T-minus one year till the US analog shutoff: are you ready?
By Darren Murph 
posted Feb 17th 2008 2:00PM
posted Feb 17th 2008 2:00PM
posted Feb 17th 2008 2:00PM
The percentage of electronics at the end of their lives which were recycled.
The EPA found that the percentage remained consistent from 1999-2005. Even as recycling rates went up, the amount of electronics reaching end of life outpaced the increase, leaving the figure static. (source: EPA, July 2008)
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when you really think about it, how many people who read a gadget blog on a regular basis are even affected by the switch? heck who even gets and over the air signal?
I get an over the air signal, and my old TVs are affected. Sure I have 2 HDTVs, but one of them is only an HDTV monitor and the old TVs aren't HD OR digital. All the shows I care about are on broadcast, so I don't need cable or satellite. I am affected.
Also, I guess the days of those portable TV's is over. It affects those folks.
Actually, we're trying to figure out exactly how this will affect our SlingPlayer set up, and which is currently only compatible with our analog cable. While it won't be the end of the world, it will be a waste if we need a whole new slingbox for this.
So yes, there are gadget people relying on analog!
Man, the thing that will le suck for people in "signal difficult" areas is that they will either get the broadcast, or they won't. That is just the inherent nature of digital. At least with analog you could still see/hear a weak signal, albeit with a lot of snow. That was tolerable. Ever try watching an OTA digital broadcast that kept crapping out every 5 secs? Oh god....that is a craptastic right there.
Really? I used to get weak signal from my Digital Cable, and it wasn't either "there" or "not there". I would start getting noise and artifacts before I would completely loose signal. Is this really have broadcast digital will behave? It seems unlikely, but I really don't know anything about it.
Today is also my birthday! :)
I'll be able to celebrate the analog shutoff by buying my first (legal) drink next year!
Happy 20th Birthday
I don't wanna switch! I love my little analog and It really suits me. I really don't see much of a difference in my analog TV and my friends pioneer
TV doesn't change. Input source does.
Well aren't I stupid.
as long as my dorm room next year has some sort of TV input source im happy. and if we could really use my roommate's 32" HDTV that would be great.
366 days in that circle? I thought a year was 365.
Happy Leap Year! February 29, 2008 FTW!
so does it mean digital atsc will have better reception? because right now its pretty poor and i really hope the signal increases.
OMG you still have analog OTA, I am form the Middle East and we don’t have analog OTA since 8 years now. Satellite+ Internet FTW
You forget: although the USA is the most technologically advanced country on the planet, our market offerings are (oddly enough) quite backwards compared to other countries. Japan is orders of magnitude more advanced in their product offerings than we are, for example.
On the one hand, this is clearly a pity. Much of our market-backwardness is due to unnecessary or inappropriate legislation (instead of legislating RESULTS, our laws tend to concentrate instead on specific TECHNOLOGIES). But, one must wonder how much BIGGER our landfills would be were we to have markets offering products as advanced (and which evolves as fast) as those in Japan?
not to mention we're freaking huge. its a lot harder for us to do these nationwide programs than most smaller middle eastern or european countries.
I wonder if this affects Canada at all? Seen a couple LCD panel tv's at the store on display with stickers on them (notifying about the DTV transition in 09', but that's been added by the factory not the store itself)... Canada smetimes takes a longer amount of time to transition to technology than the US does, so am just curious.
This won't affect me, I'll either be on cable or satellite then anyhow :)
I'll wait until the 2nd Gen converter boxes come out. I'm sure they'll find some problem with the first Gen systems. Also, are we ever going to see them priced below $40 (or is everyone pretty much gonna fix their price at $49.99?)
I'm ready --- in fact, I'm sitting here typing this on the Internet, while in a small window slightly off to the right side, I'm watching the Daytona 500 on "over-the-air" High Definition. Its Windows Media Center and Hauppauge PCI card, along with an RCA HD-type rabbit ear antenna. And because it has dual inputs, I can also record a cable channel with the PVR portion.
And, on top of it all, the DVI output of my video card connects perfectly with my 50" HDTV.
.... I forgot to mention, there are almost 35 digital and high def channels receivable in my area. Yes, many of them are duplicates, but the point is, they are easily received in my particular area. As more local stations in locations around the U.S., folks will at least be able to watch TV on their PCs using an under $75 video adapter (PCI or USB) and a cheap rabbit ear antenna.
I work in a park about 20 mins. outside of Washington D.C. that also has housing for some of the staff. Cox quoted us a price like over $20 grand to run cable the 1/4 mile from the nearest neighborhood link, which the park would never consider spending. They actually just installed sat. for internet, which is extremely slow, and worst of all doesn't work in bad weather, which is when we need it the most to decide to close the park or not.
So for those wondering who still uses OTA, hard to believe, but right in the heart of a "superpower", I still have to watch snowy Simpson's on FOX, and that is if we can get the antenna just right.
accitently left out:
outside of Washington D.C. IN A PARK that also has housing for some of the staff.
Interesting all this news about digital converters when you cannot even get one from the local Buy More ... er Best Buy.
These people gotta be kidding. I've had TV and internet cable broadband for seven years or so. I probably won't even notice when they shut down the analog signal. I still have VHF and UHF antennas on my roof and they still work in emergencies, but I've never really needed them.
I feel badly about the people that can't get or afford digital dishes or DSL. Blame the government for not subsidizing this stuff for the masses. This is the US and we should have the best communications infrastructure in the world. Except we gotta spend so much building up other countries infrastructures as a goodwill gesture.
I don't get why anyone is supposed to care, Everywhere I have ever lived had all the over the air channels being broadcast over some of the local cable channels (Between channels 1-25 or whatever it is), and its like 4 channels anyway. Even in NYC I could only pick up like 12, and half of them where cable channels in Spanish or some garbage. (Cable channels can be switched to Spanish so I really don't understand why this existed) If you haven't switched to cable or satellite yet, you need to get with the times. Over the air is dead...like for real now, but it has been for years. Cable is cheap as hell now, there really isn't any excuse. You can even get cable packages that are only the OTA channels/local channels for like 10 bucks. Although I don't know why you would care enough to do so. Theres pretty much nothing on them except the simpsons and that show is complete shit now and has been for years. Rent shows on DVD or something, far less annoying with the BS 6 minutes of commercials and 2 minutes of show blocks they use now. I don't even bother to do that, I just pirate everything, screw TV, TV sucks ass now. Theres like 5 good shows and then a bunch of bullshit Drama/Reality/American Gladiators on showtime/hbo/etc. that all you drooling idiots watch. (Not pointing fingers at anyone here, I'm just saying I've yet to watch one of these popular shows that wasn't an absolute shitfest) Would you really watch that if it wasn't the only thing on? You can't deny that 95% of TV nowadays is absolutely terrible unless you really will watch anything thats on.
Um... actually, today is my 22nd birthday. Thanks Engadget. You forgot... again.
I'm actually interested in one of these boxs. Not only do I not buy cable tv, but my tv's RF connection is broken, and so I dont get any OTA stuff since I got rid of the vcr. Not only do the boxs have component out, but better visual qualitys, and a functional guide system to boot. and it will be free. works for me!
Yup, I took down the gargantuan VHF/UHF antenna off the house this weekend. I might put up a 2.4ghz wifi antenna for better back-yard surfing. :-)
I have four tuners in my vista media center, 2 analog, 2 digital. So I will loose 2 tuners, oh well. Maybe then I will buy a true HD plasma.