 1969 Zenith tube-type B&W console.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0003.jpg

Next, we have a picture of WMDN channel 24 (CBS) just before it said bye-bye. The last picture is the blue raster from the vcr after they throwed the breaker at 12:01 AM. CBS programming will resume on analog channel 30 (former NBC channel) starting at 6 AM and will run until 2/22, according to the latest update on their website. The reason for this is because they are taking the digital CBS feed off the air in order to do tower work. Seen on an '81 GTE-Philco 19" color TV.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0216endofanalog0004.jpg

The only channels that remain are WMAW-14 (PBS), WTOK-11 (ABC), and a low power religious station (47). WMAW has been running crawlers claiming that they will stop analog on 2/17; but, I don't know exactly what time. WTOK will stay on the air for an undetermined amount of time, mainly for emergency broadcast. I'm sure the LP religious station will stay on longer, since they are not required to switch.


I'm from Mississippi and have family that live around Preston and Dekalb and I heard that WTOK was supposed to go out today too. I also heard that WMDN (CBS) was supposed to go out in June. Well, I guess I was wrong.

Do you get WCBI Ch.4 (CBS) which is up in Columbus? If you don't get WCBI on CH.4, try CH.35.
Also, do you get WTVA CH.9 (NBC) which is in Tupelo? Just wondering.

The only channels I could receive were WTOK-11, WMAW-14, WMDN-24, WGBC-30, and whatever call the LP religious station is on 47. Sometimes late at night and early in the morning, I could get WHLT-22 and WDAM-7, both from Hattiesburg and WLOX-13 from Biloxi.

This is really strange for me! My late father's birthday is Feb 17 and he died on June 12 (1930-1989).

My local ABC station WNEP went off the air at 12:30PM on the 17th. An hour later they restored the signal and will be up until further notice, according to an e-mail they sent me. My NBC and CBS, WBRE and WYOU respectively, will go off the air tonight, on the 17th at 11:59PM, as well as my local PBS, WVIA. My local FOX, WOLF, seemed to have shut off some time in the past. I have W54BO, channel 54, which is a simulcast of TBN, that is low power and will stay analog for some time, I'm guessing. My local ION affiliate, WQPX, channel 64, has been digital for a long time, but I have no idea if it will shut off. I forget whether it's low power or not. Today is a day in history.

Ten minutes ago (11:35pm), the only remaining analog full-power analog station in my area (WWLP 22 [NBC]) finished their news, and switched to running a repeating "nightlight" announcement in English and Spanish, saying they'll show only news and emergency info for the next 60 days.

The other two full-power analog stations (WGGB 40 [ABC] and WGBY 57 [PBS]) shut down their transmitters in December 2008 with zero fanfare. The CBS outlet (WSHM 67) is a low-power station that' supposedly going digital later this year, so they're still on for now.

Local WMDT-47 (ABC) and WCPB-28 (PBS) both shut off their analog transmitters awhile ago. (47 was off in October as I recall) That leaves only WBOC-16 (CBS) as a full-power station on the Delmarva peninsula; they were also the first station, signing on in '54. They wanted to shut down analog tonight but according to their website the FCC would not let them. (due to being the only station left) So, I will wait until June to break out the camera. I could try checking out the DC/Baltimore stations but frankly I don't see much reason to.

WMAW-14 (PBS) is gone. I didn't record that one, though.

000

12:46 AM: KTEJ 19 Jonesboro, AR (PBS) has gone off. Still have our local PBS station on KEMV 6, and ABC on KAIT 8.

All eight TV stations in Cleveland are still analog and digital. The only station in northeastern Ohio that did shut down its analog signal at just before midnight tonight was a home-shopping station on channel 67. There was no announcement of any kind, just a runner across the top of the screen saying that the station was now terminating analog broadcasting, but would still be available on its DTV channel, 47.

The rest will apparently wait until 06.12 to make "The Big Switch", as the CBS affiliate in Cleveland calls it. I guess Cleveland is one of those cities that is worried if it turns off its analog stations too early, too many people in northeastern Ohio will be without television reception, including emergency warnings. However, other major cities are going to wait until 06.12 to shut off their analog signals; those which have stations that are owned and operated by the major networks definitely will keep those stations' analog signals on the air until the new cutoff date.

Speaking of all this talk about people being without television (if they are in an area where the stations are transitioning early to digital) also being cut off from emergency information: There is always radio. Think about it. In the days before television, how did people get emergency information? Over that big console radio in the living room or smaller sets on kitchen tables, etc., of course. People were alerted to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 by means of special radio news bulletins; same thing when WWII broke out.

I think today's radio stations could adapt if all TV nationwide were to go 100-percent digital on 02.17 (I am writing this at 1 a.m. 02.18.09). Another thing to consider is the Emergency Alert System, which broadcasts emergency alerts and warnings over both TV and radio stations. If a local or national emergency were to occur and all the local TV stations in, say, Cleveland were operating digital-only, people would still get warnings/information over the radio via the EAS.

BTW: I watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams tonight; not much to write home about, just the usual bad-gone-to-worse stuff the nightly news has always had. However, near the end of the broadcast, Williams gave a report on the digital transition, saying in part that "I hope most of you will be able to see us tomorrow night ... All those announcements about TV stations switching their analog broadcasting signals to digital, whatever that means ... "

Good Grief! When I heard that I was astounded. What on earth is going on here?, I wondered. Here was a professional TV newscaster, apparently as much "in the dark" about digital television as many viewers still are, actually daring to show his ignorance on national TV, in a manner darn near impossible to...well, ignore.

For crying out loud! Professionals in the broadcasting business aren't supposed to say things like that. Brian Williams may be in the dark about DTV, but I wish he hadn't shot his mouth off on national television as he did. I think he should have done some research before tonight's broadcast to find out just what DTV is and what the transition will mean to Americans before making that remark, which was heard in living rooms/family rooms/dens/apartments in all 50 states. I'm sure if anyone ever did anything even resembling that on any of the local TV stations in Cleveland (or anywhere else in the United States), the stations' switchboards would light up like Christmas trees and the stations would get a flood of angry and/or bewildered e-mails from viewers, wondering whether the news anchor or reporter knew what he or she was talking about.

The TV newscasts at 6, 11 and whenever else are supposed to be delivered by the anchors and their field reporters in a professional manner, which means (among other things) being absolutely certain of the facts of the issue on which they are reporting before going on the air.

One of the TV stations in Cleveland, NBC affiliate WKYC-TV channel 3, has a motto it genuinely tries to live up to every night: Report the facts. Respect the truth. This is why I've liked watching channel 3 news all these years (over 35; I was watching these newscasts when I was just 13 or 14 years old, when channel 3 was an NBC O&O [owned and operated] TV station). This station doesn't present the news with a lot of noise, fluff and other unnecessary stuff as the CBS station does on its local newscasts; for this my hat is off to channel 3's news team. Theirs is one of the better newscasts in northeastern Ohio; I hope they keep it up.

Only one channel in Austin turned off the analog signal. At midnight they changed the picture to the message you see on the CTC38, but they left the sound on for about 20 minutes. Eventually they turned off the sound. At one point the picture went blank for a few seconds, but the message came back, and is still there now at 12:40.

The CTC55 is connected directly to analog cable, and continued uninterrupted.

Isn't that CTC55 one of the last RCA tube sets? I had a 19" RCA remote set from '74 that looked almost like that.

Well, I watched my local PBS (WVIA-44), and local NBC (WBRE-28) officially sign off. WBRE was in the middle of Jay Leno, showing a commercial break. At the beginning of 11:59, they showed a graphic of their station logo, then color bars with audio tone, then right to static. WVIA, was showing Charlie Rose. Power went down gradually to the familiar static and snow. For whatever reason, my local ABC (WNEP-16) is still on the air in analog, having shut off at 12:30 this afternoon, only to be turned back on until further notice.

For all of us into this wonderful TV hobby, this day will be remembered. Each of us lives in an area with our own local market. I will admit, the only local broadcaster I watch is my local PBS affiliate. I'm never interested in local news, as it's almost always bad, so I never watch any local news at all. For news I watch DW-TV via satellite, which is Germany's international broadcaster. For local weather I watch the local forecast on the Weather Channel. Even though I never watched the others local broadcasters, it's still sad to see them go.

The unfortunate thing is that the HD to SD downconversion the stations did can never be achieved with a $50 converter box. My local stations never stretched or squished the 16x9 source, though might have cropped it to loom good in 4x3. For those of you who still miss that, you can probably get the equipment from ebay to to the downconversion. I know some Sencore IRDs to HD to SD downconversion. PBS affiliates use them to downconvert the HD only source from PBS satellite feeds to SD.

000

Around the Detroit area three stations chose to analog business as usual at the end (11:59:59 PM) February 17, I recorded all three.

WXON-20 actually did not turn off the analog transmitter - then went to a 4-minute loop (locally produced!) about how to convert to digital (I guess this would be an example of "nightlight operation").

WGTE 30 (Toledo) shutdown the analog altogether. In the last several hours on air, they were also showing programs and PSAs about DTV (whilst the digital featured the regular PBS lineup).

WPXD 31 (Ann Arbor) suddenly shut off not only their analog transmitter, but their digital (33) as well! I presume they will be changing their digital station to actual channel 31.

I was a little disappointed. Analog stayed put. They should have made the transition in the summer anyways. who want's to put up an antenna in a blizzard?

Channels 3,6,10,13,19,29, and 31 are alive and well in Analog still here in Sacramento. Channel 40 and 58 are now digital only (until someone steals the transmitters) lol "lance armstrong missing bike scenereo" Afterall this is Sacramento, CA..
lol

2 of my antenna channels went dark on their analog side at midnight last night; KVOS-12 and KBCB-24. I recorded KVOS so I could see how they did it. (Had to wake up at 4:15 AM so no way I was staying up until midnight to watch it live). No announcement, no graphic on the screen, just *POOF* and it was gone......right in the middle of a commercial for acid reflux medicine. It sure is strange to see those channels blank after all these years.

No announcement, no graphic on the screen, just *POOF* and it was gone......right in the middle of a commercial for acid reflux medicine. It sure is strange to see those channels blank after all these years.

This has been very underwhelming. Of the three Detroit channels mentioned, only one of them was "really" a channel. The Toledo and Ann Arbor channels never came in that well, and when they did, they were just generic PAX and PBS robo-channels. They never had any live announcements or local/fun content. Good riddance.

Now channel 20 was a good one back in the 70s and 80s.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Wxon2079.jpg/120px-Wxon2079.jpg

They carried a nice block of Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Leave-it-to-Beaver, Adam 12, Lost-in-space, etc. Or as Wikipedia says...

WXON aired cartoons, lower-rated sitcoms, off-network dramas, old movies, religious shows, an annual Variety Club of Detroit telethon hosted by Soupy Sales and live news updates. WXON offered live action Japanese sci-fi kids shows, dubbed into English such as Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and Space Giants. WXON also brought infamous cult favorite The Ghoul back to Detroit TV. As the 1980s progressed, WXON began acquiring stronger off-network sitcoms. It got a significant boost after WKBD switched to Fox in 1986. It was an established independent station by 1991 and was unaffected by the network affiliation swaps at the end of 1994. Until 1994, the station signed off at 1 AM, and signed back on at 5 AM the following morning. The station has gone 24/7 since.

After 1995, they switched to "WB", then to "mytv" in 2006. There was never any reason to watch them after they lost their independence. I can't distinguish one episode of "girlfriends" from another. :puke2:

Even their sign-off/nightlighting is astoundingly boring. Nothing compared to the fun of watching Arnold Ziffel on a 60s Zenith Console you just dragged home from the trash in a wagon, circa 1985.

Ahhh, the good ol' days. :sigh:

I caught the shutdown of WGTE.

For some unk reason, I can't get to this via the search engine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTW-JUQQPRY

This has been very underwhelming. Of the three Detroit channels mentioned, only one of them was "really" a channel. The Toledo and Ann Arbor channels never came in that well, and when they did, they were just generic PAX and PBS robo-channels. They never had any live announcements or local/fun content. Good riddance.

Now channel 20 was a good one back in the 70s and 80s.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Wxon2079.jpg/120px-Wxon2079.jpg

They carried a nice block of Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Leave-it-to-Beaver, Adam 12, Lost-in-space, etc. Or as Wikipedia says...



After 1995, they switched to "WB", then to "mytv" in 2006. There was never any reason to watch them after they lost their independence. I can't distinguish one episode of "girlfriends" from another. :puke2:

Even their sign-off/nightlighting is astoundingly boring. Nothing compared to the fun of watching Arnold Ziffel on a 60s Zenith Console you just dragged home from the trash in a wagon, circa 1985.

Ahhh, the good ol' days. :sigh:

The independent UHF stations in Cleveland were like that too. We have 43, 55 and 61. All three have gone from independent to networks: 43 with MyTV, 55 with The CW, and 61 with Univision. Channel 61 was a unique station in that, in the early '80s (1982), they began carrying the programming of ON TV, a pay-television service. The ON programming began at eight p.m. on our channel 61 and continued until the station signed off.

ON TV went off the air for good a year or so later (it really wasn't having much success, and probably losing money anyway; there were very, very few people in my neighborhood at the time who even had the special antenna required to receive the ON TV service).

ON TV was replaced in Cleveland by the Home Shopping Network (HSN), which landed on Cleveland's channel 61 in about--1987 or so (just a wild guess; could have been earlier or later than that). After HSN went exclusively to cable a few years ago, channel 61 affiliated with Univision and began carrying Spanish-language programming, as it does to this day.

The off-network reruns, old movies and so on the independent stations used to run are gone from those stations for the most part; they went off regular TV when DVD players became popular in the '90s. Now, with many classic TV shows and movies available on DVD, the former independent stations (most of them have since affiliated with Fox, Univision, Galavision, et al. or The CW) show very few classic programs (except I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show and a few [very few] others), but that's progress. I don't know what will happen to these independents--whether they will eventually go off the air (even in digital) and go exclusively to cable, or just what--but one thing is certain. Today's television landscape is nothing like what it used to be.

I don't know how many of us AKers get TV Guide magazine, but there is an article (the cover story) in this week's issue that talks at length about the changes which have occurred and will happen in the future to television. The cover of the February 16-March 1 issue (a double issue having two weeks of TV listings) boldly states, in large letters darned nearly impossible to ignore, Welcome to NewTube! The article has to do, as I said, with the changes in television technology which will revolutionize how we watch TV in the 21st century.

I read the article and was amazed at what is being done (and has been done already) with TV technology; some of these ideas were shown in cartoons years ago (witness The Jetsons), but in those days (1950s, early '60s; The Jetsons was on in the latter decade) these weren't even gleams in TV producers' eyes--it was all science fiction. There was also a cartoon in a late-1960s issue of the old Electronics Illustrated magazine that showed a picture (drawn, of course) of a suburban living room, with the TV (flat panel--talk about being ahead of the times!) hanging on the wall. A baby in a playpen was about three feet (more or less) away from the screen and was screaming in horror; no wonder. The TV was showing a test pattern bigger than life, from a local station, which was scaring the poor kid out of his or her wits. The letter to the editor above the cartoon, in which the writer talked about the future of TV forty years from 1968 (television sets which could be hung on a wall like framed art, for example), ended with the sentence, "Heck, even a station (test) pattern will frighten our children!"

Who knew, or could have guessed, 35-40 years ago, that flat-panel televisions would eventually become reality in many American homes? There are still plenty of folks (myself included) watching TV on 4:3 aspect ratio analog sets, so FPs are by no means the rule--yet.

The day will come, however--maybe not tomorrow, next month or next year, but eventually--when all TVs will be flat-panel LCD or plasma sets; the days of analog television and CRTs will be just a memory (except for AK's antique/vintage TV collectors such as Doug Harland, drh4683) when that day arrives. Shucks, even I might finally break down and get a FP HDTV before long; I see even the 22-inch-class sets are coming way down in price--I could get a FP set tomorrow if I were willing to settle for a 15-inch picture. My Sunday newspaper has ad flyers from Best Buy, et al. in which 15-inch Magnavox (Philips) FPs are selling for well under $200. I may (and probably will) wait until my XL-100 RCA CTC185 dies before I do that, though. By then I could probably get a 30-inch-class or larger LCD or plasma FP for the same price (or close to it) as the 15-inch Magnavox sets, although, living in a very small apartment (one bedroom), I could probably get by with a 15-inch flat-panel. However, I am still very leery of these sets because of their high failure rates....and of course when they do fail, it usually isn't cost-effective to have them repaired once the warranty expires. I would not expect any current FP to last anywhere nearly as long as either of my analog CRT sets (nine and 14 years, respectively).

Most television (especially cable) up to the TV sets themselves nowadays is all digital as far as signal processing, studio-transmitter links, the networks' feeds to the affiliates, etc. goes, even if the broadcast signals from the stations themselves are analog. I called Time Warner Cable (the cable provider in my area) yesterday, since I had a question as to how they received signals from local broadcast channels. The person with whom I spoke did not know the answer to my question, but she put me on hold while she referred my question to a technician. She came back on the line a few minutes later and informed me that TW does not use antennas to receive over-the-air (OTA) television signals from local stations for distribution on the cable system, but receives the stations' content from satellites, distributing said signals via fiber optic cables. No wonder my TV picture on local stations looks every bit as good as the cable networks.

Time-Warner Cable's northeast Ohio/northwestern Pennsylvania systems were converted to 100-percent digital a year or two ago. I'll be looking forward to June 12, when the TV stations' signals themselves are fully digital. I may not (probably won't) notice the difference on my analog set, but I'll be watching as the local TV stations in Cleveland shut off their analog signals, one by one. To date, only one station in all northeastern Ohio has already switched from analog to 100-percent digital (they made the switch on 02.17, the original DTV transition date); that station is WOAC-TV channel 67, a home shopping channel in Canton, Ohio (about 60 miles south of Cleveland). I think the others could have signed off their analog signals early if they would have taken advantage of going to analog "nightlight" service (unfortunately, they did not), which would leave the analog stations free to broadcast digital-transition and emergency information as needed.

Jeff,
Most television stations are not available on satellite to cable companies and dish too. In each market Direct and Dish have a collection centers just like cable has a headend for the local stations. Cable/Dish and the Telco companies receive this programming either by a direct feed (fiber/telco/mirowave) from the stations master control or over the air with an antenna. Today that would be in most cases using an 8VSB receiver.
Unless you speak to somebody who takes care of the headend in most of the time you will not get correct information.

wcbi tv in columbus had a bad lightning strike to their analog transmitter a few weeks back and they told us it would not be repaired since the cutoff date was so close. they have been digital for a couple years now. wtva in tupelo was supposed to shut down the 17th but i am on directv so i get it anyway. i am in the top northeast corner of miss. by the way wcbi came to our store and did a special on how to hook up the converter boxes. she told us about the lightning strike. their website has our clip on it. steve

TV here has been broadcast in both analog and digital for a while. I don't have any means (yet) of receiving the free-to-air digital broadcasts, but occasionally watch the free-to-air analog channels. [I also get broadband channels, including the movie channels.]

I haven't heard of any plans to cut off analog broadcasting, but given the way they have added in the digital channels, I assume it will come one day.

Somehow sad, very sad... :tears:

Although I don't really miss the old days of having to deal with finicky rabbit ears that would tune perfectly, only as long as you stood there holding them, and then got fuzzy as soon as you went back to the sofa to sit and watch... but with a good antenna atop a house/building, analog is good.

All things must change; to everything there is a season; etc... but still, it seems rather sad! :tears:


R.I.P., analog television!

I actually stayed up on the night of the 17th (with some old TVs running, of course) just to see what would happen at midnight with the two local stations (WHO-TV 13 (NBC) and KDSM 17 (FOX)) that were still planning to shut off their analog transmitters. I recorded them too, but wanted to see it in person. Hey, it's history you know.

WHO-TV had been announcing that they were shutting off analog transmission at 11:59 PM, and that's just exactly what they did. Actually, I think they jumped the gun by about 1 minute. No announcement, no nothing-- just shut it off abruptly right in the middle of a bit on the Conan O'Brian show. I was able to catch the moment of the shutdown (using my digital camera's video mode) as displayed on my RCA 8TS30. I'll have to see about putting the video up on YouTube or somewhere.

KDSM, on the other hand, didn't actually shut down their NTSC transmitter per se. Instead, they switched the analog transmitter over to an endless loop of a 10-minute-or-so "DTV Transition Tips" program produced by the NAB, which essentially informs the viewer that (a) they need to do something if they want to continue to be able to watch OTA programming on this station, and (b) what to do about it. Actually, the looped programming consists of two separate videos, one in English and the other in Spanish. ...But the two versions are actually a bit different even aside from the language spoken by the host. KDSM is still running the "DTV Transisiton Tips" loop as I write this.

When I was in Atlanta I had nothing to watch ota on - mother only has a 32" Philips crt set my brother gave her 4-5 years ago hooked to cable. Playing with the sets in the thrift stores on the 19th revealed there's still channel 2 and four UHF stations broadcasting, but none were running any type of announcements.

I have five sets I'm going to set up and film the cutoff in June. We have seven stations still on the air in N.O.; the only one I know for sure that will wait until the new cutoff date is WWL-TV.

Jeff,
Most television stations are not available on satellite to cable companies and dish too. In each market Direct and Dish have a collection centers just like cable has a headend for the local stations. Cable/Dish and the Telco companies receive this programming either by a direct feed (fiber/telco/mirowave) from the stations master control or over the air with an antenna. Today that would be in most cases using an 8VSB receiver.
Unless you speak to somebody who takes care of the headend in most of the time you will not get correct information.

I called Time Warner Cable again this morning (02.23.09) and spoke with a customer service representative who seemed a lot more knowledgeable about the cable system than the person with whom I spoke several evenings ago. The representative I talked to today told me that Time-Warner indeed does pick up local station signals via satellite (not with antennas). I mentioned to this person that I had read on the Internet cable systems do not have access to the same signals Dish Network, et al. receive. He then told me that Dish Network and other DBS providers use their own satellites, independent of the one(s) used by Time Warner Cable.

Regardless, I am very pleased with the picture quality on Time Warner cable. I was watching the news last night and was astounded by the quality of the picture on my RCA XL-100 CTC185 TV with an in-line, dark-tint CRT. The reception on TW Cable is so sharp and clear that I could even see the credits on another show I watched that evening, in which the letters were extremely small; no matter. I could still read them. As far as picture quality on nature scenes and the like is concerned, it is very, very good as well, like a good photograph or a picture postcard.

IMHO, the quality on analog TV stations is so good, I don't think I'll notice the difference on June 12 when analog shuts down forever. One station about 60 miles south of here has already shut off its analog signal as of about a week ago, but honestly, I wouldn't have known it were it not for a runner at the top of the screen, explaining that the station was ending analog transmissions. The switch may have occurred at midnight or shortly before, but since I'm on cable, I really don't know exactly when because, as I said, on an analog set it is almost impossible to tell the difference between an analog and a digital TV transmission; they both look the same, at least to me.

Here in Pittsburgh, Channels 22 and 53 went totally digital but channel 53 still has an analogue signal broadcasting how to set up your old TV to receive digital, first in English, then Spanish, then it repeats.