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#1
07-14-2005, 12:24 AM
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Digital TV by 2009?
I responded to the author of this article. I did not like her calling our analog televisions "old-fashioned". I would hope that we all can fill her inbox with hate mail.
 I can't wait till the first television virus hits the network.  Some lawmakers are proposing a free converter box to everybody that requests one.  polaraman Last edited by polaraman; 07-14-2005 at 12:28 AM. 
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#2
07-14-2005, 12:32 AM
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My reply to the analog TV hater!!!
Marilyn, I for one will NEVER own a digital television. I am a TV collector and love my vintage television sets. I will never give them up. I was sort of offended by your "last granny" hurdle comment. Many of us who own the "old fashioned" analog televisions really enjoy them. Many younger folks do not even know or realize what a marvel TV was. I would suppose that you are fairly young to make comments like that. If you were older you would appreciate the "old fashioned" technology. It is amazing that folks do not demand more for their money. It is real insulting to even look at those sterile plastic televisions. Do you really think they are worth thousands of dollars? I often wonder when the environmentalists are going to stand up and demand that they be made of recyclable materials. WHY? The newer sets are made to be used and tossed. Ever pay to get a new set repaired? The repair will cost more that the set is to buy. One concern that many have not addressed with the new Digital television. I can't wait till somebody comes up with a damaging virus for them. That is going to be real interesting. I am going to send your article to my fellow TV collectors. I would suppose that you may hear from a few more of us. polaraman
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#3
07-14-2005, 01:32 AM
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The main thing I don't like about digital TV is that in a fringe area you'll be totally cut off from broadcast TV. It's all or nothing. If you get a snowy picture now you probably won't see anything in digital. I also wonder when there will be a portable battery operated digital TV. It seems like a ginat step backwards that the only digital TVs are expensive, large and heavy.
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#4
07-14-2005, 03:11 AM
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Yeah, the condescending stuff bugs me too.
I only hope they standardize on something that will down-convert cleanly for our older sets. One of the biggest problems I see today is finding a source (other than dvd) of sufficient quality to make a good picture. Cable isnt that good. Antenna here is worse. Digital cable has motion artifacts in it. Mini-dishes also do. I might even like digital tv if the converter box will provide a clean high-quality NTSC source. It might be better than what is available now. As for the set-top box, having to use one won't bother me too much. I have been using various converter boxes for years (most recently a vcr). I don't think my silvertone has been off channel 3 in the last 20 years.  Granny John
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#5
07-14-2005, 05:31 AM
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I'm one of the 21 million households that only get free tv. I don't consider myself poor, nor my parents elderly. I simply feel that there's nothing on television worth paying for. My life is busy enough so that I don't have time to waste sitting and vegetating in front of a television set, drooling and slackjawed. "Lookit the purty movin' pitchers!"
A better picture isn't going to make me want to rush out to buy a new and very expensive TV set, or even to subscribe to cable. I've repeatedly checked the TV listings for programs that might seem worth my time. Newton Minow was right 40 years ago in saying that television is a vast wasteland... he just didn't know how much worse it was going to get. If there's such an almighty rush to move to digital television, then GET THE ANALOG SETS OFF THE SALESFLOORS NOW!! Tom
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Tom 
Last edited by OvenMaster; 07-14-2005 at 05:34 AM.
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#6
07-14-2005, 06:06 AM
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I have a lot to say about that but I will stick to ONE point that has lost ground in the recent past, the supreme court upholding eminent domain comdemnation of private property for PRIVATE use when there will be an increase in the tax recipts for that property..
The loss of use of our "free" tv's is a "taking" which is a legal concept which can be traced back to the 4th amendment, the seizure part. Old example: near an air force base the fighter planes were scaring the farmers chickens and they stopped laying eggs... He sued and won under that principle. Congress is "taking" the public airwaves, and they know it.. as they are trying to appease the public by providing the "poor" with ONE converter... If they get away with that instead of one converter for ANY working set for free... welll....... Imagine changing the fuel available for our cars, so that if we don't get a converter, the cars we have won't work... but after we get the converter they will work "better"... they couldn't get away with that..... ... BUT They have a precident.... they took channels 70 through 83 in the uhf band years ago and gave it to the cellular phone bands.... They enacted the electronic communications privacy act which then made it a crime to listen in on them (800 mhz) although it was VERY easy. Later they banned the manufacturing of any scanner that could receive the specific parts of that band which were cellular (which is why scanners have several "holes" in their published specs. Not everyone wants to (or can) pay the cable or satellite company to supply the available programming... When I moved I "dropped" cable ( I had it if for many years) and invested in a roof antenna 12 years ago. I HATED the way the cable companies jerked me around, like i was a captive "audience" (consumer?). Just as bad as the phone companies were and sbc is now.....
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 Nothing is ever completely fool proof, because fools are so ingenious.
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#7
07-14-2005, 09:10 AM
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The biggest advertiser on the local tv station is itself, running ads promoting it's digital twin, where to buy sets or convertors, etc. I could live with a convertor I guess, but you would need one per set, right? I would then need to shell out for at least 3 (living room, bedroom, & a shared unit for the tv room). Of course, I am in no hurry to see NTSC die. I feel it should be allowed to go on open-ended. When the market will no longer support tv stations broadcasting analog they will just shut off that transmitter.
I cut off the cable a couple years back with no regrets. Though I have this room full of televisions I hardly watch anything. My wife has the tv on for most of the evening but I just find it annoying. More & more when I watch one of the old sets its just to watch a tape. (I need to pick up a second DVD player for the tv room) This fall something will happen that might force us into a decision. The aforementioned tv station simulcasts in digital but also has a second station which is digital only. They have been promoting it nonstop (its a UPN affiliate) & recently they mentioned that 2 of my dear wife's favorite shows-Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy-are moving from the crosstown competitor to this digital only station. Guess I'll find out how much she wants to watch those shows. Might have to buy the set-top box. Or I could invest in a good roof antenna so I can pick up the Baltimore/Washington stations. I will own an HDTV someday-when I can get one for under $100. I have never paid over $100 for any tv in my life and that seems like a worthy goal to stick to!
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Bryan
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#8
07-14-2005, 09:25 AM
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Truth be told, I have not watched antenna TV for more than 6 months...Wheel of Fortune, Oprah Winfrey Show, the news, and Jeopardy were about the only shows I would watch. I got Direct TV because I really do like to watch TV and I do not mind paying something to receive programming I actually want to watch.
I remember when TV stations actually used to broadcast shows I would watch...Macgyver, star trek TNG, Falcon Crest, Kate and Allie, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and others (don't comment about my taste in TV shows!, but these were shows I enjoyed and most of them I can still watch on Direct TV) Now there is just a lot of reality junk shows...or on the comedy shows, they are just so crude. It honestly doesn't matter a whole lot to me what happens to the format of broadcast TV...as there is hardly anything I want to watch on it. I'll still watch my collection of old TV's and just continue to use the satellite to feed them the programming.
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#9
07-14-2005, 09:29 AM
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I refuse to pay money to watch television (I'm funny that way). We got cable Internet access last summer, but I skipped the cable TV part.
The notion of "broadcasting" that was so revolutionary in the 1930's has changed dramatically.
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all the best, mrh
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#10
07-14-2005, 10:37 AM
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One thing I can say is that those converter boxes DO work very well. They function just like a cable box, or satellite receiver except they get the signal from a regular antenna.
If you're in an area with a strong signal the picture will look much better, even on an NTSC TV. It looks better than a DVD assuming the TV station isn't screwing up the signal before broadcasting it. There's absolutely no ghosting, snow, or color smear which is almost unavoidable on NTSC unless you're lucky. It could improve the selection of tv programs because they can broadcast something like 4 or 6 NTSC resolution channels over one carrier instead of one HD signal. I'm pretty sure they will do this most of the time so they can get 4 or 6 times as many ads on the air and only switch to HD for prime time. I won't get too excited until there's a way to time shift using a tape, or disc (not a PVR). They really don't want you to be able to record and save programs. There's a lot of technology to prevent unauthorized recording which may lead to people moving away from broadcast TV completely. I can see myself dumping cable, satellite and broadcast and just downloading the things I want to watch. You can already do this and it looks better than cable most of the time.
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#11
07-14-2005, 11:16 AM
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I couldn't really read the article, but from y'all's replies, I already think I don't like this woman very well... Thing is, digital TV was 5 years away 20 years ago, it was 5 years away 10 years ago, & methinks it's still 5 years away....-Sandy G,
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Benevolent Despot
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#12
07-14-2005, 11:42 AM
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I doubt the FCC will kill analog in 2009. Digital TV's got little inertia now (most are sold as fancy DVD monitors), and the broadcasters aren't going to just lket the feds take away their viewship - especially given that their most important viewers are the ones WITHOUT cable.
And, not having cable's not a sign of being poor - my parents don't have cable still, and I'd hardly call them poor...
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#13
07-14-2005, 12:53 PM
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Quote:
Call me weird, but I think my 1982 Zenith has a good picture rivalling many HDTV's, then again, my eyes are shot, terminally nearsighted (-6.25 and -7.00 diopters) along with astigmatism. 
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#14
07-15-2005, 07:48 AM
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Portable Digital TV
I have an HDTV set with a built-in tuner. It is the only way I would buy one. It is a 27" Samsung table model and the color on the digital channels is unbelievable and when HD is on, it's even better. I still don't want NTSC analog to go away. Although HD is technically better quality, I still think analog is good enough. I don't plan to put HD sets throughout the house so the other TVs will have to get converter boxes.
My biggest gripe about this whole thing is that the lack of backward compatibility is going to render my portables useless. Converter boxes are fine for table sets but I collect small, battery powered TVs and I have a couple of handhelds that I use regularly. There will be no point in keeping them when analog stops. I have an inquiry in to Casio as to when they plan to offer a handheld TV with a digital tuner. If they reply, I'll post their answer here. I would hope Sony would make one but they seem to have left the miniature TV business. I think there will be digital portables. In fact I thought I saw on Ebay recently an Audiovox handheld LCD set with an ATSC tuner but I have not been able to find it again.
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#15
07-15-2005, 08:08 AM
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You may be able to use a mini TV transmitter kit to feed a signal to analog portables..just feed the transmitter with video from a digital convertor
Here is one I found: http://store.yahoo.com/electronic-ki...idtrankit.html This will not really help for outdoor use but will enable the sets to be functional in locations inside the house.
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