p2pnet - rss feed: Death of analog TV
p2pnet news | TV:- Digital TV arrives on February 17, 2009. That’s when full-power stations in the US will turn off their analog signals.
After that, it’ll be digital only and people who don’t have TV sets able to handle the new technology will have to buy a converter.
And that’s worrying Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson who told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, “I think it’s one of the biggest risks our industry has,” and that he’s, “very nervous” about being able to, “supply customers with the millions of digital TV converter boxes needed ahead of the shutdown,” says Associated Press.
What’ll it mean to you?
A third of all U.S. households (32%) and secondary OTA households (33%) have no clue where they’ll go to get information about the digital transition, says CTAM (Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing).
Results from a CTAM poll say less than half (48%) of respondents said they knew about the switch to digital TV, and only 17% new 2009 is slated as the year analog will die.
So what do you do?
On January 1 the US government launched a Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program under which households can get up to two coupons worth $40 each to go towards buying eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes which, according to estimates will come in at $50 to $70 each.
Click here to find out if you’ll need a converter, or here for the CTAM report.
Or you can follow Wendy Saltzer’s example (right) and build your very own HDTV set 
Also see:
Associated Press - Retailers Anxious Over Analog TV Cut-Off, January 8, 2008
Wendy Saltzer’s example - EFF Broadcast Flag challenge, February 22, 2005
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January 9th, 2008 at 7:11 am
i think the UK has just recently gone completely digital - at least england, wales and scotland. i’m not sure about ireland.
but i’ve been wondering about this problem and whether people have to buy another tv. this is the first time i’ve heard about converters.
is a converter just a fancy name for a cable tv digital recorder where you can only view or record directly from the cable box, or does it actually convert the signal from digital to analog so you can watch the channel as always on each corresponding channel of an older tv, vcr or hdd recorder and not have to tune to the A/V channel?
i’m confused. my own country is starting to go digital. the 7 or 8 state-run terrestrial channels have gone digital, but they are also available in analog and there are no plans to shut them off. it can’t be done here - not in this country. it’s not the US or UK where people don’t have a say in things. they can never force the people to go digital. but some foreign channels went digital-only a few years ago and are now only availanle by satellite subscription or cable recorders and receivers.
but the state does now offer a few new digital-only channels, which i’m not interested in - at least not until i know if i want them and my cable company has a new hdd recorder that receives the digital signals. at present they only have new receivers available and it’ll be a few more months until a recorder is available.
it’s coincidental that i was talking to a cable rep this morning about this and he told me it’ll be quite a few years until everything is digital - if it ever happens at all.
i don’t want to be forced to buy a new tv and hdd/dvd recorders in order to receive the terrestrial channels i now receive. the networks are already forcing people to buy wide-screen tvs because they’ve shrunk and letter-boxed all new programs. so if/when i have to do something, i’d like to know what the converter actually does.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@catflap
yets i’ve been wondering also if these are also true “converters” which simply map the hd channels to analogue, or serve as “channel changers”.
I was honestly hopping for the first so that I could keep my current vcrs and pvr and tvs. Sadly I think its the second, which creates a big mess for recording. (insert mpaa conspiracy theory)
I’d wander over to the states and look, but honestly the selection is terrible, at best buy I’ve got the choise of 1 converter for $180
Even though there is a year to go, I predict a big mess. Just think of all the electronics to be tossed in the land fills!
The best thing that could happen for the US is the tv stations buy some of the spectrum and keep broadcasting. It would be a very smart move on their parts.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
There is a very good reason to go digital with television. It means less wasted air waves, as analog waves consume a big chunk of the spectrum. Getting rid of analog means that many more television channels can be made (because digital uses less of the spectrum) or they’ll be used to improve the internet.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Mine set is analog. If you get cable or satellite then you won’t need the converter. If you recieve your signals from the airwaves, ie atennea, then yeap you gotta have one.
Broadcasters missed the first deadline to go digital. The equipment replacement is expensive. This time there will be no second chance. The spectrum tv uses is being sold and come change over time, that will no longer be theirs to use.
This has to be the worse notification of change over I have ever seen. Were it not for the news on the net, I would not know of it. I suspect that the majority of the population won’t know at all. Come Feb, next year at this rate there are gonna be some po’ed voters when their tv don’t work. Of course you will notice the change over date is right after the election is done, convinent eh?
January 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
The U.K. is in the prcess of going to digital the analog signal will be switched off here next year the set top recievers start from around £15 ($30) and are around the size of a compact dvd player. Recieption is reasonable in most areas already.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Keep your analogue only reception TV after the signal is off, then dump the TV license fee. A plan
Digital TV reception is ok, but DAB radio is very poor quality, artifacts.
It’s a similar case to mainstream modern popular music; lot’s of choice but content and quality takes a major hit..
January 9th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
My household will be getting two converters, but as we have four analog televisions, it looks like the two less useful and older ones will have to be put out to pasture.
I predict people will be watching less television.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
It appears that many “informed people” also do not know what is going on with the digital switch over.
If I may be so bold, here are a couple of points that explain what is going on, what to expect, etc… (let me point out though, this information is based on the US, UK, and Japanese digital TV market. Many other countries will follow the same footsteps, but not necessarily).
1. Digital converters or STBs:Digital converters or STBs (set top boxes) are basically the same as Cable and Satellite boxes, which convert digital signals to video and audio signals (NTSC for US and Japan, PAL for UK), and are plugged into the video in of the TVs and VCRs. People using the converters or STBs will have a separate remote to change channel, with the VCR and TV tuners being rendered worthless after the analogue TV shutdown.
2. Cable TV: Cable TV users will be switched to a digital cable box, or in some cases convert the HD TV signals to SD (the resolution used in Analogue video) and sent on to their old Cable boxes or TV tuners at home. Those with new digital cable boxes will need to watch all of their TV shows through the cable boxes, unless they have a digital TV or DVD/HDD/Bluray recorder with a digital tuner.
3. Antennas: each country uses a different spectrum to broadcast the digital signals (in Japan they are using the UHF band wave), but there is a very high possibility that you will need to re-align your antennas to pick up the digital reception. Any in some areas, you may need to buy a new antenna tuned to the new signals. Beware, however, for salesman pushing expensive “Digital Only” antennas or wiring, there are many scams in many nations related to people trying to make a quick buck.
4. Quality: “Digital= higher quality” is a comment that has been going around, every since the governments decided to switch to digital. Sure you do receive a higher resolution image from digital TVs, and in many cases this quality even can be seen in the old analogue TVs. But Digital signals can be affected even more that analogue signals; when you have a weak analogue signal during a heavy snow storm, you often can still see “something”. If you are receiving a digital signal, and it gets weak, it just cuts out, and you are left with a blank screen and no sound.
Digital signals are also affected by visual artifacts (those weird colour blocks that you sometimes see when you are watching Youtube) during fast moving images. This is due to the lack of data that is received by the tuner or decoder, and really is noticeable in sport events like American football, Soccer (football), etc…
Also remember that if the original source of the video is only SD interlaced, it will need to be rescaled to the HDTV resolution, thus making the image grainer than it was (imagine watching a 320×240 video full screen on a 1024×768 monitor), so don’t be surprised if you favorite “I love Lucy” shows look worse on your new digital TV.
Just my two cents
January 9th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
i was told by my cable company that new tvs with dvb-t tuners (and which also have analog tuners) are only necessary here - for the time being (years) - for people who don’t have cable tv and rely on indoor or outdoor antennas, in order to receive the new state-run channels which have gone HD. this is good for the people who live in the mountains without cable.
but as i said, my analog tv still receives the non-HD state channels through cable, but my cable recorder doesn’t have HD, so i don’t get the new HD channels.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I’m glad two cents confirmed what I heard about digital signals a) travelling a further distance b) needing better reception c) being more effected.
Honestly this change over sounds like a bad bad thing. This sounds more and more like a scam to make OTA waves nearly useless to most people (a wortheless signal) and force subscriptions to cable and statalite. (actaully the cable co’s already hate to go out into the country side .. so no tv for non city goers?) . Add to the fact that all the VCRs and PVRs no longer look and the MPAA finally has its hay-day that no one can record “their” precious tv siglals. The only HD PRV box I can find is the TIVO, and years ago MPAA succesfully crippled it removing the DVD burner, plus who wants to pay a monthly fee for a VCR
Add to this the big problem of the sudden influx of electronix to landfills
More fun for me personally figuring out how to wire the system to get both the US feed (if it even reaches), and the still analogue CAD feed. Heck mabey I’ll just flip all the antennas in the area to canada . . . it seems the easiest solution
January 11th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Does anyone realize the monumental scam that has taken place? The FCC, instituted to regulate the airwaves on behalf of the people, have sold out those people and given the airwaves to the coporations!
Think about it, the airwaves, which we the people own, now can carry signals which are “illegal” to decode. Satellie TV uses our airwaves to transmit a digitally encoded signal and the corrupt congress passes laws (DMCA) to prevent the people from listening to those airwaves. It’s like shouting something in a crouded theatre and arresting those that heard what you said.
If that weren’t bad enough, they have now FORCED all broadcasting stations to cease their broadcasts of analog non-encrypted content over the airwaves. So in a carefully planned operation, the corporations have taken over the airwaves and now you must PAY A FEE to use that which belongs to you and if you dare circumvent their signal protections you become liable under the statutory law.
This is a scam.
The people need to take their airwaves back. When THEY pull the plug, let US start broadcasting.
We need hundreds of independent broadcasters to take over the airwaves and start broadcasting the truth, this is our oppurtunity!
January 12th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
The UK does NOT go completely digital until 2012. The process is a gradual one and has already started with one area in the North of England having been switched off the analogue signal already.
A converter is simplay a box that takes the digital signal that comes over the airwaves (similar to the way analogue TV currently arrives) via your arial and converts it to a standard video signal your TV can use via it’s video inputs. Similar in some ways to a satellite or cable receiver except that the signal is broadcast across the airwaves.
Any TV with standard video inputs (Composite/RCA, S-Video or component video in the US), (Composite, S-Video, component video or scart in the UK). Which connection you use depends on which ones your TV accepts and which ones the converter boxes output.
Digital will NOT render your current TV obsolete unless you have a very old TV with only an RF (arial) socket and no video inputs.
The downside of course is that you will not be able to record one digital channel while watching another with only one digital set top box. You will need a set top box for each piece of recording equipment or buy a digital recorder to do that.
If anyone from the UK wants a wealth of information on digital options as well as a great forum head over to www.digitalspy.co.uk
Incidently, Ireland have also launched a digital service with many similarities to that in the UK
January 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
also, are these digital receivers really $180 in the states?.
We here in the UK can buy fairly basic digital terrestrial receivers for low prices, starting at just £10 (about $18-$20)