DtvTransition
Latest
Londoners mourn as teletext goes dark, a victim of the DTV transition
Despite the many advantages of digital broadcast television, the transition is separating Europeans from a reliable source of information known as teletext. Citizens of London are the latest to experience the loss, as analog signals in the region were switched off just yesterday. Ceefax, a service of the BBC, has provided millions of Britons with news, sports, weather, television listings, subtitles and games for the past 38 years, and is now accessible only in Kent, Sussex, north-east England and Northern Ireland. Soon, it may cease to exist altogether. Seen as a precursor to the internet, teletext is a free service that's heavily rooted in analog PAL signals, where small packets of data are sent in the vertical blanking interval, which is otherwise unnoticed by viewers. Because the information is broadcast, users were never subject to network congestion, and only needed to wait a brief moment for their desired page to be transmitted -- more advanced televisions even cached this information locally. As part of the airwaves, the service is naturally free, and in that sense, it lacks a suitable replacement. As with all progress, however, there are casualties, and teletext was an unfortunate bystander. Those who cherished the service can take a moment to relive the memories in the links below.
Nielsen reports the effects of the digital transition
This is a really interesting report of the affects of the digital transition on ratings. Like the fact that "TV stations that transitioned to digital only experienced an 8 percent share decline immediately following the analog shut-off." But even more interesting is this that same number goes up to 13 percent if the broadcaster switched from UHF to VHF because of reception problems -- no wonder some broadcasters are going back to UHF. The other thing that piqued our interest was that cable companies seemed to be the real winners here as 18.2 percent of those facing the decision to buy a converter box, just ordered cable instead -- little do they know that they are just putting off getting a box. [Via TVB]
CEA president Shapiro talks DTV transition
With the analog shutoff safely in the rear view mirror, CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) president Gary Shapiro took some time to talk about the move to our new digital airwaves (and also looked ahead to our 3D futures). All in all, some pretty interesting reading, but he makes a great point in chiding the broadcast industry -- by waiting until the last minute to get onboard the HD bandwagon, broadcasters missed out on what could have been positive market differentiation for their services versus cable and satellite. All's well that ends well, though, and we're just gad the plug got pulled on analog (with few casualties to boot), and we'd like the CEA president should know we celebrated the move. [Via DailyWireless, image courtesy CEA]
Analog TV says goodnight
Did you catch the sound of a falling tree in an empty woods this past weekend? In case you didn't hear it, analog "nightlight" transmissions went dark Sunday -- which amounted to 121 stations in 87 markets signing off for the last time. Absent the nightlight info screens, rock-dwellers will now have to emerge from their hermitages to figure out what happened to their TVs, but as we say in the 21st century, "them's the breaks." Aside from areas being served by analog translator and/or low power service, this marks the end of the analog broadcast TV era. Way to go, America -- we haven't heard any reports of riots or mass hysteria, and we'd dare say the citizenry handled this tech transition better than the millenium bug.
2.1 million households let the DTV transition pass them by
And to think we've been worrying about all those poor people who weren't ready for the DTV transition, only to find out that they don't even watch TV. We mean, what other explanation could you have for the fact that it's been solid week after the big analog shutoff and 2.1 million households still can't watch TV. Of course not all of these people just let the DTV transition pass them by, some of them are affected by the reception problems, and others probably don't even understand the question. Either way we'll find out soon enough as most broadcasters should be full power by July 1st and no doubt Nielsen will have the results of another poll out by then.
FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up
Well, the DTV transition finally went down, and after the endless delay and countless arguments, it seems as though June 12 hit with more of a whimper than a bang: the FCC says there haven't been any widespread service disruptions, and although the agency's toll-free help lines recorded 700,000 support calls between June 8 and June 12, most converter box issues were resolved in less than five minutes by a simple channel re-scan. Similarly, we can't say we've heard of any particularly big problems out there, so really, we're just wondering what the hell took so long.
Digital transition causing grief for Windows Media Center users
You know we really thought Microsoft learned its lesson back in February when the first wave of the analog channels went dark, but we were wrong. A quick trip to The Green Button shows that the hottest topic this weekend is the fact that any ATSC channel that changed frequencies on Friday, doesn't work anymore. The exact cause isn't known, but what is, is that while anyone who has a $50 digital converter box can just rescan to find the channels at their new home, Media Center users have to go well beyond anything your mom could do to get all the channels back. Our guess is that instead of looking at the PSIP data of discovered channels, Media Center uses guide data to map the frequencies to the channel and this data wasn't updated on Friday. On Vista you'll want to first manually delete the channels in your atscchannels.xml file, then you can add the missing channels via a menu (Settings>TV>Guide>Add Missing Channel) -- Windows 7 users don't need to edit the file first. You will need to know the new frequency when doing this, which you can find on Antennaweb.org. Or you can just wait a few days until Microsoft gets its act together, it isn't like there's anything on TV in the Summer anyways.
Will the DTV transition get more people watching OTA television?
With mere hours separating us from an analog TV broadcast-free existence, Harris has released poll results indicating many may switch to free OTA broadcasts, shutting off their current cable and satellite subscriptions. The way we see it, the 55 percent indicating they were either somewhat or very likely to switch to antenna probably represent many people who are only just finding out you can get HDTV without paying for service -- not to mention those who are paying and not even watching high definition at all. Still, with the channels available on digital TV broadcasts plus online streaming, there's a lot more choices, anyone else stepping back from their pay-TV habit?
NAB disputes Nielsen's numbers, claims only 1.75 million unready for transition
With less than 24 hours to go until analog TV goes dark for a certain segment of American, and the NAB wants to make sure everyone is aware that Nielsen's unreadiness claims aren't accepted by all. The point of contention is a mere 1 million people and really comes down to those who are "almost ready." Meaning, the NAB doesn't count respondents who claimed to have already started getting ready, but aren't in any hurry to make the actual switch until the very last minute. Differences in opinion aside one thing is for sure, at some point tomorrow every TV watcher in the US will be digital ready, or they will no longer be a TV watcher.
FLO TV to add 39 markets following DTV transition
If we're using availability across AT&T's and Verizon's lineups as a benchmark, we'd venture to guess that FLO isn't doing terribly well -- but be that as it may, the Qualcomm subsidiary is rearing to expand its coverage just as soon as the remainder of the nation's analog television stations go dark on June 12. In fact, they're really, really serious about it: 15 new markets will go live the moment the analog signals turn off, adding Boston, Houston, Miami, and others, while another 24 will tack on by the end of the year. Existing live markets like Chicago and New York will enjoy expanded coverage, too, but the question remains -- where's FLO's meal ticket? More hardware helps, but it might ultimately take a transition to free services before mobile TV takes off.
Nielsen's final pre analog shutoff survey finds 2.5% still unready
In the last update before analog TV goes off after June 12, Nielsen's results indicate 2.5% of, or 2.8 million U.S. homes are still completely unready and will be cut off after it goes through. That's around three million less than it was the last time we were this close to the DTV transition, hopefully all reading this are on the digital television ready side (six easy steps right here.) Don't forget, many stations are switching at different times, so check your local broadcasters before rescanning so you don't have to do it twice, Friday night / Saturday morning is probably your best bet.
US Senate intros bill to keep people from falling off the "digital cliff"
With less than 5-percent of US homes failing to make it under the analog shutoff limbo stick (and still a month to go), there's no reason that come June 12th a whole lot of stations won't be conducting their own shutoff festivities. Just to make sure that there won't be a pack of digital lemmings headed for a step function-like cliff, the US Senate has introduced the DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act, which allocates $125 million through 2012 to help pay for digital repeaters and translators to fill in those areas that will go uncovered after the switch occurs. This is government money, so you know there's a few strings attached -- in this case, the new bits of infrastructure will also have to serve up wireless communications and broadband traffic where possible. Let's see -- more people with DTV and broadband wireless coverage? Add a tick in the "yes" column for us, please!
DTV preparedness now more than 95-percent
Here we are, a little more than a month away from the February 17 June 12 analog shutoff date, and sure enough, more people have grabbed hold of a digital tuner in one device or another. According to Nielsen, the number of unprepared homes is now at 3.1-percent (3.5-million homes). To put that in perspective, recall that at the start of February, we were sitting at 5.1-percent. We're pretty impressed that the number has moved below the 5-percent mark, and certainly a lot of credit goes to stations that went ahead with the switch ahead of the June 12 deadline. Zeno and his paradox aside, we've got high hopes that the June 12th date is going to stick, folks!
DTV voucher waitlist gone, expired coupon holders can re-apply
Good news for those of you going bonkers over your expired DTV converter coupons -- the voucher waitlist has been cleared out a little early and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is ready to accept new applications. No word on how many vouchers are left in the budget or how long it'll take for this last batch to clear out, but hey -- you should have had this taken care of months ago, Chico. Hop to it.
Another 158 analog TV stations flip to digital only
Another one (hundred and fifty-eight) bites the dust, as they say. With the newly established June 12th cutover date looming, another 158 TV stations across America have decided that enough is enough. In a new list that was sent over the FCC this week, we're told that another swath of stations intend to shut off their analog signals prior to the mandatory June 12th cutover date. For what it's worth, the majority of the 158 are in smaller markets and don't broadcast any of the four major commercial networks, but we wouldn't be shocked to hear of more of this as more and more stations grow tired of waiting around.
DTV coupons begin flowing once more, waitlist should vanish in 3 weeks
For all of you still waiting for a little governmental assistance in buying that DTV converter box that you should've purchased months ago (we kid... a little), we've excellent news. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is overseeing the program, has announced that it has finally begun to ship $40 vouchers towards the purchase of these very boxes once more. The waitlist has grown some 4.1 million deep since the subsidy program ran dry back in January, but the agency is hoping to have that cleared within three weeks. Of course, you better not procrastinate on your second chance -- who knows how quickly the $650 million it has left will last.[Image courtesy of BreakItDownBlog]
DTV switch doesn't kill TVs, drunk septuagenarians with guns kill TVs
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/DTV_Switch_Doesn_t_Kill_TVs_Drunk_Septuagenarians_w_Guns_Do'; The elderly have been slightly behind in picking up on the DTV transition, so news of a frustrated 70-year old Missouri man doesn't surprise us too much. That the combination of losing his cable and being unable to get a DTV converter working drove him to shoot his TV and cause a short standoff with the police? A bit more shocking. All, however, is explained in one line: "According to the man's wife, he had been drinking." Please, spare your TV and follow instructions.[Via Multichannel News, Image courtesy of Phrank.com / Sledge Hammer]
DTV call center successfully handles influx of confused callers
Given that the expectation was for hordes of confused TV viewers to phone in over the past two days in order to ask why their local OTA station was suddenly unavailable, it's no shock to see a big deal made of successfully managing through it. For those unaware, 421 stations decided to go ahead with their originally planned DTV transition date of February 17th, and we're told that over 28,000 perplexed Americans dialed 1-888-CALL-FCC on Tuesday for assistance in getting their sets working. The call center was setup to handle around 100,000 calls on the day that US broadcasters were previously scheduled to go from analog to digital, but obviously, far fewer people either a) cared or b) needed help. See, that wasn't so bad, was it?
The original DTV transition: what could've been
Exactly one year ago today, we sat as prepared as ever to embrace the forthcoming world of digital TV. After February 17th, no longer would Americans have to suffer through yet another poor analog broadcast, and no longer would we have to wait for all that spectrum to be freed up for much more spectacular things. With just a year to go, we laid out a simple six-step program that would help confused TV watchers ensure that they would be ready on the seventeenth day of February, the year two-thousand and nine. Fast forward to this very moment, and confusion about the cutover is still rampant. In fact, the cutover hasn't even happened. Well, it sort of has. Ahh... see what we mean? Come along after the break, it gets crazier.
FCC approves 368 of 491 stations switching off analog Tuesday
In the daily DTV transition update, the FCC saw fit to hold up 123 of 491 stations planning to shut off analog TV on February 17, based on factors like whether or not there would be any stations still available in a given market. Those 123 can still make a case for going all digital by tomorrow evening, so even this list is not the final one. As it is, 368 stations are definitely making the switch, but with 5 days to go we still don't have a complete list of who is doing what, when, so stay tuned (if you can.)
