Today's USA Conversion to Digital Television

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toggleswitch2

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Did anyone notice? Care? Feel the effects?

Wonder if there will be a run on new TV sets this weekend and for the rest of the summer.

I figure in a year flat-screens will be dirt cheap.

Methinks there will be little or no differece if one's TV plugs into a cable TV system. Although in Connecticut one cable tv ssytem is giving each customet two free converter boxes so that one can get some channnels that will disappear if the cable goes inti the TV without one of their (with a monthly charge) tuner boxes.
 
It Has Gotten Better

I am famous/infamous for ranting and raving about the switch to digital, but now that the switch is almost complete, I have to say that things have gotten dramatically better over the past month. Stations have evidently boosted power and done some engineering tweaks. I am not seeing "No Signal" messages nearly as often as I did at first, and freezing and pixelation are rarer and more minor.

Three months ago was rough, though. You could not believe that this was the "wave of the future."

I'm hoping things smooth out even more soon; stations still have a lot of work to do with their transmitters, pulling the plug on analogue equipment and re-aligning things, I understand.

When digital broadcast is working right, it's as clear a picture as I've ever seen on an standard-def set, even with cable or satellite.
 
P.S.:

There is one annoying thing about a couple of digital stations in our area, though: Lack of programming info. On most stations, pressing "Info" on the remote brings up the name of the programme currently showing. Pressing the left or right arrow keys toggles you through what's coming up or what you just missed.

But our local PBS stations don't broadcast the info signal; pressing the "Info" key brings up "No Info Available." Or at least it does usually; there have been a few times when the info was present.

I know I've gotten spoiled in a hurry, but it certainly is nice to have the info available, and I wish our PBS stations would get with the programme.
 
Our local ABC affiliate today announced that they are running on low power so some people may not receive a proper digital picture. Ours is just fine, we are on DirecTV. But the station said that by the end of next week they will have their digital transmitter up to full power.

they also had a story where some people just couldn't get their conversion box to work and gave up and just went out and bought a new television. They complained that the box is NOT as easy to set up as they say it is.
 
I'm happy because at last those annoying spots for the conversion preparation may finally be over.

Then again, who knows? They might try to reach people can't get digital TV by running spots on digital TV.

LOL.

PS-I did the conversion two years ago. I'm broadcast only.
 
Another point

It amuses me how some seem to be out to make a buck off this conversion. I'm referring to the ads for digital TV antennas. Folks, there is really no such thing. It's just a UHF antenna. I have a rooftop antenna that must be at least 40 years old, and it gets all digital TV stations in the area just fine.
 
Oh, yes -

The "you need all new kit" argument. We went through that here back when we went all-digital.
Also, back when we went to PAL+.
Not to mention when we went to 16:9.

In each case, my trusty old Grundig performed just as well as it always had.

Before investing in a new antenna, make sure the old one is oriented properly, hooked up correctly and the connections are in good order. The whole point of switching to this form of digital broadcast was to make possible the use of precisely those frequencies Rich cited.

I am glad to hear the US is not going through the several year disaster we did before free-to-air digital finally began working as it should.
 
living in the hills of California

where rooftop attennae never really worked, we've been using cable since the early 1960s, when it was basically a master antenna system, relaying only over the air content with crystal clarity. Very few people depend on rooftop antennae here, and my town has an ordinance forbidding them unless you're grandfathered in (my house was built after the law was passed so I am not grandfathered in). Everyone here uses cable or directTV dishes, so they don't notice the changes.

I did have a Casio 2" LCD tv that someone gave me as a gift nearly twenty years ago. Never used it because it didn't work in my area with the available over the air signals. It went to the haz mat recycling center last week, no longer being of any use to anyone in the USA (and no it did not have an external antenna input).
 
Keven:

"I am glad to hear the US is not going through the several year disaster we did before free-to-air digital finally began working as it should."

Well, it's better here than it was only three months ago, and I'm hoping it will get better yet. But we do have a little way to go. Only last night, there were significant storms here in the Atlanta metro area, and there was a lot of freezing and pixelation during that time. Whether that will get corrected remains to be seen. I am hoping it will.
 
Some elderly people we know bought their converter boxes at Best Buy. They had Best buy install the boxes. The guy came out and charged them $179.00 for each box installed. What a rip off!
They showed me the receipt, I told them to go back to BB and complain like hell. That is an awful lot of money for a guy to just come to the house and install two boxes.
I told them I would have done it for free, and they responded that they didn't know I knew how to do such things! Well at least they aren't poor (actually quite well fixed) but it is the principle of the thing.
 
Some bright boy will probably invent a converter that rebroadcasts low power VHF signals... to channel 3 or 4, like a VCR... so that older tv's can still tune into the broadcast world... Maybe a device could even be set up to rebroadcast at low power the original analog channels in all their glory.

Of course, the FCC would probably have a fit because they're fixing to make a bundle by leasing the freed up bandwidth to commercial interests.

It remains to be seen what sort of "picture" one will get with an old analog tuner once other entities start flooding the airwaves with their own proprietary content.
 
Hills of California

One of the benefits (and there are many detractions as well) of living in the flatlands of the East Bay is that my rooftop has more or less a clear line of sight to the big TV tower atop Mt. Sutro in SF. Even the analog signals were very good, most of the time, with minimal ghosting and snow. The house has two antennas: I pointed one towards Mt. Sutro, and the other, with an aid of a map and a compass, towards the NBC affiliate down in San Jose when they still broadcast from that location. It worked well enough. Now I might take a look at the digital content from the San Jose location... might get some extra channels. I can combine signals from the two antenna, as well.
 
I was born and raised on cable TV, so I didn't notice the switch. From a nostalgic point of view, I'm a little sadden by the permanent switch. I'm sure TV stations are ecstatic to be using one format only, and probably digital at that since it's easier and cheaper to buy, use and maintain vs. analog.
 
Just rescanned with both antennae mixed together. Got some new digital channels, such as two on Channel 8 in San Jose direction - it's another NBC affiliate with different local programming.
 
Did anyone notice? Care? Feel the effects?

No. Not really. No.

But then, I seldom watch TV. Right now, I don't even have a TV in operation, and when I do, it's mostly to watch DVDs from the library.

I'd be interested, though, in seeing how well DTV works. My area was troublesome for analog.

It seems strange, though, the passing of an era.
 
Just think all of that experience I have had in repairing analog TV transmitters-and TV's is now OBSELETE-guess I will need to take the Harris training coarse on their "Sigma" series digital TV transmitters.
I don't watch regular TV either-nothing really on-so I will let it go.I watch movies and OLDER tv shows off DVD.Leave It To Beaver,Father Knows Best,Outer Limits,Gilligans Island.Watch lots of movies from the BluRay player.So I have lots to see without regular TV.Yes-the passing of an era.
Right now I am operating short wave transmitters that are 60 years old!Time for meter readings!AM-"Ancient Modulation" still lives on.
 
Oh, And Another Thing

Shan't be rushing out to purchase a new televison either.

Our old tube sets work fine, thank you very much and cannot see chucking them out just because. Besides the smaller sets one watches whilst say doing ironing or other chores allows great viewing from all angles, not just when one is plopped down in front.

Will see how sales and things go, but probably won't even bother until sings the thing is going.
 
Hey Rich, I believe the NBC affiliate out of San Jose (channel 11) relocated their transmitter to San Bruno Mountain a while back. The Monterey/Salinas NBC affiliate (channel 8) has their transmitter on Fremont Peak in the Santa Cruz mountains. I used to like watching 8 for news out of Santa Cruz county and for their weather forecasts as they have a guy who is a licensed pilot and knows his meteorology doing the weather. And they have a great anchorman who knows how to put just the right twist on a story. Lost access to them when we got Dish service. But I'd rather do without channel 8 than get robbed blind by Comcast.

We have one TV that was still operating off the roof antenna. I haven't even turned it on since 6/12. I have a vintage TV I want to hook up in the guest room again so am going to have to order another box from Dish for those two TV's that can't pick up anything anymore.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping that AT&T revives their U-Verse efforts. It's clear that they've stopped spending money on the necessary upgrades even though they keep advertising the service. Obnoxious ads that they are. Such a small percentage of viewers even have U-Verse available to them that the advertising seems like a waste.

Ralph
 
Not 100% sure, but I have the inkling that one can get awesome over-the-air picture quality in many many locations from ordinary signals (with this new digital system) and perhaps circumvent the need for a cable or dish company.

So hopefully these providers will realize that they are a "luxury" and no longer a "necessity" and perhaps be mindful of their pricing which went from $30 +/-per month when cable first came out to much more these days.
 
Just for the heck of it, I'm going to have to try putting an antenna on one of my digital sets and seeing if/what I can receive. Where I live, cable has been prominent since the mid-'60s, due to very poor UHF propagation conditions in this area. Receiving analog over the air has always been a frustrating experience here, so I'm a bit curious to see if the error correction in the digital signals can overcome all of the multipath interference.
 
"Shan't be rushing out to purchase a new televison either."

I won't be, either. I figure my next set will probably be an older, used, cheap CRT set. I figure for me that's more than good enough, and the money saved could be used for more interesting things.

Although, saying this makes me sound like I'm hopelessly out of it. We are in a country where TV is the Center of the Universe, and a large TV is the most important thing one can have.
 
"Shan't be rushing out to purchase a new televison

Yeah, same here. I'm not replacing my CRT TV until it dies. People my age think I'm from another planet in that I use stuff until it breaks, then keep fixing it until it's no longer fixable. Funny, but in the 1970's and back, that how it WAS (and should be) done!
 
transmitters

are analog transmitters supposed to be shut completely down as of this date June21 2009

WFLD Channel 32 in Chicago still has there transmitter on.

But there broadcasting digital upgrade instructions

There digital channels have regular programming
 
Don't know about USA, but here in AU you can buy digital TV set top box with RF output, so you can watch it on an old analogue TV set with no video/audio input sockets. Only a few brands have that feature.
My set top box has both RCA plug audio/video outputs and SCART (old European standard, about a million pin socket) outputs but no RF output.

We have both analogue and digital free to air, the digital is great when it works but we are in a very poor reception area, digital often drops out dependant on the weather, analogue is still watchable but speckly when didital doesn't work at all, so I am not looking forward to analogue being cut off in the next couple of years. We also have free to air satellite TV, but it doesn't have all the stations. As it broadcasts over 3 time zones, we can time-switch by watching one show in local time, and other shows in half-hour or two hour delay when there are programme clashes or when we get home late. (for example ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) is on channel 45 in our time, 27 in South Australia time (30 min delay) and another channel for Western Australia time (2 hour delay), plus during daylight saving we can get one hour delay from Queensland and 1.5 hour delay from Northern Territory as those states don't do daylight savings time. Satellite reception is always perfect, I have no idea it it is analogue or digital signal, or if it will be affected when analogue is turned off here.

Chris.
 
I think the boxes here have an RF out. However, even if they don't, one can probably get it by adding one of the boxes they sell for DVD players that takes the DVD video signal and converts it to a RF signal.
 

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