Wow, this isn't confusing. At all. The
on-again /
off-again digital TV transition date -- which is now
formally set for June 12th -- may or may not
be honored by the hundreds upon hundreds of local broadcasters across America. You see, when Congress postponed the mandatory cutover date from its original place on the calender (
February 17th), it also gave stations the option of sticking to that original date. Thus, what could end up happening is that half a city's local OTA stations would go all-digital in under two weeks, while the others delayed things until June. The good news is that most of the major US television networks (that's CBS, ABC, FOX and NBC) have reportedly decided to hold off until the new June date in order to prevent a chaotic series of events, but it's hard to say if each individual station will indeed abide. The bottom line? Get your converter box now if you need one, and if you're waiting around for one of those $40 vouchers, hats off to you and
your patience.
Read - Optional cutover
Read - Broadcaster intent
posted February 6th 2009 5:20AM
@zercorpse
be careful what you wish for. digital is not analog. more is not always better.
increasing signal strength may make your reception issues worse, if they are caused by reflections/multipath.
if your antenna isnt VHF as well as UHF, you may also lose some of the major networks when they turn off analog and shift the channels.
if it is just a signal strength issue, you could fix it yourself now with a cheap signal amplifier on the antenna.
but then you'd have to get off your backside, like you want ma and pa kettle to do. you know, rather than wait for the govt to help you out, by increasing the signal strength.
"The good news is that most of the major US television networks (that's CBS, ABC, FOX and NBC) have reportedly decided to hold off until the new June date in order to prevent a chaotic series of events, but it's hard to say if each individual station will indeed abide."
The reality is, the networks don't really have the power to mandate this matter to the individual stations.
I work at my local ABC affiliate, and we're going to go digital on the original 17 February date. The only thing we're doing differently after the change in legislation is a ticker at the top of the screen giving notice to the change.
As far as I know, each of the other stations in town is also changing over on the 17th.
The reality is, no matter when the change happens, there will be someone who isn't ready. Instead of changing the date so that people can save up for a converter, why not earmark some of this stimulus money to print more converter box coupons?