In an absolutely shocking move, the United States House of Representatives has failed to pass the digital TV transition delay bill that was
all but certain to fly through just days ago. The bill needed two-thirds of the votes of the House under "special rules adopted for the vote," and reportedly, the vote was just 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date. As it stands, an estimated 6.5 million Americans are not yet prepared for the switch -- which is now
back on track for February 17th -- and the
money well for government-issued vouchers has ran dry. Honestly, we're elated to hear the news. The February date has been blasted from the rooftops for years now, and changing it this late in the game would wreak all kinds of havoc in the industry, not to mention instill even more
confusion. Soon-to-be-vacated
airwaves, we're ready for you.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Jan 28th 2009 1:36PM
Hurray!
Sorry granny. ;-(
I love that photo...lol
Thank God. That was a close one. Although I do feel for those who haven't gotten a converter box and are waiting for a coupon, but this is still a very necessary move and plenty of warning has been given.
I hope there isn't some re-vote in the near future.
THANK YOU
Suck it 'Bama.
GO AMERICA!!!
Fett327: I don't "feel" for anyone waiting on a coupon. If you can't afford it on your own then get down to the corner and get yourself a sign that says "will work for digital tv". That's the perfect example why this country's full of a bunch of pansies. Everyone wants to be handed everything. There's tons of things that I have the LUXURY of doing that the government makes me pay for, why should TV be any different?
Hopefully the House can get something done in the next 4 years since the Senate and Obama don't seem to know what they are doing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4
America! F@#k Yeah!!
Coming again to save the mother f@#kin day yeah!!
@Jay
The reason this is such a big deal is not so everyone can watch The Golden Girls.
Think Emergency Broadcast System and what it could mean if 6.5 million people suddenly lose access to it.
Granted the coupon is only $40 so, um, ya.
@JamesR: out of those 6.5 million people who suddenly don't have TV, (everyone keeps saying mostly the elderly and very rural population) how many of those don't have radios? Maybe 500,000? At the most? Come on, if you or the government is going to preach the emergency broadcast schtick thats a bunch of BS. If you want the government to subsadize Emergency broadcast recieving devices how about a $10 voucher for a radio? Maybe then the people would get pissed off and be "aw hell no, I needs me some TV." And then they head off to their local wal-mart to fork over $45 of their own money stimulating the economy and boosting overall morale for the entire nation.
For those of you obsessed with the GRANNY in the video:
Her name is Mae LaBorde. She's 99 years old.
You can hear an interview with her about this ad here:
http://www.marcgermain.com/files/TRO112808.mp3
Interview starts right at the top of the show, about 1:15 in. She was once Lawrence Welk's secretary, for instance.
Did our Government actually just kick a$$!?! Hell Yes!
The House finally thought with their gray matter!
@Jay
Ok, but if you're already prepared for the switch, why do you even care?
@Jay
I am curious, do you live in the mountain west? I work for a Public Broadcaster, and we are looking at having to put in two new towers, just to keep the same coverage. (honestly, Digital SUCKS for transmission). There are a lot of areas that will cease to have service, in the mountain regions.
And, as JamesR said, it is more about emergency broadcasting.
For some reason, a lot of older folks do NOT get DTV. They don't understand that their TVs will stop. There are a LOT of others, that have absolutely NO clue how to hook up the converter boxes. There are a bunch of people that have relatively new sets that think they are good, that have analog tuners, because Electronic Retailers were still selling analog sets WAY too long.
This is NOT a simple matter. It really is not.
Personally, I am glad that this legislation failed to pass. We NEED to get this to move on, and honestly, I don't think many more people will be affected next month, than would have been affected in June. But, Jay, you make this out to be a LOT more simplistic than what it really is.
All that stuff about how people need to be able to view the emergency broadcast system is total BS. If that was your right and a requirement of the government they would be forced to give you a tv or radio as well. So just like them not giving me a tv they should not be obligated to give out vouchers for a converter box.
Wait. So you guys criticize Obama when you claim that he's going to ruin the country, and then when the check and balance system of the government makes the right decision, you criticize him again?
My point is, this is the reason that we have the House, the Senate, and the President. If one or two are misinformed, there is always a way to change the outcome of a decision.
@rifter
no, im sorry, i havnt seen an analog television in a store for over 10 years. thats a ridiculous claim. there is no way in hell that someone would have gone out and bought a tv with bunny-ears that DON'T have a freaking digital input and felt like they were spending money wisely. this transition is long overdue
Good.
Yeah it sucks for those depending on analog but its not like we were not all told what was going to happen this year in 2009. Last year it was all over the internet, tv, and retail stores. With the same message the digital age is coming soon.
I just moved out of a house that had cable, into a house that doesn't have cable. Since I knew my TV would not not work without a box, I applied for a coupon and never got it (due to being out of funds).
The least they could do is approve the money for coupons that have been asked for.
Is it really that good? The bill has for a 4 month extension. I don't think companies actually have products ready to use that spectrum that they're releasing in the next 4 months.
The spectrum will probably be empty for a good while before we see any products use it. In that case, why not extend the deadline to help the whole country get ready for the change?
IMO, it's irresponsible to move on before everybody is ready. I know I'm going to be outnumbered on this site of all sites, but as an engineer, I constantly have to think about how responsible certain technological choices are. To move on whilst knowing that lots of people aren't prepared for it is not a good move. It's like cutting off my phone line when I'm expecting an important call the next day.
Karl:
If you were expecting an important phone call you would do your diligence to make sure you could receive it.
It is not like they are acting without notice.
@KarlW.
It's costing extra money for broadcasters to maintain both digital and analog signals. I'm sure this isn't a big deal for the media mega corporations. But for PBS stations that rely on donations and grants, it's a serious issue.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28863917/
@Karl
Actually; public works and safety are ready to go for use of the spectrum, they were actually ready to go in 2005 when the spectrum was originally set to go Digital and the government said that it needed more time to prepare the people.
@Karl: "IMO, it's irresponsible to move on before everybody is ready."
Really? Before EVERYONE is ready? The only way EVERYONE will ever be ready is if you pull the plug, and then make them get off their *$!&*$# and do something about it.....Idle threats just make it worse.....
Flit: So cough up the 40 bucks for a converter box or get cable. Nobody said everyone has the right to a free converter box, it was first come first serve.
For some reason people have the assumption that the government would pay every person with a TV $40. Theyve said from the beginning that only a limited number of coupons would be given.
Once all the old grannies dont get their daily dose of Matlock on Feb 18th, they will then be aware of the transition. I would hope that if the local nuclear power plant then decides to meltdown on March 21st, they will still use the analog emergency broadcast system since afaik, that part of the spectrum will not be privately owned for some time.
@KarlW
Yes I suppose it is irresponsible of us to be accountable. In case you forgot accountability is doing what you say when you said you would do it, i.e. switching to dtv on Feb instead of June. What you are saying is one of the key factors in the deterioration of our intellect as a society and the progressive erosion of our capitalist based system to a socialist based system. I call it the lowest common denominator theory; which says lets only do things that the lowest common denominator will be able to participate in, or systems of change that emphasize only changing when its convenient for the minority, i.e. putting off the switch till June would help the 6.5 mil who can't seem to figure it out and not being concerned with the remaining 294,524,640 people who are ready. In fact I agree with you I think we should halt any type of progress that requires us as a group or society or country to change at all, lets just stay here where its comfortable and no one has to think or work.
Waiting until EVERYONE is ready to go is unrealistic. If we have to wait for 100% compliance before turning off the analog switch, it will never happen. The simple reality is whether we hold off for four months or five more years, there will always a handful of people who will not act until they are forced to do so. The only way to get them to act is to just do it and get the process over with, and let them play catch up.
Whether we do the changeover in February, June, or December 2020, it's never going to be perfect and there will always be some who are left behind.
sweet. excited for dtv
At least the house is sensible, people have had yrs to deal with this, years, if you can't get with the program you are never going too
If legislators were really on top of things, they would outlaw radio frequency monopolies altogether, and definitely outlaw broadcast. Broadcast radio signal monopolies (yes I mean TV and FM/AM radio) are the same as giving a select group of corporate talking-heads exclusive access to megaphones, and telling everyone else they have to whisper. WiFi, MIMO, beam-forming, TDMA, OFMDM, whitespace detection, etc. are all radio signal technologies that make frequency sharing a real possibility now. So exclusive frequency access is now an outdated concept. Screw all the broadcasters -- they've had over a decade to get realtime online streaming working for them, and they failed, so their monopolizing businesses deserve to die.
@Fred: What's the weather like up in your ivory tower? You seem to have no clue that there's still a decent % of Americans that not only don't have high speed broadband (I'm one of them) but CANNOT GET IT. Broadcast is their only way of getting TV, let along HDTV. So take your anti-broadcast attitude somewhere else, preferably to a location where you can see reality.
@kurt: Can you get an over-the-air TV or audio radio signal? Can you get cable or satellite services? Do you have a phone line? A cell phone? The same technologies bringing you those signals can instead convey a bidirectional signal, and the signal you receive can be targeted and different from the signals all your neighbors receive. Do you watch every TV channel and listen to every radio channel, simultaneously? If not, signal bandwidth is being wasted, by monopoly interests in your area. The same airwaves can be shared between multiple companies, competing to bring you any kind of service you want, with existing technologies.
Remaining complacent in existing monopolies will NOT get you any newer or better services faster, especially broadband or streaming video. It's the ivory tower types who want the status quo. Monopolies get to extort higher extortion rents, or "subscription prices", for the same services. Wake up sheeple!
Last time I checked, broadcast had the same cost to serve one as to serve thousands. Wouldn't that mean that less bandwidth is used? I mean so long as anyone is viewing the content then at least the same chunk of bandwidth must be used. True, the broadcasters may not use the bandwidth to capacity, but the bandwidth used is definitely less with broadcasts than individual streams.
@Fred
None of the technologies that you listed for two way acces go anywhere near as far as AM/FM. Also, say 100 channels of tvare boadcasted through some company. Even if you only watch one at a time, there have to be many, many people watching each channel at the same time. In other words, the bandwidth is not wasted; it is more efficient than on-demand video.
@fhyageu: saying that broadcast uses up "less bandwidth" because one signal goes to everybody is just like saying spam uses less bandwidth by being sent to thousands of addresses instead of just one.
@MegaByte: your assumptions become false when AM/FM and TV are no longer allowed to hog all the frequencies that can be used for other data transfer instead. Once loud (energy wasting) broadcast signals are out of the way, targeted signals on the same frequencies can go just as far, or even farther via methods like mesh networking.
All your old assumptions and analogies are wrong. Try getting away from the boob tube and force-fed media, and learning something new for once.
So... I take it, Fred, that you do not have a radio in your little utopia of Carebears, Gumdrops, and Rainbows?
Nice.
Has sanity finally won out for once? Some people (namely senior citizens) aren't going to understand the digital switch until they can no longer watch their matlock re-runs. No amount of commercials is going to help them understand, because they no longer have the capacity. Flip the switch, and in a years time everyone that wants a converter box will have one, and we'll move on with our lives.
Not everyone that wants one actually needs one.
Agreed
I have no doubt that plenty of people panicked and picked up a converter without needing one. Plenty of DTV signals are probably going into a converter right now, that then feeds directly into a digital TV that could have picked up the signal without the converter. In less troubling economic times the lunacy of spending tax dollars to make sure that people can continue to watch TV would probably be hitting me right about now, but considering that the cost is a drop in the bucket next to the bailouts, I'm just ready to forget that this whole switch ever happened, and put it behind me.
@Banana Boat
No, I think a ton of people think their analog TV won't be able to watch cable TV without a box and panicked and requested a converter box coupon when they didn't need one.
@chuckles
I _know_ at least some people said 'oh, a free electronic device' and applied for a coupon even though they knew they didn't need one, simply because it was free. Try to hack it, use it for parts, or just stick it in the closet. Why not? It's _free_ right?
I hate those people.
The scary part is not the fact that granny cant get her Matlock. It's that I worked for (and have friends that still do) a fairly large TV & Radio Broadcast group and their Director of Engineering (for the entire group) doesn't understand this change completely... he thinks that SD TV (4:3) is going away... and that Digital & HD are terms that can be interchanged... It amazes me... Fear the idiots in charge.
@Justin
I'm still amazed at the near-universal idea that "digital" equates to "better" all the time. Some people expect the DTV switch to happen, and for their TV shows to suddenly look high def on their old 4:3 tube TV's. Noone outside of...well..the group of people that read sites like Engadget has any clue what digital and analog even mean, much less why one is better than the other. All they know is the marketing BS spewed by every TV provider in the US.
I don't foresee the problem being old people that are suddenly TV-less as much as I see a problem with people that get their TV over the air suddenly losing their signal completely since Digital signals aren't as forgiving as their analog brethren. What used to be a decent picture with snow will turn into no picture and an error message, and suddenly these people are going to be asking for a subsidized antenna.
On second though, there are just SO many angles to look at this problem from, and so many ways that it can go wrong. A delay only makes the pain last longer. We need to rip analog off as if it were a band-aid.
Nice.
Speaker Pelosi will just bring up the bill under normal rules so it can pass by a majority vote or insert it another piece of legislation.
Yeah, it got a substantial majority. I guess not 2/3 or whatever was needed. How long before they can bring it up under normal rules?
If it's attached to another bill, then the Senate will have to vote again however.
I am sorry. I know this is America and most Americans wait till the last second to do anything but c'mon!!! If you can't take the initiative to make sure you are ready for the switch, especially given how long it's been talked about and how much information TV stations and the government have issued, not to mention the coupons for $$ to buy a converter, don't bother complaining when you don't have a picture.
What about all the people who are waiting for the coupons but havn't got them? That IS the reason they are trying to delay it.
Tell them to either get out their checkbooks, or dust off their radio and hunker down for the long wait.
People are acting as if the world is going to end if they don't have TV. Give me break.
Now that is another argument. People asking for coupons who have cable TV don't need them, is screwing up the system for those people who do need them. I know 4 people who needed coupons for converter boxes who got them. They submitted last year and their coupons were mailed out promptly. It will work itself out. I believe the coupons expire and when they do, the money goes back in the pool and the people waiting for a coupon will get them issued.
I applaud the government for not extending the deadline. Tough love is sometimes the best remedy to make people want to take care of themselves.
If someone didn't get a coupon before the program ran out of money, then they will probably have to shell out a whopping 40 some dollars on their own to get a converter box. No different than if someone waits too long to take advantage of a copuon, it expires and they have to pay full retail price.
Unfotnately with the inundation of ads about the digital cutoff, there really isn't any excuse that people not be ready for the conversion. In reality, the government could have extended the transition four months, one year, or even five years and we would still be in exactly the same position in the run up to the cutoff...people not acting until they are forced to.
The only real solution is to move ahead with the cutoff and let the people who procrastinated find their own solution, be it stop watching tv, purchase a converter box, or find an alternative to OTA programming. They had an opportunity to get an almost free box at the beginning, but they waited too long. Now it's their responsibility to solve the problem for themselves.
YEA!!!!
Do the tech geeks need to assist at the old folks home feb 18th when they can't get wheel of fortune or the price is right?
the price is right died when Bob left
The babes are still there though
@Rafer
Quit talking about Drew Carey like that..... I am now scarred....
Good.
Good news would have been a big mistake to change the date! overdue! would have cost more as well think of all the advertising that has been on the air for this and to have to do it all over again in June not!
Not that I wanted the bill to pass, but as I've said before, unless they make it increasingly "painful" to NOT upgrade, then there will be a large group that never does.
I Propose:
March 1, April 1, May 1 - Shrink the analog picture 10% smaller than it was the month before.
In the empty space, set up a countdown timer that hits zero when the signal gets shut off.
On June 1, move the countdown timer to right in the middle of the remaining picture.
THEN SHUT IT OFF... NO EXCUSES... PEOPLE WILL HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
I like this idea or something similar. Do like when there's bad weather--put the picture in a box with information about the digital conversion. Put it on full time.
BTW, can stations do that will continuing to send an analog feed to cable cos. and such? I assume yes.
Or wait, how about this (and hear me out):
On February 17th...we shut off the analog signal.
?
I'm with hexy.
I think the picture should just get smaller by 100 pixels each week. Once the image reaches 0x0, the following message displays on the user's televesion:
YOUR LIFE IS AN EPIC FAIL
HUGS & KISSES,
FCC
http://losbandigolos.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/a-public-service-announcement-for-dtv-stragglers/
Then that should have started happening around November. I think the money well got dry because MAAAANY Americans who don't need the boxes probably got them. I'm not 100% sure that people know what this is all about. My friend has a 52 inch LCD and LCDs throughout his home, and told me how he got his 2 vouchers and was going to buy converters....so I said to him - you have digital displays, they've already got that built in. And he just figured, oh...he'll get them anyway, just in case :/
I think there should have been a bit more effort put into educating people. I mean, from what I've seen it's not a horrible campaign, but I think there are ways they could have forced the correct information into people's minds.
seriously, of those who haven't prepared, so what. They never will until their set stops working. It was a true attempt at a LCD move. [lowest common denominator]
Yay for people getting off their ass and doing something instead of watching TV when it won't work anymore!
Wow. A defeat for Obama.
I guess the CNN pundits have to stop calling his presidency flawless.
I call shenanigans. Cite ONE (yes, just one) instance of CNN calling his presidency "flawless". Or are you making a straw-man argument? Thought so.
It was after day three, on Anderson Cooper 360, the one pundit he always has on (the former Clinton advisor - can't remember his name - balding whited haired). He said, "Obama's presidency has really been 'flawless'".
Still don't believe me? Order the transcript.
I'm glad to hear that its still set for February.
They NEED people to buy the new toys, baby.
Thank goodness at least SOME things are going right in Congress and they are finally listening to the majority of American people! We've got like 300 million people and roughly only 6 million were not ready. Those are good enough numbers to proceed and those remaining will quickly get on board and the world will be ok.
Procedurally, the House will likely consider the bill again tomorrow under a rule. The bill failed under suspension of the rules, a typical "fast-track" House procedure that allows for the House to debate a bill without an accompanying rule from the rules committee. For a bill to pass under suspension you need a 2/3 majority.
This is the most important comment out of them all. I hope people are picking up on this.
cheers to the house
Good. No amount of delaying will fix this and on he coupons, shit come on, it is not that high for a box. Now if was around $200, I can see some not being able to sway that on tight budgets.
Hells yeah! Congrats for sanity!
finally
too bad all those stupid people who have the boxes and also have cable or satellite or a new tv
Thank God is all I have to say, 6.5 mil out of 300 mil aren't prepared??--screw them they haven't been paying attention or they are completely ignorant.
Good. Finally someone listened to their constituents.
Technically, the well has "run" dry.
Thank goodness. It seems that my Congresswoman voted for this, but luckily it failed. I read Senator Rockefellers press realease about the delay (link below), and while I can empathize with his concern about misinformed consumers and folks who aren't ready, I haven't seen any guarantee that a 90 day delay would have any hope of changing that.
They need to stick with the date that's been in place for a while. Get the call centers ready for the millions of people who don't have a clue. Get ready for a storm. Yes it's going to suck. Yes people will complain. However, the sooner we get past the transition, the sooner we can focus on other stuff.
http://rockefeller.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=307265
I'm happy for this for some reason, better to not waste more money for coupons that was announce 2 years ahead for people to know about DTV than stretch it out to June.
Praise the Lord!! We get signals from over-the-air but I don't care, LET them turn it off Feb. 17th.
I don't mind waiting for my coupon...
Ironically, from what I read, stations are allowed to shut off the analog signal whenever they want. The delay was for the date when the HAD to shut it off.
I assume that stations would want to do whatever it takes to make sure this happens ASAP -- It's costing them $ (and wasting energy) to keep the analog signal on.
Doesn't the USA have about 300,000,000+ people in it? If so, doesn't that mean that 6,500,000 is a very small number that don't really matter, because, apparently, they don't care?
So we shouldn't care about them because they're a minority?
That's not on, is it, Obama?
@KarlW "So we shouldn't care about them because they're a minority?"
No we shouldn't . That's 0.02% of the US population. They aren't going to starve. They aren't homeless. They aren't harmed physically due to the transition.
Look at your freaking code word "minority!?" Just because something is in minority, doesn't make it acceptable. Or would say Bush's minority of approval rating means his ideals are superior? Does McCain's minority of votes mean he should be president?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
The House did the right thing. This will stimulate the economy. I feel somewhat bad for granny but, chances are she doesn't know where she is anyway. Fios shut off my analog signal on my kitchen tv over two months ago. They sent me a free converter. My other three tv's all have built in digital tuners...but they have hd boxes on 'em.
Finally our government makes the right choice. Up next, denying all these ridiculous bailout propositions!