If you have cable, the improvement will cost you zippo. The cable box already supplies NTSC, S Video, Component, whatever you're using. That isn't going to change. The only folks impacted are those that receive NTSC over the air.
The coupon thing is a done deal. You can google or check the FCC.
'Scuse me, but how in the hull do *you* know what Comcast, TW, Charter, etc are going to do in the coming years? Some doubt they know they-own-selves.
Several years ago I could get premium (HBO, etc) channels on my NTSC tuners. Not no' mo': gotta have a (Charter) Digital-Garbage Box (and pay rent on it).
Last I looked, there were incentives for cable vendors to further convert to "digital". Not directly connected to the 2009 ATSC changeover.
...
Puddin'
"Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens!" -Friedrich Schiller
The only argument in the government's favor is that HDTV transmissions are digital and require only a narrow bandwidth. This frees up a lot of very valuable bandwidth for other non-TV applications. Digital signals of course allow a lot of extra services, interactive services, etc. Offhand I can't think of any compelling ones yet that wil make me want to buy a HDTV set .
I did not know that.
Thanks for the good news.
I'll look forward to seeing if there is a secondary market for the coupons.
A smart approach. If I guess - my 50" Plasma is eighth generation plasma panel. Ninth or tenth generation panels have to be out by now.
The early fear of screen "burn-in" is now dissipated (I call it similar to a screen saver for pc monitors in the new panel...)
Buy the latest/current generation when you buy. Buying in a store can be deceptive under various lighting conditions.
-- Oren
"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"
...
The entertainment industry in gen'l and tv in particular has gotten so abusive of the viewing public that it is patently insane.
Screwy schedules, garbage-coverage, ram-it-down-your-throat IIGA's (Idiot, Idiot Garbage Ads). There's no end to what the public will accept.
400,000 spin doctors congregated at the bottom of the sea couldn't completely separate fact from fiction from folderol, etc."The TV Industry Is Programming For An Audience Of Flogging Zombies!".
A few hundred more for , a few hundred more for , pretty soon it's thousands (and they *love* it). Any price for a Pretty, Pretty Picture.
It's gotten to be Cultural Horseshit: they oughta be paying me thousands to watch -any- of it.
AQ
Nobody has related any real life experiences with watching DTV on a regularTV so I will.
I live in a rural area where analog TV reception can at best be classified as awful. Scratchy, staticy, ghosty, fluttery, you name it, it was in the picture. But I put up with it. Until a few years ago when I had had enough and I bought a converter box for my TV. Man! let me tell you. It was like moving the studio into your living room. It was a crystal clear perfect picture the likes of which I had never seen before. Sure it had some problems with pixelation and an occasion freeze, but it was a friggin perfect picture!
So stop complaining about your crappy picture and go out and buy a converter box. Sure they'll be cheaper in a year when the government starts handing out the rebates, but then you'll have missed out on doing the one thing that can improve your picture the most for those months you've waited.
Go to
-dickm
Look, first, it's not years away, ATSC is already up and running. HDTV programming is available right now through OTA, cable, and Sat. It coexists with std def right now. You can watch much of prime time in HD or std right now via cable. All those cable companies now deliver a signal that works with your NTSC TV. And the signal from most cable companies is already digital to the set top box, regardless of whether the output is NTSC or HD. In Feb 2009, the only thing that happens is NTSC OTA gets turned off.
If you don't believe me, call your cable company and ask or do a bit of research on the web.
I assure you that you can get it right now. Just call up and pay for it instead of stealing it.
That's right, the incentives are to cram more channels down that pipe. It's been going on, it works, so why should we expect it's gonna disappear, just because broadcasters shutdown the NTSC transmitters?
(snip)
Uh, not entirely true- in some areas served by the biggies, and especially tiny 'house' cable systems like some apartments use, if you only have basic cable, no set-top box is involved. 1 cable, wall jack to 'cable ready' TV. (the apartments I lived in until recently were like that, and the basic cable my sister had at her house were like that.) Or are they going to start converting the signal at the head end before they send it down the wire?
aem sends....
No more black and white Roy Rogers and Dale Evans or Lassie? OTA? (g).
-- Oren
"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"
Well, let's see the cable company can either take the broadcast feed that's provided in std def as well as hi def and continue to supply a signal just like they do now that comes out of the cable box (or wire if you have no cable box), or they could commit suicide and let most of their customers go dark in Feb 2009. Which do you think their gonna do?
Wrong again Pa Pa. The move from NTSC to ATSC that you have your shorts in a know about, has zippo to do with "interactive services" And that's because last time I checked ATSC, just like NTSC is one way, ie from the transmitter to your antenna. There is no channel in the other direction to support interactive anything.
Offhand I can't think of any compelling ones yet that wil make
And why am I not surprised? LOL
Point conceded. I haven't kept up with the technology news. I still think interactive services can still be piggybacked in the cable company feeds though. These services will be custom cable company offerings, not broadcast company services. That said only likely popular service may be videogames that involve multiple remote players. I don't play videogames myself or shop online.
WHAT cable box?
With basic cable, there is no cable box. The analog NTSC signal is fed right into the TV's tuner.
Doug
| You don't need an HDTV. All you need is an ATSC digital tuner which | will deliver a signal compatible with your existing TV. The govt has | approved a plan to give consumers two $40 coupons that can be used | toward the purchase of two converter boxes. These tuners are already | available for under $100, and will likely be $50-75 by the time you | need them.
Do you know of any ATSC tuners (being under $100 would be a bonus) that support NTSC recording devices (VCR, DVR, etc.) in the following sense?
-They include a timer with a reasonable number of programs.
-They include a stretch/fill/what-have-you mode to render pillar-boxed
4:3 material as full screen rather than letter-boxed.-The timer allows selection of the stretch/fill/what-have-you mode on a per-program basis.
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
Depends on how good your signal is. I took a standard 15 yr old antenna off a mobile home they were moving, put it up on our Park Model and connected to our new LCD TV in Tucson AZ. I get
14 local HD channels and the picture is great except when there are local storms.No reason why not
My HDTV has both types of tuners. I havent bothered to look up which does what. Picture is great even off local "antenna" (and my DISH,with which I've declined Local Service, hence the antenna)
Comcast already announced that the FCC is requiring them to discontinue all analog channels (not true, the FCC is only requiring broadcasters to do that) and will require everyone to get a digital box. They have already done this in a few markets (with one a really big one).
Doug wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
many basic cable systems still use a cable box,for signal security. They play games with channel allocations and shifting channel frequencies slightly.Some cable systems use a digital system right up to your wall,and you need a box to convert to analog NTSC.
"aemeijers" wrote in news:6qpyi.447176$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:
chances are they will sell their system to the local cable company,who will connect to their system,and then you'll need their box,and pay their rates. That's what happened at my apt.complex a few years ago,sold to Brighthouse.(Time-Warner Cable)
Now you can also get broadband internet service,and Internet phone,I believe.
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