No free TV
Am I mistaken to be bothered? My understanding is with the new digital TV law passed, come next year the only way to get TV reception is to pay for cable or satellite. Wonder how many people in Congress made a profit off this little deal? While I do have cable, it is my option now, not a law. What really bothers me is what are we to do in times of an emergency such as Katrina, tornadoes, wildfires, terrorist attacks? No power, no cable for two weeks plus……at least with a battery operated TV, I could get vital news. Next time…..guess I will pray that Congress stays out of radio broadcasting.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I admit that I do not know much about this as I have not researched it but I really hope that they are not completely doing away with public broadcast over antenna…this will definitely create more problems than it is worth.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
The law doesn’t require people to purchase cable, but rather a converter box to allow transmission of the digital signal. The converter box costs approx $60 and this is why the federal government is issuing two vouchers worth $40 each for every household that needs them. The switch to digital data transmission is a natural progression in technology that has become necessary to effectively to handle ever increasing loads of data and the systems that transmit it. All-digital broadcasting will free up frequencies for public safety communications (such as police, fire, and emergency rescue). Also, because digital signals are compressed, it is a more efficient transmission that allows broadcast stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, as well as offer more programming options for consumers through multiple broadcast streams (multicasting). In addition, some of the freed up frequencies will be used for advanced commercial wireless services for consumers. With the converter box, viewers will be able to access the same channels as pre-conversion, probably more (without purchasing cable or satellite). Radio broadcasting has already jumped on the band wagon, as there are now digital radio receivers being sold. Eventually, it will become all digital as well. Think of how we moved from Beta and Vhs to DVDs. Or from 8 tracks to CD’s. I’m not saying that companies will not profit from this situation, since any imposed systematic change results in cost. I’m just saying that it is a necessary transition for the future of communications and a growing population that was not motivated by greed, but instead demand. The FCC has a wealth of information on their website regarding DTV and exactly what this means for consumers. Probably more info than you really cared about, but I thought I would chime in on the subject since I worked in cable for almost 4 years.
taylor
ex-QA engineer for
Cox Communications
and Sr. Software Engineer for
Scientific Atlanta
February 1st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Taylor,
Thanks for the clarification on this. As you can see, I have not done much research on the matter, but this does clear up some information
In reference to Anna’s new post Here, what would happen in the time of power outages, such as right after a hurricane?
Initially, after Hurricane Katrina hit the coast, WLOX (our local ABC affiliate) ran off backup power for several days to get information across to viewers who were watching TV on a small generator or battery powered televisions.
Do you know of any information as to whether battery operated digital receivers will be available for instances like these and what type of price point, if any? What about the power load of a digital transmission from the station? Will the existing backup power systems be able to transmit a digital load or will the stations have to increase their backup power capacity to be able to effectively produce a signal capable of reaching the masses?
March 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
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