Sorry to drudge up an old post, but I had to make a comment on digital television. Anyone out there believe that the switchover was orchestrated by the fact that the guv'ment can make beaucoup bucks off selling the analog signal ranges to the highest bidder? This coupled with the fact that most people will consider the switch too much hassle and move to cable or dish television, thus bolstering the Comcast/Dish/Direct TV industry, it would stand to reason that the policy makers that mandated the change to digital television probably received countless duckets under the table as well. I am not normally a conspiracy theorist, but after dealing with the woes of digital television, and knowing quite a bit about analog versus digital signal processing, it just doesn't seem like the so-called 'scientists and engineers' (pseudo in my opinion) that promoted the switch were thinking about the implications of the change on your average American. Most people have a hard time programming a VCR, much less trying to install a new antenna, hook up multiples with splice boxes, add a dish for UHF, etc. etc. People in rural areas especially, where there is no option for cable, will find that their television is useless - even more so than with the inane CSI clones and reality/poor excuse for talent shows that plague network television these days.
The one thing that grinds my gears the most is the fact the 'line of sight' really means just what it says. In my neighborhood we have a lot of tall trees that are 50 or more years old, and no matter how high our antenna is mounted we will never be above the treeline. In order to do that I would probably be looking at putting a blinking red beacon on the antenna to keep low flying aircraft from ripping my antenna off my house! That combined with the fact that every time there is any sort of precipitation or bad weather the signal strength is reduced to the poor region and only 1 or 2 of the 12 channels actually come in, and they are Spanish channels anyway! We're screwed if there is ever an emergency situation and we need to be able to receive instructions from the local authorities. The main difference between the digital and analog in inclement weather is the fact that the analog would come in, albeit fuzzy, but the digital is an all or nothing situation.
Yeah, the picture's better . . . when its there . . . and I get more channels . . . when they come in . . . end of rant!
Drew
I agree that millions of people will be screwed.
I am one of the lucky ones though. After a lot of headaches, I finally got my rig running good. I had to throw a $135 HDTV tuner in the trash, and "upgrade" to a $175 HDTV tuner that actually worked. Now, I have few if any problems. I live in a metro with about 2 million people, and get 23 channels (within 15 miles away) every day. I now get more program content and better reception.
It does not seem fair to force people who are in a worse situation though. I read one poster at a HDTV blog that said he got zero channels, until he put up an antenna on a tall pole. He was in a rural area, and wound up getting 30 channels with no problems, and some were up to 60 miles away.
Its so bad where I live I was driving to work one morning and saw a guy assembling a small plane in his front yard - did a double take - and realized it was a tv antenna! The thing had like a 15 foot wingspan and was probably 20 feet long! I'll bet he tried something smaller and determined the signal sucked, so he decided go big or go home . . . I'm not kidding, it could have been a tube frame for a small ultra-light!
Its true that the tuner has a lot to do with it as well, the one we picked up at Best Buy with the coupon is pretty bad. I have a tuner card on my computer hooked to our projector, and it gets MUCH better signal strength even though they are both hooked to the same antenna - go figure!
Drew
I need to ask....my FIL has a digital TV but his reception of the free channels is now nonexistant whereas with analog signal he was able to get all of the local channels with his current setup. Is there a different antenna that needs now to get reception? Now the UFH channels are OK...its up through channel 13 that cannot be received any longer.
Is he using an outside antenna? There are certain antennas that are UHF specific and do not pick up the VHF frequencies. If he is using an outside antenna, try adding a pair of rabbit ears inside as this may help boost the VHF signals enough so the television tuner finds them. Also, if it is an outside antenna, try rotating it - our antenna will mostly work fine, but if it is windy and the antenna rotates, it will have a lot of problems until we get it rotated back to the correct orientation - even though it is a supposed to be non-directional.
You can go to this site (
http://www.antennaweb.org ) and type in your address and it will let you know the distance and DIRECTION to the signal sources in your area. You really just need a zip code, you don't need to fill out the whole form. You can display only digital channels, or both digital and analog - I don't know if they have removed the analog signals yet as they should be phased out now. That way if you do decide to change the antenna you will know what distance you are looking at for antenna range.
Hope this helps.
Drew
Thanks...yeah, outside antenna. I'll try and get up on his roof and see if I can point his antenna to where the signal meter is strongest.
I would like to see how many people are really affected by the change.
I would think that the broadcasting companies would be more than happy than not have to distribute analog and digital signals. I'm sure that trying to maintain both types of equipment could cut into their bottom lines. Because I live in the city I've had cable or satelitte for 30 years so it didn't affect me at all, the change. I do miss my cable though, everytime it rains my satellite goes out, I've heard that if you coat your dish with car wax that it will minimize outages. But I've never tried it.
I'd wager a lot of people that have been considering making the jump to Cable/Satellite will decide now is the time . . . but adding another bill to the already overfilled plates of the masses is most likely not the best choice. However, if people were to have to choose between television and no/not very reliable television, the choice is not that difficult for most.
Bryon, I think there are more people than you would expect still watching non-cable television - I'm sure I would be surprised as well.
I think the companies like Sprint are the ones who will buy up the analog frequencies for the walkie-talkie services they provide. And you know they will pay big dollars for them too, because as their customer base increases, they will need more and more frequencies to utilize without interference. Bring on the bidding wars!
Can you buy stock in analog RF? Its going to boom!
Drew
Sprint, they are the devil. They can figure out how to buy Nextel and build a giant campus in Overland Park, Kansas. But they can't figure out how to fix their billing department. Everytime I get a new phone or change something on my plan, my bill gets messed up for 2 months. I spend at least an hour on the phone trying to fix their mistake. No wonder their stocks trade around $4.50 a share. :-)
Cell phone companies in general tick me off . . . I still never got over the things AT&T tried to pull back in the day. I had been a customer for 3 years, and my phone was the very first phone they started giving out free with plans, a massive Nokia that got left in the car most times because girls used to say, "Is that your phone or are you just happy to see me?" And when they found out it was my phone . . . well, ahem, they were disappointed, lol. Anyway, I wanted a new phone, but I didn't want to pay $200 or more for a smaller one than what I had, and they wouldn't do anything for me, they told me that because I was already a customer they had no deals to offer me. I never renewed my plan and won't have anything to do with AT&T now. I don't know if Comcast is still affiliated with them, but I won't go to Qwest . . . because they are Satan (I speak the truth).
I do agree that Sprint is the devil though! Maybe not THE devil, but a devil none the less.
Drew
I am not so sure AT&T is any better. When I made the switch from dial up to DSL this year, my bill was screwed up for 6 months.
They promised me a 50% discount for 6 months + two $50 rebates. They then promptly broke every promise. It took 15 phone calls so get them to deliver. And every time I called, they would give me a different person who disavowed all knowledge of those discounts. I would get furious, and go through at least two levels of supervision, and have to threaten to cancel for breach of contract - then they would relent and make the promises again. Finally, they gave me my rebates, but they sent them to the wrong name and wrong address two times - the stuff got lost in the mail. I verified my contact info several times and made sure my name was spelled correctly etc... they read it back to me...but it was still wrong...I think intentionally so just to jerk me around and avoid payment. Finally, I got everything promised.
On the hardware shipments, they were just as bad. They only shipped 1/2 the stuff I needed and paid for, then said they had shipped it! It took 4 shipments to get everything that could have come in one, and that meant I had to take off work 4 times to meet the UPS truck at my condo since they were shipped signature required despite the fact that I had demanded no signature!
You switched from dial up to DSL this YEAR? Oh my. :-)
My parents have had cable internet for about 2 years now, and before that, every time I would go home I wouldn't even check my e-mail because it was just painful. Click, wait 2 minutes, page is loaded, click, wait 2 minutes, etc. etc. Now that they have cable its not so bad!
But that's coming from the perspective that if I didn't have the internet I would probably go bats**t insane - ;)
Right now either get digital or don't. During heat of the day now don't get squat till cools down in evenings and it fades out once heats up before noon. Want to watch tv here for severe weather warnings and tornados right now forget about that can't see it! NWS NOAA radio still works though. Got to try another antenna and booster too maybe? Nope it's not been fun turning antenna and scanning channels everytime want to try it they are trying to discourage us all to go to satellite dishes. I fired off complaints to tv stations and several to FCC too and heard back nothing they don't care just want the money they are getting for auctioning off those other channels. The TV and radio stations and public safety entities with cities fought government and FCC officials over this for years and years. I attended meetings 15 years ago or so when they were first trying to auction off more of those channels for big $$$$$$. It would have cost cities millions back then and now it has cost them billions because public safety like police and fire had to get all new radios for this change too. Just who the heck is using the old channels anyway and what is good about the change is no one knows still if it is all going to work right and lots of bugs to work out yet. Some towers don't put out strong enough signals with the new digital yet and they can't turn it up till get FCC approval and you know anything tied to government takes way too long to fix. By the time they get off their butts to fix it the technology is done obsolete! Yeah sounds like the public's safety has really been improved? NOT !!! My opinion the new digital SUCKS and government officials are too stupid to be in control of it anyway.
Wow, I haven't noticed the heat playing such an issue, but I'm not usually home during the day . . . what kind of temps are you talking about? 90s, 100s? We see 90-105 or so during the summer, but this being the first summer with digital, we have yet to see temps over 98 F, so I can't say how extreme temps in the 105 degree range will be (I know its not extreme to those of you who regularly see 110-115 during the summer).
Oh well, if the reception is bad during the day, I'm usually out in my garden on weekends anyway . . . or doing car repairs these days (doh!), so it won't have much of an effect on my schedule.
Drew
I put on some rabbit ears and was surprised that the digital antenna channels look better than the corresponding cable ones.
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