http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/ Engadget Comments for The digital TV switchover begins... in Britain http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/---
It's much easier to switch over a country that is the size of a small state, than a country several times larger than the whole of Europe. Several channels in the U.S. have been transmitting clear QAM for almost 3 years already, it will be good to finally see all the analog channels finally switch over (or die like a dinosaur!).
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Considering that the UK transmits stations at a much lower power than the US, and covers smaller areas with it's transmission cells (A US state would have one transmitter covering the whole area, the UK has hundreds, if not thousands, covering towns and cities and providing fill-in coverage for mountains and valleys), and considering they have different "providers" for stations in close proximity (Carlton/Anglia/Tyne Tees/Granada etc), there's more problem with signal clash and interference in the UK than a US state would have.

As it is, the UK has had free Digital Terrestrial TV (DVB-T) running side-by-side with Analog Terrestrial for the past 9 years (Since OnDigital in 1998) without issue. It was always stated that Analog transmissions would be stopped in 2012, but due to faster consumer takeup, this date can be brought forward.]]>Oct 17th 2007 8:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
If you're referring to the US, how is that several times larger than Europe? The EU and the USA are roughly the same size - Europe is 10.2 million km² and the US is 9.83 million km².

The UK is 244,820 km², just smaller than the state of Michigan, and there are only 10 states bigger than that.

I wouldn't go round making unfounded statements like that - http://www.shockgadgets.com]]>Oct 17th 2007 8:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 4:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/I hate you!]]>Oct 17th 2007 9:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 5:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 8:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
If I conveniently fail to mention the converter boxes... it just might work...]]>Oct 17th 2007 6:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/like that, right ? My country began shutting down analog in some
regions in July and August '07.]]>Oct 17th 2007 6:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 6:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
However the complete switch-over will be complete by 2012.

We have had sky digital since 1998, and freeview for about 5 years.]]>Oct 17th 2007 7:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 7:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
Why, I remember when we had just 4 channels (ABC/NBC/CBS/PBS), and you had to get up and flip a dial on the set to change the channels or the volume. Some of the channels were fuzzy, depending upon how the rabbit ears were adjusted; if someone ran the vacuum cleaner in the next room, the picture would go to hell.

Somehow, we still both watched lots of TV and were able to deal with times when there was nothing on (and no, you couldn't surf the net either).
]]>Oct 17th 2007 8:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 8:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 8:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 8:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
What? Did my Grandfather write this? I've been hearing about old-time radio from him and how I got it better for far to long...]]>Oct 17th 2007 8:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 17th 2007 10:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/the size of Great Britain: 244 820 km²]]>Oct 18th 2007 12:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
Britain is behind in mass conversion to many technologies / areas because it was one of the first to get them in the first place, whilst other countries followed behind.

That and there's a lot of people who don't like things to change.]]>Oct 18th 2007 8:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
I don't know how many of my relatives and uninformed friends I've had to correct on this widely misunderstood topic.]]>Oct 18th 2007 2:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 4:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television#Switch-off_completed]]>Oct 18th 2007 6:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 12:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/Oct 18th 2007 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/the-digital-tv-switchover-beings-in-britain/
I think switchover is a pain no matter where it takes place, because it's not just about the transmission of the signal, it's about getting people ready to receive it.]]>Oct 18th 2007 9:33AM