Conversion to all-digital television broadcasting

Post Reply New Topic

Ever notice whenever there is a public service announcement regarding the Congress mandated conversion to all-digital television broadcasting someone always seems to mention the word antenna. What do antennas have to do with receiving over-the-air digital broadcasts. As long as you have a digital television set, and almost everyone does these days, you can receive an over-the-air digital broadcast with any antenna you don’t necessarily have to have a special antenna. It seems to me that what they’re trying to do is to get people to subscribe to cable or dish. “Follow the money” as deep-throat said. I wonder how much of those public service announcements are being paid for by the cable or satellite companies. My guess is not only are they paying for it, they’re probably deducting the cost from their taxes. Anyone willing to do or have some research on this?

Digital broadcasts are multiplexed across a wide bandwidth whereas analogue broadcasts are confined to a narrow band, hence in some circumstances (all be it quite rare nowadays) a newer aerial (antenna) accommodating a wider bandwidth may be necessary.
Also Digital receivers are a bit more susceptible to noise (motor ignitions etc.) so an arial with a bit more gain and directionality is worthwhile.

Two nations separated by a common language. - Winston Churchill.

Streaming media TV - Not exactly what I like, I hate all the colours as they remind me of 16bit and low quality much lower than analogue. Then there's the AV sync, sometimes I have to flip channels to get it back in sync again. Maybe time for an aerial upgrade.

I think you've got it wrong. They're not saying you need a new antenna. They're saying if you have an antenna and you don't have a digital TV, then you need a converter box.

This is correct. If you have a digital TV, or if you have cable or satellite, you don't need a converter box. However, if you have an analogue TV and you only get broadcast signals, you need to get a converter box. The box translates the digital signal into an analogue signal that your TV set can process. The change happens in February.

Be sure to do some research online before you purchase a box. Not all boxes will be sold in your area. Also, some of the boxes will not process HD signals, and if your favorite station only broadcasts in HD you're out of luck. (HD is different from digital.)

However, if you have a analog tv set connected to cable, you should not worry until 2012. Yet many cable companies are planning to launch all-digital cable.

So you should check your local cable company if and when they will start their own transition.

"But many antenna-dependent households are slow to take the necessary steps, such as buying a converter box, the survey showed."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postte ... v=rss_blog[/url]

Case in point: Comcast. They're planning to go all-digital by 2010, with the exception of the "must carry" stations, which are mandated to be broadcast in analog until 2012 (or later, if the FCC decides to extend it). So if you have cable-ready TVs, odds are they won't be cable-ready for long.

thats why I bought a 20 inch HD Tv for my dorm room.

Odds are that won't be cable-ready, either.

digital killed the analog star

Unless it has QAM, I think. QAM is the equvient to analog cable ready television, right?

Last year I upgraded to HD. I bought a 20 inch monitor, a HD converter box (since the TVs don't have built in tuners) and an indoor antenna. Ultimately I had to buy an outdoor antenna, a big Channel Master square antenna based on a design used for UHF analog TV in the 60s. Even then I get pixelation and signal cutting out. When the wind blows hard I get zero signal at all. I wonder what will happen during the 2009 hurricane season and people are stuck without TV since battery operated HDTVs don't exist and the signal goes to crap when the wind blows? Most radio stations today just play music, and/or they're fed by satellite. News stations are extremely rare nowadays. Most people rely on TV, but now they can't. Millions of people can't afford HDTV, and they will be stuck. I suspect that cable companies will love all the new customers.