# How'd the Digital Transition treat you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329 "2009-11-29T14:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/21 "2009-11-30T02:02:51Z")
Sorry bout the choices, I was bound to leave some people out. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/22 "2009-11-30T04:17:43Z")
I live in a town of less than 10,000 people. We neither lost nor gained a single channel in the switch. Fine by me! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/23 "2009-11-30T04:30:36Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > Now that were several months down the road, I figured I’d ask how it went for you? We’ve had Satellite for years, and the dish receiver has an over-the-air digital tuner, so it actually improved when they upped the transmission power, but the channels we didn’t already get via satellite are religious, shopping, or hispanic…not channels we normally watch. > > So, on a scale from 0 to 4 list your experience, then list your geographic location. You needed to add the option of 'we had a digital transition? When? i dont remember anything happening… 😃 I live out in the ass end of nowhere, and have had cable since moving in back in 1990. Absolutely no change in anything Although I have noticed almost every channel available is predominantly infomercials, home shopping, sports, pseudonews, game shows and reality tv…Why do we have 300 channels and never anything to watch? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/24 "2009-11-30T04:34:31Z")
Everyone I know has cable or satelite. My grandpa is the only exception (because somebody is too stupid to pay the bill on time, Uncle), and he still gets the local station over-the-air somehow. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/25 "2009-11-30T14:38:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > he still gets the local station over-the-air somehow. I saw an NTSC station broadcasting a few weeks ago. I believe some low power repeaters are still working. I have no idea why. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/26 "2009-11-30T19:16:52Z")
No difference here. A year ago, the only TV we watched was when the Redskins were playing football, so we didn’t have cable or satellite. Eight months ago, my wife and I adopted a toddler. This was a good season to stop watching the Redskins, and take the Firebug to the park instead. We’ve got a converter box, but haven’t even bothered plugging it in. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/27 "2009-11-30T19:49:35Z")
I actually got more channels in the end as the power went up on all the stations. I’ve got 25 or so channels that I know of, and if I put a rotor on I could get a few more. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/28 "2009-11-30T21:43:47Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I only voted my area - there was no good “change choice” for me. I wanted “major change for the better”. > > I went from 3 channels OK “over the air” to 14 pretty darn reliable. And enough variety that I’m probably telling Comcrap to pull their cable soon. I’ll lose History and Discovery but I can always buy or rent the entire seasons of the shows I care for/about. Yep, me too. I went from 2-3 channels where you could make out there was a picture under all the static and “snow,” to 30 odd channels with crystal clarity. Yea for HD Football! And even in a blizzard I only lose FOX. So I count the whole thing as a big win. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/29 "2009-11-30T22:00:42Z")
Yeah, we also forgot “catastrophically affected you because your TV went from fully functional to totally useless for on-air reception but you only watched it 4 hours a week anyway so you didn’t really miss it too much.” ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/30 "2009-11-30T22:03:34Z")
I’ll put in a forum feature request to add a slider control, that way we can have a continuum from “Ecstatically Happy” to “Weeping, Suicidally in the Corner” and distance from “Center of the planet” to “Out beyond Uranus” I guess I’ll need another slider for channels that extends from -Infinity to +Infinity, with Channels worth watching graphed on the imaginary plane. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/31 "2009-11-30T22:04:14Z")
Since I have a cable subscription, I didn’t notice any change at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/32 "2009-11-30T22:37:05Z")
I went from having many stations to only PBS and the christian stations working reliably. If the broadcast gods look fondly on me I can watch House or CSI, otherwise the receiver is just a piece of clutter gathering dust 95% of the time. Plus, I can see the transmitter for one of the stations I can’t receive at my apartment. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/33 "2009-11-30T23:18:46Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > The common apartment antenna feed works perfectly well. I get all the local channels clear as a bell, and I no longer have a cable bill. Works for me! I’m surprised – and jealous – that you have a working common antenna. The story I’ve heard is that the cable companies paid to have the apartments remove their common antennas to boost cable sales. In any event, in two apartments I’ve lived in – one in the DC area, and now in central North Carolina – there are connections in the living room to the old community antenna, but the antennas themselves have been removed. I currently live on the first floor, so a working rooftop antenna would be a huge help. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/34 "2009-12-01T01:20:10Z")
City limits of Philadelphia here. I lost channel 6, 12, 35, 48, 57, and 65. 29 (Fox, home of most of my favorite shows) is iffy and rarely comes in, in more than half second bursts. As you might guess by my screen name, I LOVE television. I cannot afford cable. I cannot afford the high speed internet connection necessary for Hulu. I am very disappointed in the digital conversion. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329/35 "2009-12-01T04:51:53Z")
I answered twice, since I started watching digital TV when I lived in KC and then went through the forced transition here in Madison. I didn’t mind it in KC - in fact, I even watched certain programs in HD over the air rather than through the non-HD cable, and I could get pretty much every station clearly, even last summer, before the stations boosted their signals. Up here, though, I can’t get Fox in the living room at all. The local NBC station broadcasts all the HD programming with surround sound only, which sucks for me because I don’t have a home theater system, and therefore no center channel speaker. And I’m kind of surprised that the local TV stations here haven’t gone HD, although I probably shouldn’t be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-the-digital-transition-treat-you/519329.md?page=1)