Poll: Are you ready for the digital TV transition?
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 11th 2009 9:02PM
posted June 11th 2009 9:02PM
OK, time to fess up. We know that a few of you (at least) forgot that the plug's getting pulled on analog broadcast TV a few sweet hours from now -- just like it totally slipped your mind the first time. So, what camp are you in? Either your hard work and preparation has paid off and you're among those lucky few million getting your after work Simpsons fix in all its digital glory, or soon you'll be relegated to watching your favorite shows through the windows of a Radio Shack. Either way, we're dying to know how your personal transition plans have fared.
| Yes! Are you crazy? I'm not going to risk missing a single episode of Howie Do It! | |
|---|---|
| Hardly. You're talking to a committed Hulu user. | |
| Broadcast TV? That is so 2008. | |
| What's a "digital" TV? | |
| Totally forgot -- again! Thanks. |
poll choices here never make any sense
I've got a question....
I live in a rural area that is monopolized by the world's worst cable company, White County Cable. I subscribe to the basic 100ish channel package. Now our local network stations recently made the digital switch and for a while I was getting free HDTV when it was being broadcasted. Like, I would get channel 8 as normal...but then I'd also get channel 8-1 in HD. Great....but two problems.
1. Recently ALL HD channels dissappeared suddenly. I still get digital network channels like 8-1, 5-1, 4-1, etc but they are blacked out. No HD. Just blank digital channels.
.
2. Some of 30s and 40s channels have a bunch of blank digital channels which makes surfing terrible. So if I'm flipping channels, I have to go through 40-1...40-2...40-3...40-4...etc sometimes until 40-20+. Obviously, I could type in the next channel, but that's annoying.
So I guess my question is:
a) Could they be blocking the 'digital' channels so we dont get free HD channels and have to buy the "digital" package? And is that even legal?
b) Why am I getting so many non-sense blank digital channels? Could that be a problem with my signal? I could program the TV to skip those channels but it will literally take me over an hour to go through all of those.
So I bet your wondering why I am asking for cable support here. Well like I said....this is the worst cable company ever. Support is a joke. No one at the company knows what they are talking about. They claim there is no possible way I was getting local HD channels without the "digital package" (which by the way is a joke). I finally gave up explaining how it was possible. So I'm fed up with them and somehow I still pay the bill. Any suggestions?
They started "blue screening" certain channels for me too. I'm on the Cablevision (optonium) network. This only happens to tv's that don't have a cable box. I'm guessing by tomorrow I'll need to rent a cable box of all my tv's.
I'm not sure I'm exactly following what you are saying.
If your TV is an HDTV, with a digital tuner, you should be able to hook up an antenna and find HD channels in your area.
Couple of things, the syndicate in your area or the main broadcast network (depending on if you are in a major town or rural) needs to be broadcasting the OTA signal. This has NOTHING to do with your cable provider.
If you think you were getting HD signal just from your coax by your cable company, then you are indeed wrong. You need either A, a cable card to get the signal from your cable company, or B, a set top box of some kind. Straight cable to the TV will not yield an HD signal through cable.
@Mike: My TV is an HDTV with a digital tuner...I wasn't recieving channels off an antenna. I've always been hooked up to my coax and get cable through my crappy provider. Briefly, I was getting HDTV without a cablebox of any sort. (only when broadcasted though) I am not mistaken. At the time, HD channels were on my TV and a friend's TV.
I believe in most states (possibly even on a federal level), cable providers are forbidden from encrypting the local channels in HD. Check your local laws.
Mike is mistaken. You didn't need a cable box if your company was broadcasting the local channels in ClearQAM (unencrypted cable HD), and your TV has a ClearQAM tuner (most new TVs do). What I would guess is that the company (either accidentally or intentionally) switched the local channels over to encrypted digital, which now requires a cable box. Check your local laws and see if they're allowed to broadcast local channels in HD with encryption. If they are, you're out of luck. If not, call your local FCC office.
Rescan your channels. That is a huge confusion to people. As things transition, channels get moved. You need to re-scan to get them back.
Oh and I am 50+ miles away from the broadcaster antennas...so getting channels off the air is not very feasible without an expensive outdoor antenna
do you know How much money I have made off of these little boxes? About $1300. Yeah all it took was a clasified ad in the paper, a car and lots of converter boxes.
BTW: That sum is AFTER all expenses
this is all poppycock, the internet and basic tv should be free because their educational tools. unless you're looking at porn or want premium cable. look we don't charge for am/fm stations or checking out books/movies/internet at the library.
I told Engadget HD last week that I was ready. It's like the head doesn't know what the right arm is doing!
Because I live in a basement apartment…
Analog = I couldn't receive ABC or CW broadcasts
After I switched…
Digital w/RCA 'superior' antenna = I can't received ABC or CW broadcasts
The more things change…
hey do you know that iptv will also change the way we watch television... visit at www.myway.in
Where's the vote option for:
"I'm British and I've been watching Digital TV for years"
Exactly. Also here in Finland the analog terrestrial TV network was shut down in September 2007 and cable in May 2008.
I'm still on analog because there's nothing on TV that warrants spending even $25 on it to move to digital, let alone the $100 it would cost me.
The few shows I like I get off internet like a real person :)
I'm American and I have been watching digital TV for years... my station turned on its transmitter in '99. Most others around here were active by 01-02. BTW, Britain has not finished its digital transition. I know at least part of London and Ulster and maybe elsewhere won't have their analogue shut off until 2013.
We are all getting "bilked" by the media. TV should be for free. Cable has so much advertisements any more that if it were not for tivo you waste 1/4 of your time with the commercials. My wife says I do not need my gender "enhanced" and get tired of that rot on cable. A lot of rural ppl can't receive the digital broadcast and therefore will be "forced" to go satellite to get their news. Now we have to pay to recieve the programming and also pay "more" for consumer goods to pay advertising budgets to give the media mogul royalty their exorbitant incomes. Whoopee!!!, were essentially paying for it twice...what a deal for the technosheeps.
Or they could use something called the internet.
Who cares digital broadcast. When all content is sent via internet and moved to extended desktop (tv)
that pic is hilarious... it's from a video, where can I watch it?
I have 2 of the converters in the house, courtesy the FCC's coupons. I've been really happy with them on tube tvs. I've got basic cable also, because I get broadband via Time Warner, but in comparison the OTA shows, on the same networks that I also get over cable, look better on the plasma than what TW sends me down the coax. I'm getting three PBS channels OTA, and they kill the same feeds from the cable company. FOX look's tons better from the antenna too.
Sadly, neither does anything for the actual content that gets spewed from the major networks regularly.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, Miro is my friend.
Ha!
I already have Digital TV!
(But then again, I'm not from the US)
Half the population in the US also have digital already for quite a while, it's just that now the old system is retired so there's no choice but digital.
Digital TV Transition? I've been ready for a *Long* time.
I signed up the very first day the DTV converter box coupons were available to sign up for, months before they started shipping.
DAMN! Now my 23 year old sony watchman is useless!!