DTV

[Ed Pawlowski]

How many people will flip the switch tomorrow morning and wonder why the TV does not work?

Nobody told me! Next week will probably be a sales boon for the TV stores too.

[Pete C.]

Only the idiots will, which means what, ~350 million population, adjust for typical family unit size, children, etc., probably about 100 million.

I've been on DTV for well over a year now.

[Stepfann King]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:trjYl.28576$ [e-mail]:

3,284 exactly.

[ransley]

How many perfectly good tvs will be thrown out.

[George]

What are you talking about? No one ever told me about the TeeVee changing? Will I be able to watch jerry springer and oprah? Will the government help me?

[1D10T]

I think I read that approximately 6% of the TV owner population are not ready. Does the analog cutoff occur at midnight?

[bob haller]

just wait, the digital conversion will help make pay tv easier.

want the low quality local feed?? its free

want the spiffy high def feed? great that will be 3 bucks a month per channel./

thats why the broadcasters went along, more $$ in their pocket.

[Ed Pawlowski]

None today, at least here in the east

[Ed Pawlowski]

Actually, yes. They showed on the news people going door to door in various languages to help people with our tax dollars.

[Red Green]

Stepfann King wrote in news:Xns9C28FDC5817DsteffankinghatedbyO@193.202.122.121:

Cite?! Cite?!

:-)

[Jim Yanik]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:trjYl.28576$ [e-mail]:

if they haven't seen ONE of the many notices broadcast on all the OTA channels by now,they deserve to be blacked out. (or they don't watch TV all that much anyways...no great loss.)

[Larry Caldwell]

When did they pass a law that everybody has to have TV? I can easily believe that most of the households that haven't converted don't WANT to convert, or have nothing to convert.

For that matter, there was never any broadcast TV at my house, so nothing has changed.

[salty]

Many areas already made the switch on the originally scheduled date. They found that those who were not prepared managed to get things straightened out very quickly once they had no choice. It turned out to be a non-issue.

Many folks don't start modifying their deleterious eating, drinking, smoking and other practices until AFTER the first heart attack. Some wait for the second.

[Mark Lloyd]

Here, it's already happened. The last 2 cut off on June 12. Channel 7 at 9 AM and channel 51 at 10 AM.

[Mark Lloyd]

I've been calling it "Black Saturday".

[Mark Lloyd]

Very few people around depend on TV from an antenna, although I do know a couple who do (those have already got converters, and are watching 7.2 [the continuous weather channel]).

[Jim Yanik]

Larry Caldwell wrote in news: [e-mail]:

you've had cable ever since you were born? I predate cable.

[1D10T]

Here's an article:

[dpb]

For the two here who hadn't it was _supposed_ to have but were in middle of continuous severe weather (tornado) coverage so they held off until the threat went away rather than switch while the indications were still high of a potential tornado. I stayed up until was clear was going to slide by us to the north.

This morning did a scan and to my surprise did pick up all three networks and the PBS that had disappeared after Witching Day #1--I suppose they finally boosted their output power to their ultimate level that they hadn't before, otherwise no explanation. In just the couple of times I've switched channels, the converter has picked them up about

50-50 though so they're still marginal at least until get around to fiddling w/ aiming the antenna.

Picked up one weather side channel and four(!) PBS. The other two networks apparently aren't using the subchannels at the moment, anyway. Not that the weather feed looks likely to be of any real use; it's from the Wichita parent station, not from the translator from which we get the signal so it's over 200 miles distant in the direction weather goes to not comes from.

Speaking of the severe weather coverage, what I have noticed is that the digital disappears entirely much sooner when heavy weather is between us and the broadcast station than was so w/ analog. I wasn't able to see anything useful from the one that was on digital last night that had made the earlier switch date owing to the converter dropping out and continually trying to lock in while the two analogs were still at least viewable if snowy and w/ the lightning static. If all three had been on digital I suspect would have had nothing. If that proves to be so over the long haul, TV will have lost essentially all actual useful value other than simply occasional entertainment that is dispensable.

--

[aemeijers]

Well, I'll be watching the curbs the next few weeks, hoping to upgrade my bedroom TVs. Put one in the guest room a few months back that is an exact match for the $5 garage sale TV in the master bedroom. It was sitting and waiting at the transfer station for me, when I dropped off the recycling on the way to the grocery store one Sunday morning. I have a 2-head dish receiver with the second head feeding the house wiring. My converter boxes are on the 2 big TVs. I hope to see cheap converters at the garage sales, as people splurge and buy new digital TVs.

-- aem sends...