NTSC shut down in 2009
 

This has been a topic brought up on this forum every so often. that had an article in the chicago tribune discussing the shut down of NTCS transmitters on 2-17-09. Im an OTA viewer by choice and being a vintage TV collector, this is quite dissapointing. Ive read discussions about the "digitial to analog" converter box that will supposedly be available beginning in 2008 to consumers. Does anyone have any information regarding this converter box? Will this work like a cable box, simply set the TV to channel 3 and tune the channels throught the converter?
I don't know about you, but for me, having the TV on channel 3 all the time just isnt very interesting.
From my understanding, I can still use my outdoor TV antenna to receive the HDTV broadcast?

Needless to say, I will miss tuning through the channels with the mechanical tuner!

The set top HDTV tuner I bought a year ago has this capability. It has HDMI, composite, and NTSC outputs, and I did connect an RF modulator to it once just for an experiment and displayed DTV channels on an old black and white set. The stuff is on the market as we speak, but probably won't have an RF output for your older TVs, so a modulator might be needed. Supposedly regular outdoor antennas will work fine; rabbit ears really don't; I'm stuck with rabbit ears due to being in an apartment, and the signals will just cut out at times and it's really annoying. Remember, the NTSC phaseout was supposed to have happened already, but the date keeps getting changed.

I'm guessing the NTSC 'cutoff' will be postponed *again*. ESP if the FCC suddenly has to pony up for a few hundred million converter boxes. Look how long 819 and 405 held out...

I'm also guessing the HDTV standard currently in use will eventually be withdrawn. It transmittsa like crap, has no DRM, and isn't really that great anyway.

I would probably try to buy the convertor now because the electronics industry will probably be pushing for the sales of new sets rather than convertors, although I would think that someone will design a convertor as a specialty item for old TV enthusiasts.
I personally have not seen the convertors but yes you do use a regular antenna to receive the digital broadcast signal...not sure if rabbitears would give enough gain but in a metropolitan area they might work.

I use an industrial CATV distribution amp fed from an RF modulator from the Direct TV receiver so all the TV's I use in the house have always been tuned to channel 3. The barn TV's still are connected to a functioning antenna.
My antenna for the house blew down and I never replaced it yet..

Doug do you really find good stuff to watch on those antenna channels, I remember not much of it interested me. I wanted the shows and movies I WANTED to watch even if I had to pay for it. I watched lots of DVD's before I got the satellite receiver.

Is HDTV really catching on? My perception is that except for a niche market, most people are still opting for plain old "disposible" standard def, CRTs.

Well the new HD junk one can buy at Best Buy or WallFart will become the old disposible sets in the next year or so if china has anything to say about it.

The HD xmitter at our local Fox affiliate is known as the "million dollar experiment" and is slated to be replaced along with both RCA analog transmitters *if* they are forced into the newer HD standard and not the standard we are swallowed up with right now.

109

My main concern at this point is whether or not a standard VCR can be connected to either a modulated output or a straight video line output from an HDTV converter to be able to record off-the-air for timeshifting and future watching with a present-day VCR and TV. 90% of my family's TV viewing is done via timeshifting, taking a tape from a VCR fed from an outdoor antenna upstairs to a VCR-fed TV downstairs that uses only rabbit ears.
I've yet to see any of these converter boxes available. I've got at least 5 HDTV channels in my area, but the converters are so far vaporware.
Tom

Here is the box I have been using for off-air HD for about 6 months.

http://www.epvision.com/

Just fine with an outdoor UHF antenna for HD and digital. You can get analog out via the rear composite outputs and switched to 480i. Modulator needed from there. I just run it to an old VCR.

Dave A

That's a good point...I personally use the digital video recorder with Direct TV, and have not recorded on videotapes in years...even compressed digitally, the quality I find is better than video tapes and the ease of programming recordings is so much better. I know people who are recording off-the-air HDTV onto digital hard disk recording systems...I think purely digital recorders are the only real thing for digital TV recording.
I have not looked too much into the set top HDTV/digital TV receivers but they appear to be a specialty item: here is one I found that may be the most inexpensive:
http://ultimateavmag.com/hdtvsattuners/1104vinc/

As I mentioned in previous discussions on this, I think that I have a solution for us TV collectors... It will require 3 or 4 boxes, but I will set up a network of RF modulators in the house, so I can set my converter boxes to the local channels in DTV, then remodulate on the old channels. That way, any set in the house will work as always before. To remodulate, I will just get a few of those apartment doorbell injection boxes that that are used for when someone buzzes your door, and you change to a certain TV channel on the building MATV system to see if it's your UPS man or your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend ... Winegard makes a few of them.

Charles

Very cool. Thanks, guys.
Tom

You're being sarcastic, right?

Virtually every TV sold today over $400 is digital, and has a DTV tuner built in. LCD is the way of the future for any set under 40", it will be hard to buy CRT standard def sets even two years from now.

Don't fight the DTV transition! Digital is great, been enjoying for 6+ years at my home. It's hard to find major programs that aren't in HD these days ;)

Wouldn't this be the answer? (see these ebay links below)

Take the digital set top box hooked up to an outdoor DTV antenna, plug it into one of these and tune in on your old sets' uhf band. I would think any programming could be supplied this way. I know when I had DISH Network, I chose channel 73 for my secondary set. Maybe those modulators could be worked in this way as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/UHF-Modulator-TV...em280033615732

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Audio-Vi...em220034433703

Ive been using one of these nippon UHF transmitters. they work ok for the most part. Its expecially nice if you want to power up a portable set somewhere with just the UHF loop antenna. KX250 has the right idea. I really dont want this big converter box next to a TV at all times whenever I want to use it. My best bet would be to buy multiple converter boxes with an equal number of UHF transmitters. Then i can just rotate the old continuous UHF tuner to select my favorite channels.

As for me with the antenna, I mainly watch the news and PBS. We have channel 23, WWME in Chicago which is 24 hours of vintage television programming, 1950's-70's TV shows and old commercials. Im not much of a movie watcher either. Having these few good CATV channels, Cable or sateillit really isnt nessisary. I think the only channel I enjoy on cable is the history channel, modern marvels in particular.

My biggest bitch is the notion that HD is better than the current NTSC format even though our local networks are only feeding the HD transmitter the same signal that is fed over to the old RCA transmitters. The only thing Im seeing is a bit more contour on vertical edges and exaggerated depth of contrast with dithering errors and bloated colors. My parents have one of those monster HD sets and my brother has a CRT HD box and both show the same results.
Yes edges look sharper and colors look more like a Kodachrome but since when does Ms Perky Tits Lisa Myers saturate her hair with violet tinted Rave? Wish HD would just go away along with Nextel and its vacuum for bandwidth.

ranting109