Digital TV by 2009?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by tubesrule

Since I am on the side that believes 99% of television programming is crap, I use VCR's and DVD's to watch my old sets. If the need arises after the switch over, we can always run our old sets off an ATSC tuner.

Surprisingly what I haven't seen discussed here is the difficulty in receiving ATSC signals. I live near Detroit, about 10-15 miles from all the main towers. There are 7 main US stations and 1 Canadian station locally. I have a roof antenna on a two story house in a flat area. I purchased a Hitachi ATSC tuner just to play with. It has been an abysmal failure. On average, I can get 3 of the stations most of the time, 2 others about 50% of the time, and the rest rarely or never. At the same time I can get a watchable picture on their analog equivalents through the same box.

For me, ATSC is useless, and I'm in a prime area! I do believe this is being driven to a great extent in an effort to end broadcast television.

That's interesting. If you are in a prime signal area, within say 15 miles of all major Detroit stations, you should be getting excellent reception from all seven of them (plus CBET-9 in Windsor), especially if you have a good high-power rooftop antenna. Why you get such poor reception on certain of Detroit's digital channels baffles me. If you are that close to the towers, all your area's channels, digital as well as analog, should be received equally well. If you lived as far from the stations as I do from Cleveland's network channels (45 air miles), it would make sense that your digital reception is so poor on some channels. Again, however, being only 10-15 miles from the towers, you should have almost more signal than you can handle on both analog and digital channels. The only other things I can think of are your ATSC tuner is defective or has been damaged, or else your antenna is damaged or the feedline is cut or shorted. However, if you can receive the analog channels well, I don't know. I am not sure how powerful Detroit's digital transmitters are, but it is almost certain they are much less powerful than the analog stations. CBS, which owns Detroit's WWJ-TV (CBS 62), recently rebuilt that station's transmitter, which may now have the most powerful analog signal of any television station in metro Detroit; however, I don't know if the digital transmitter has been upgraded the same way. The other Detroit stations (2, 4, 7, 20, 50, 56) may be operating very low-powered digital transmitters compared to the analog ones; this could well be why your reception of those stations' digital signals (the four you say you receive 50 percent of the time or rarely/never) is so poor. It could also be that your particular ATSC tuner is poorly designed; I'd try a different brand, if possible.

As to your comment on using older sets with external ATSC tuners, that is exactly what I intend to do if I still have my RCA analog CRT TV in 2009. This set still makes an excellent picture with its inline CRT and automatic color controls (I have digital cable with a converter, a VCR and a DVD player; therefore, I am accustomed to using outboard units with the set and leaving the TV itself on channel 4), which is one big reason I am not about to get rid of it as long as it works as well as it has over the last five and a half years.

If and when the analog stations go dark .... oh, the heck with it. I'll deal with that when the time comes. As I see it, there is no sense worrying about something that isn't even here yet. As Marshal Sam McCloud (Dennis Weaver's character in the McCloud mystery movie series on NBC in the '70s) said in one episode, "The Indians have a one-word philosophy--now. The past is old and dead, and the future is new and not born yet." The point was that there is absolutely no sense being concerned or downright worried about the past or the future. The former cannot be changed; the latter isn't here yet. In this discussion of the FCC's plan to end analog TV some four years from now, this means we really shouldn't worry about something that isn't even here at this time. Who knows--the FCC (or Congress) may push back the cutoff date for analog yet again, to 2015 or even later. Knowing that the government operates extremely slowly, this wouldn't surprise me. In any event, it's not worth worrying about.

BTW, I almost hate to think what it will mean for those of us with many old TVs if we must use ATSC tuners to get reception on them. Today, ATSC tuners are relatively expensive, so many of us may not be able to afford more than one at this point. Second, it may be all but impractical to split the output of one ATSC tuner among several sets; the output will be progressively weaker at each splitter output (not counting cable losses), with the sets furthest from the tuner getting the weakest signal. Conversely, the sets closest to the tuner may get more signal than they can handle. This was also a problem in master TV antenna distribution systems years ago, as well as the first cable systems in the '50s which were little more than glorified distribution systems. The best way to get HD on your old sets is to use individual ATSC tuners with each set; as the prices of these boxes become more reasonable, the cost won't be as much of an obstacle as it may be now. Another alternative is to have your cable company put ATSC tuners on your old sets, splitting the cable output among them (Comcast and possibly other cable providers will install additional outlets at no charge, but there will be a monthly charge for each HD cable box; this could make this approach all but impractical for those of us with more than two or three TVs). Comcast will also permit subscribers to install their own cable wiring, but the installation must conform to FCC standards for RF leakage and so on, so perhaps it's a better idea to have them install the wiring and as many outlets/converters as you may need for your vintage sets. The only problem, as I mentioned above, is that Comcast (and very likely other cable operators) will charge a monthly equipment rental fee (in addition to the charges for the cable service itself) for each ATSC cable box in your home; these fees could spiral well out of control if you have more than two or three such converters.

BTW (2): If your over-the-air digital reception is so poor, why not get digital cable? All cable systems today carry both analog and digital signals, so if you had cable you can get every one of Detroit's digital stations just as clearly as your analog stations are now. Just a thought.

BTW (3): I agree with your statement that "ninety-nine percent of TV programming is crap . . . " I too have a DVD player and VCR hooked up to the TV in my apartment, with a subscription to the on-line DVD rental service Netflix (www.netflix.com). I watch a lot of the old crime dramas and mystery movies I grew up with, like the old NBC Mystery Movies of the '70s, Quincy, M.E., with Jack Klugman, et al., many of which are now on DVD. I have to say I've never enjoyed watching TV more. Let the networks air their often bottom-feeder programming. With a DVD player and a subscription to a DVD rental service such as Netflix or Blockbuster Video, you will never be at a loss for good programming on your treasured old sets. With DVD, TV runs on a new schedule--yours. No more being at the mercy of the networks. This is an idea whose time has come, maybe 20 or more years too late, but you know the old saying--better late than never.