US switch to digital doesn’t click
p2pnet news view | TV:- Now here’s a big surprise.
“Rattled by the recession, many consumers facing the upcoming switch to digital television are taking the cheap way out – buying inexpensive converter boxes instead of new digital TV sets,” says the Wall Street Journal.
The government is running out of money to, “subsidize the purchase of the converters”.
Americans are being forced to switch from perfectly acceptable analog signals to digital, the ‘choice’ being made for them by the many and various manufacturers, backed by the Bush administration.
“As of Monday, consumers who request the $40 government coupons are being put on a waiting list, Commerce Department officials said,” says the story, continuing:
“The coupons help pay for set-top digital converter boxes that allow older TVs to receive digital signals. The department is also warning consumers that some stores may not have enough converter boxes to meet demand. Consumers requested about 7.2 million coupons in December, far higher than the 4.3 million the administration had forecast.”
Of course people are going to opt for the least expensive way to go, recession or not.
They’re not stupid.
What’s the situation here in Canada?
“An Infoworld article by Tom Yager describes how the transition from analog to digital television demonstrates the erosion of our rights that current policy directions represent,” posted p2pnet deputy editor Russell McOrmond (right) in June, going on »»»
As you read it, there are differences between the Canadian and US situation that are worth noting.
While “the entertainment lobby” failed to “impose a tax on videotapes and recordable discs” in the USA, one subset of that lobby, the music recording industry (same major labels), succeeded in Canada.
While the consumer side of the bargain is being seriously eroded as part of C-61, the levy (not really a tax as taxes are in theory accountable and transparent to the taxpayer) on blank audio recording media remains. The erosion of the consumer part of the bargain may in fact be a prelude to the abolishing of the regime entirely given consumers won’t support something that is so unbalanced, and the major labels already changed their mind and oppose it.
It is really only music composers and performers who support the regime (and expansions of the regime to the Internet), with two major forces (consumers and the major labels) squashing them in the middle.
February 2009 is the date for the switchover from analogue to digital television in the USA.
In Canada the switchover date is August 31, 2011.
The conclusion of the article is universal. The more complex and expensive the entertainment industry makes accessing content legal, the more people will be driven to the underground. I would add to this the option I have taken thus far, which is to disengage from content owners who wish to lock their content to only work in this deliberately incompatable environment.
There will always be creators distributing unlocked content to those of us who use devices without foreign locks, and they need and deserve our support.
A recent Angus Reid Poll on Copyright demonstrated that there is still a high percentage (approximately 45%) of people who support the current direction governments are taking.
The support comes from demographics who are also statistically less technical (older people, women, etc), and who are less likely to have hooked up a home theatre or installed software on their own computer.
While 45% would be a fail if this were an exam mark, in the current broken Canadian political system 45% is Majority Government territory. Numbers this low are often politically manipulated to enact policy with a minority of support.
As time goes on, more people will recognize that this “Copyright” policy direction includes an attack on our information technology property rights, including our right to choose our own brands of hardware and our own software. People will learn that this was never about protecting the interests of actual creators (who increasingly oppose this policy), but the monopoly interests of major distributors. As this happens, the percentage of people who support the current direction of Copyright policy will fall even lower than it is today.
The key question in Canada is whether a bill will be passed before people understand the nature of the current policy direction, or whether this increasingly technically informed public will have to be lobbying to remove bad law already passed.
Trying to remove a currently bad law is what technologically literate people in the USA are doing, trying to abolish or at least limit the damage of the DMCA they passed a decade ago in 1998.
Stay tuned.
Wall Street Journal – The Switch to Digital TV Hits a Snag, January 6, 2009
p2pnet – Digital TV erodes technology rights, JHune 20, 2008
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January 6th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I’ve given up on the wasteland of television. I have no interest in reality shows that are anything but reality. I don’t care for what passes as humor on shows. It’s pretty awful humor when they got to use canned laughter to tell you where the punch line is. Reruns take up half the run time of a series, if I want to see it, I’ll record the thing or download it and be done with it.
That’s so rare as to be almost non-existent. I care nothing for the commercial and that coupled with the mindlessness of the lowest common denominator leaves me wondering what the point is of watching the endless commercial spattered with bits of uninteresting programming. More often than not when I was watching tv, people would the next day talk about this or that show as water cooler talk. Those shows had no redeeming values far as I could tell. When I watched one or two to see what was so interesting to the masses, it often left me wondering at the end, just why did I waste the time to watch?
I’ve given it up. I don’t care for the tv anymore. I don’t plan on a black box for it. It’s been years now without an input of any sort other than a dvd player. I honestly feel my life is richer for the lack of the one eye monstrosity.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I agree Readers
but you have to spend even more money for a decent connection eg 1mbps or 8mbps or even higher or just go to the cinema or just buy a book lol
January 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Actually, Jon, I want to tell you that you are WAY wrong about the analog versus digital broadcast quality. I am an American, and I used to need a 30 ft antenna just to get four so-so stations at my house. ( there’s a lot of mountains around it ). I got the converter boxes and now I get 15 stations at satellite TV quality in any room in the house with the cheapest set of rabbit ears I could buy. This was one thing the government did RIGHT.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:24 am
I’m with post 3 on this one. The picture quality with digital is so much better – it’s not plagued by the many malaises of analog signals, such as grainy pictures, ghosting, fading, you name it. So long as you can get a signal, the picture is 100% perfect and crystal clear. Beautiful.
I’ve been watching digital TV for the last 10 years and I wouldn’t ever go back.
This is progress and it should be embraced, not resisted.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Analogue vs Digital.
Yes overall the digital picture is usually clearer than analogue. But I can get the digital equivalent of ’snow/static’ in the form of transmission/recieving errors. Either from the source or due to transmission losses. Instead of white spots, i get a quick bunch of mpg blocks / artifacts on occasion. Audio, no difference.
But the article is right HDMI is crap.