shutoff
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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!
Milwaukee TV stations band together for analog shutoff test
We know it must be terrifying, Milwaukee, to think of all those poor television viewers you may end up leaving in the dark, but at least you've seen other cities come before you and survive. Hot on the heels of Wilmington, NC killing the analog beams for realz, in flies word that a dozen Milwaukee, Wisconsin stations will be having a test of the digital TV conversion at around 5:10PM (local time) on September 15th. Obviously, viewers in the area will be warned beforehand, but we're sure a select few will choose to ignore the flashing hazard lights and suffer through a few agonizing minutes of fuzz. It's better they learn now, though.[Image courtesy of CCAuthority, thanks John]
Three more DTV converter boxes get reviewed, compared
Even though we just know you'll disregard this information until the last possible moment, we'd like to point out that three more digital-to-analog converter boxes have been reviewed over at Sound & Vision. The $60 Zenith DTT900 -- one of the very first DTV boxes to get outed -- was pit against the $50 RCA DTA800 and the $60 Digital Stream DTX9900. Believe it or not, reviewers actually found quite a bit of difference in the three units ranging from looks (clearly) to on-screen interfaces. If you're one to care about the minutiae (and admit it, you are), head on over to see which of these three most deserve your $40 voucher.
Survey finds awareness in DTV transition high, people still lallygagging around
Let's get this straight. A Best Buy survey suggesting that the public isn't acting early on the imminent digital TV transition. From the same big box retailer accused of pushing ignorant citizens into buying unnecessary wares in order to maintain a signal post-2009. Righhht. For whatever it is (or isn't) worth, a recent survey from said retailer has found that 88-percent of respondents were "aware of the digital broadcast transition, but were still confused about why [it] was happening and what really needed to be done to prepare." It also found that nearly half (45-percent) of those who hadn't already picked up a new TV or a DTV converter box were going to "wait until after the digital deadline to take action," which is really so typical of our society, isn't it? Go ahead government, spend those advertising dollars good -- the public at large still won't do anything until their hands are forced.[Image courtesy of StarBulletin]
Digital TV cutover proving costly for everyone
By now, we're sure you've heard just how much the US government is allocating for the 2009 analog shutoff ($1.5 billion), not to mention the boatloads of cash that has been / will be spent on advertising. A new report, however, is explaining that the impending switchover could be costly to more than just the feds. Cable companies, broadcasters and consumers all have legitimate complaints, and each of the groups will be sharing some of the associated costs. Many argue that broadcasters are actually benefiting from the change, as they essentially garner free spectrum to use for channel expansion. Of course, these very broadcasters assert that it's costing them millions to procure equipment necessary to comply with the mandate, and cable companies are shouting in a similar tone. In the end, the article suggests that all of this may really be "much ado about nothing," and while we can't help but agree (with reservations), we're just hoping that all this unoccupied spectrum will lead to a universal boost in HD programming.
Analog cellular networks, R.I.P.: 1983 - 2008
Marking the end of a remarkable era in cellular technology, the FCC is officially letting American carriers decommission their legacy analog networks as of today, February 18, 2008. Few of us still own a phone based on AMPS -- Advanced Mobile Phone System, ironically, despite the fact that there's been nothing "advanced" about it for many years -- but we owe the very existence of the world's modern wireless infrastructure to the introduction and overwhelming success of the Bell Labs-developed technology. So successful was AMPS, in fact, that it eventually covered virtually 100 percent of the continental United States, a statistic CDMA and GSM have only recently begun to approach.
Lawmakers worried over digital TV transition
It's one thing to fret over the estimated $1.5 billion Congress has to set aside to pay for the "coupon program" to aid Americans in the analog-to-digital transition of 2009, but now lawmakers are "worried that too few of us know that the analog TVs we have been using for years could become big cathode-ray paperweights after February 18, 2009." Essentially, those in power feel that "too little is being done to get the message across," and that quite a few disgruntled individuals could be smacked with a reality check of gigantic proportions if no one tells them beforehand. According to a poll released by the Association for Public Television Stations earlier this year, some 61-percent of those surveyed had "no idea" the shutoff would even take place, so we'd expect a commercial blitz to give your fast-forward finger a workout in the coming months.
D-PA relaunches to hasten 2011 DTV cutover in Japan
Yes, the beginning of the end if officially upon us, and yes, the Japanese are still probably more interested in colonizing the moon with robots than worrying over that pesky DTV cutover, but "a stronger and larger Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting (D-PA) will be relaunched next month, merging two separate organizations" in an effort to "speed up" the adoption of Digital TV. The newly-formed entity is now supported by "local broadcasters, mobile phone service providers, and TV manufacturers," and essentially hopes to broaden the marketing efforts in order to "achieve a target goal of 30 million DTV sets sold in Japan by March 2008, or about 63-percent of the country's 48 million households." Of course, the D-PA should probably get started on fleshing out an actual set of guidelines for making the switch by 2011 if they hope to garner any sort of following, but they should really take heart in the fact that they've got an extra 24 months to get things in order compared to we Americans.
Comcast begins digital transition in Chicago
The digital transition has been officially here for some time and while there has been much debate how the cable companies would react to it, Comcast in Chicago has shared some of their plans. As previously predicted the Cable companies are going to use the analog shutoff to move their customers to digital and it is starting in Chicago. Starting in July, customers without a digital STB will only be able to receive local broadcast channels via cable. To help out Comcast will be providing one free STB to every customer, but charging additional fees, for additional boxes. This will open up the bandwidth for other digital services like HD and we expect that when those analog channels are cut off in 2009, that those remaining households will also go dark without a box. There is a chance that Comcast will continue to provide analog versions of the new digital channels, but we doubt it will happen. Considering that analog channels use the same bandwidth on cable as approximately 2 or 3 HD channels this can only be good news to HD fans.
