Digital TV conversion is going to be a disaster.
 

Millions of poor people will not get this thing done.

They have only known about it for like 12-18 months. Their fault

I never believed anyone anywhere didn't have cable.... I can't imagine having only 3 or 4 channels full of static & fuzz

Oh I hate digital, IT keeps breaking up when we had analog we never had any problems

Fuck digital it sucks ass :321GFY

This past weekend I figured I would get it over and done with and requested one coupons so that my classic Panasonic B&W doesn't have to hit the garbage heap. I was put on a waiting list, instead, because they are fucking out of funding BEFORE the conversion. How stupid is that? I realize I can just pay full price, but this is stupid.

According to those in the know 16% of American households are OTA only. Depending where you live you always had more than 3 or 4 channels. As a kid in the 70s and early 80s living just north of Chicago we got 8 or 9. Anyways with this new transition there isn't any snow and fuzz anymore and if you get say 6-8 channels now you'll get 15-20 or more thanks to simulcasting.

I'll be glad when they quit scrolling those stupid warnings.

I can't imagine this being that big of a deal, but they act like we're preparing for the end of times.

maybe try working more instead of watching TV?

After I read millions and MILLIONS of dollars are being allocated to provide the poor with digital tv boxes, I became discusted with the entire ordeal.

Why should tax dollars be used to provide tv for poor people?

I mean, really, anyone else see this as silly? Theyve actually depleted the coupon vouchers because there are sooooo many claiming they cant "afford" $40

Many people can NOT even get cable.

Some people live in cable battle zones where they can never settle who will
control the cable business and neither side will budge and therefore no cable.

Stupid rules/regulations have some people with cable and the building next to them
can't have it.

Who the fuck told you I give a shit about tax money for poor people and TV?

I just said the conversion was going to leave a lot of people out.
Just a fact, so ease up.

Digital is way better an analog. FACT. Many digital stations are using the UHF band and have their digital tranmitters lower than the analog transmitters and have them on lower power. After Feb 17th many of those stations will be going back to VHF and using the taller and higher power tnasmitters once they are no longer require to carry the analog signal. So really you need to wait until Feb 17th to make a judgement. Those still using the UHF band will mean you'll need an antenna that can pick up UHF signals. Typcial rabbit ears don't pick up UHF signals vey well.


Well considering the began giving out coupons a whole YEAR ago it's YOU who are stupid for waiting until the last minute. Why wait a year? Stations have been broadcasting in digital for years now.

you my friend are the one who needs to ease up, my post wasnt directed at you but remained on topic

Hey retard if you actually knew anything on this topic you would have known that ZERO tax $$ were used for the coupon program before spouting of retarded commments. A little research would do you some good.

Ah name calling, i guess ill just close this thread now. I do not discuss things with namecallers....

Weren't the airwaves the current NON digital broadcasts occupied AUCTIONED off for billions of dollars? Whats spending millions on something you made BILLIONS off of?

This entire transition is about airwaves being freed up and the government should have simply handed out digital boxes to everybody on food stamps and said to the rest $40 isn't shit..

BUT I got 2 of my cards and every family member of mine got themselves 2 cards each. This has been coming for a LONG time now, I had my card and boxes a YEAR ago.

But most of them CAN get DirecTv or Dish Network

Is that all you have to say? Sorry when you spout off shit that is CLEARLY wrong don't get all pissy when you are called on it.

Yep they auctioned them off. They made $19.6 BILLION. They only expected to make $10 billion. They allocated $1.34 billion of that for the coupon program.

By the way not everybody that gets tv OTA only needs a converter box. Anyone that bought a Tv made since March 2007 has one with a built in tuner. In fact Tvs 27 inches and larger had to have tuners in them since March 2006. And not everyone that needs a conveter box needs a coupon. Many people can afford the $50 the boxes the coupons cover and also many people rather get a converter box that is more feature rich since the boxes the coupons cover are very basic.

Directv rapes you with so many bullshit fees BUT they do have the best quality. (sometimes good offers for signing 2yr contracts)

Dish is considerably cheaper but overall quality isn't nearly as good.

Comcast quality SUCKS due to serious overcompressed images. I'm stuck with them since they're the only decent game in town for internet and it doesn't cost me that much more to have 100+ tv channels.

Silly thing to be upset over... you know the US can't go on without it's mindless drivel... everyone will have TV...

They are poor. Fuck em'... :pimp

I Think the same thing!

Growing up in rural NJ that's all we had - NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS. And we had a motorized antenna and we had to change where the antenna was pointing to in order to tune in a certain station. Much to my surprise, it remained this way until 1999.

As for the rest of them, fuck 'em. They've been running commericals for months now.

They'll probably just go out and steal someones digital-ready TV.

Sweden did this 2 years ago, has worked good.

Now what am I going to do with this? :Oh crap
http://s7ondemand1.scene7.com/is/ima...?$medium_item$
_

You people who are saying to just "fuck 'em" because they are poor do realize there are business implications. Losing millions of viewers effects rating and the money advertisers will spend. Most of those ad spots were bought in advance.

What if everyone needed to buy a new computer or suddenly 10 million porn buyers would have no access to your sites. Would you have the same attitude?

Good point for advertisers but, if they cant afford $40 they may not buy much anyway (im only quoting $40 as someone said that here, im not in the US so no idea if thats actually the cost of going digital)

True, they don't buy big ticket items. But they still eat, go to McDonalds, drink beer, buy soap, shop at Wal Mart, etc.

Look, fucko, I will wait until the last god damned fucking minute before I have to do something because that's my prerogative to do so, okay shithead? If there was any indication that the coupon program would run out of funding then, hells yes, I would have done it earlier. However, hindsight is 20/20, asswipe. So shut the fuck up and go fuck yourself.

The real fun will be all the people who already have the correct DTV gear wondering where the digital channels went on Feb-17th when most of the current DTV channels move.

One of the glossed over aspects of the DTV transition is the "channel rescan" step. Even people getting separate DTV boxes prior to Feb-17th must perform the "rescan" step.

I wager a lot of DTV boxes are going to be returned as defective despite being perfectly fine; only requiring a "channel rescan" to get working again.

Another misconception is that DTV is UHF only ... not true. DTV channels, after transition, will be spread out among VHF and UHF. And many current DTV channels will increase transmission power after transition.

In regards to DTV boxes ... a few months after the $40 government coupon program ends, it's highly probable that DTV boxes will then drop to around $10, which is what the boxes should have been priced at all along, but I digress.

Ron

I have one TV hooked up to one of the big antennas on the roof. I'm 99% sure it's not "digital". The previous owners put the antenna up for when the satellite went out - usually during storms - so they could keep up with weather alerts.

I ordered one of the discount coupons and will buy a converter box for that TV. I don't consider myself a "poor" person, but I'm sure as heck going to save $40 if I can. I have cable now but it's hooked up above ground so if that wire/pole goes down, I'd be w/o info. Radio stations can't be reached from here - learned that the hard way before I got my generator.

BTW, cable just came to my neighborhood a few years ago, I can't get a Dish signal or a DirectHD signal. Some of us live in da woods :)

I dunno. You can get some first gen plasmas pretty cheap and just run off of the component inputs. Same deal when I had almost convinced people that their cars were not Y2K compliant a few years ago.

Is anyone else getting tired of these ads on TV constantly?

Where the fuck are the 10 cavemen with rabbit ears on their TV set?

also you have very old people and they just dont realize.

People in the States who can't get cable? I mean, I knew some places were ghetto, but seriously? I know there are folks in northern Canada who have to rely on satellite, but that's a little more remote than anywhere in the lower 48.

You never drove accross the USA if you believe that.

And it's not the ghetto. All ghettos have cable because they are in a city.

There are miles and miles and miles of virtually uninhabited areas in the USA.
Just take a drive thru texas. You'll shit your pants just at the mere thought that
you car would break down out there.