Radio discussion on NTSC shutdown & HDTVs
 

I’m sure most of you already know about the 2009 NTSC shutdown from posts that other people have left.

On Tuesday I was listening to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" on the radio and they were talking about the switch to digital TV. Most of what they said was pretty interesting, so I recorded it so you guys can hear it…:D

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/.../Kojo_HDTV.mp3 56k Friendly
Hope you like it..

Frankly I was a little surprised after I listened to the show.
What do you think?

Very interesting broadcast.

We have had the so-called converter boxes since the introduction of digital TV in Australia in 2001.

I have 3 converter boxes for my existing TV's & a digital tuner card in my PC.

I really enjoyed that radio broadcast. Thanks for sharing it with us. Aren't MP3 files great? On Ebay right now there are ATSC set top boxes for sale for $150 that modulate the output signal to channel 3 or 4 just like a VCR. This is the first such box I've seen that has a modulated RF output. The price is a bit steep but it is just what I'm going to be looking for in 2009 for my vintage TVs. The boxes are made by Michley and the model line is called Tivax.

I hope by then digital improves. Most nights the digital stations have very inconsistent reception. I find the pixelation and freezes more annoying thatn the snow and ghosts of analog. At least I could watch through that. I often have to switch to the analog station to get through a one hour program. When that option is no longer available, I guess I'm going to have to install an outside aerial.

You and I are two of the 70 million who watch over-the-air TV and have that problem. Wait till the rest have to switch to digital. How many of them will encounter the same LOS with its frozen pictures and bleeped-out audio. Sounds to me like a potential disaster.

When the question was raised during the program, the ota guy glossed over the problem by acknowledging it but offering no alternative solution to our switching to analog.

I noticed too that the reception problem was swept aside during the radio discussion. Right now I can still switch to analog when I need to to watch Lost, Ugly Betty, House, etc. but If digital does not improve before analog switch off, I might have to get all my TV content on DVD. If that's the case, I'll just watch 1960s and 70s shows on my Zenith roundie and live in the past forever.:yes:

I’m glad you guys enjoyed the recording. It’s hard to get a MP3 to sound good at 32kbit/s compression.

I’m one of those 70 million people who watch over-the-air TV too, the way I see it; it’s just a way to force people to buy HD TVs. First they’re going to sell the NTSC bandwidth to “advance wireless services”. So they’re more concerned about making money off of the television bandwidth. And second, a $40 coupon for a $150 converter box is a rip-off.

I don’t think I’m going to get the converter box, not until they go down between $20 to $50. Until then, I’m just going to watch TV off the Internet. I all ready have my 1994 Zenith plugged into my computer for that reason…

He also missed the point on the VCR issue. It will be impossible to use a VCR for timer recording because there will be no way for the VCR to select the correct channel to record. You'll be limited to recording the channel the box is set to. People who what to do time shifting will have to buy a DVD recorder, or PVR with a built in digital tuner.

This is leading up to a bigger motive. Take a look at this:

Under the proposed legislation, all CRTs in the state of California would have to be turned in to the state government for recycling by the end of 2008. This would include television sets, computer monitors, arcade machines, and all-in-one computers such as the early Macs and the G3 iMacs.

To compensate citizens for their loss, the state will issue $25 gift cards to Best Buy for every CRT turned in to the state.

The future could be even more chilling for Californians, though. As if losing incandescent light bulbs and CRT displays won't be bad enough, Levine's next energy saving mandate will require that Californians abandon their cars for destinations less than five miles away, although there will be an exception in case of emergencies.

by Anne Onymus

Full article
http://lowendmac.com/rumormill/07/0201.html

Here's Levines Site, if you can find proof of this I'd like to see it. http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a40/

Take away a Californians car!? That would be a sure fire ticket to being voted out of office.

I've been watching OTA local digital channels the last 4 years living outside of Dallas and don't have any of the problems you guys have. Maybe some transmission is better than others but I have no complaints. I'd rather watch HD programs via antenna than I would the compressed HD signal thru Satellite or Cable. Plus, OTA is free. I have Satellite btw...but I quite subscribing to the HD channels. It wasn't that important.

$50 isn't a bad deal to watch OTA converted signals. Hell, we get screwed much more than that by the government. Who do you think has been paying for a lot of these tower upgrades, research, etc for HDTV stuff? WE have. I just wish they'd flip the switch and call it done. Then we can move on to something else for everyone to cry about. lol

They are really talking about those rules in California? I'll keep that state on my short list that I'd NEVER move to! lol

Last week the local paper ran an editorial on NTSC OTA shutdown. It said essentially that the government shouldn't give out the converter box coupons as it would just be welfare for manufacturers. As for OTA only viewers, it essentially said "Tough bananas"...

Anne Onymus columns on Low End Mac are satirical articles. They're meant to be funny, although I can't say I found this particular one very amusing.

David

Just stumbled across this photo...
 

I'm quoting compucat and myself here to intro another example of digital TV at its worst. (It's not always just pixilization). I grabbed my cell to record this 'split screen' of Heidi the weather girl who in the studio was standing on the left.

I've had that happen too with the split screen or the video freezes and the sound keeps going. Also poor reception causes the sound and video to get out of sync, much like those old chinese kung fu movies.

The ones I like with poor digital reception are when a little of the newer scene mixes with the last scene, and you have things like a wall with a "ghost" of a person changing the shape of the wall surface. Really weird.