In my market, at least some of the stations can’t transmit their digital signals at full power until the analog transmissions are shut off due to how their towers are set up. We’re also going to have some shuffling of frequencies once analog is gone (stations will switch their digital transmissions back to the frequency currently used by analog). So the reception you’re getting now might improve once the analog signals are gone.
A rebate program would have probably been a better solution. It would have helped soothe the “Who can’t afford $40?!?!?!” crowd, not resulted in coupons being sent out that were potentially not used and, as we all know, many people never send in their rebate stuff anyway so it’d probably cost the government less in the long haul.
However, that’s not what they chose to do.
I didn’t order a coupon because I have Cable TV, so I didn’t need a converter box. The small analog TV in my bedroom, which I don’t use that often anyway, is plugged into the directly into the cable from the wall. Even without a cable box, it still shows most of the channels.
However, now I’m looking into switching to DirecTV, and I really don’t want to spend an extra $5 a month to have the bedroom TV hooked up to the satellite dish (since, as previously stated, I don’t watch it that often). I was thinking of getting a converter box and an antenna for it instead. But, of course, I may not be able to get the $40 coupon now, which affects my decision somewhat.
Thanks for this… I appreciate that a rare Sparklo post was used on lil’ ol’ me.
I believe this is true in my market as well, and is one reason I still haven’t gotten cable… I’m hoping the reshuffling will result in watchable over-the-air digital. But I have my doubts, to say the least. Currently I cannot watch digital channels and use the kitchen microwave at the same time.
Like it or not, some people are never going to be ready by the deadline. TV is not a constitutional right. I say do the switch on Feb 17 and I’ll bet those people who weren’t ready would get ready pretty damn quick.
And some people want gov’t to take over health care.* You have the evidence right in front of your eyes that they can’t handle things efficiently and cheaply!
*Not trying to hijack, just making a point.
The FM band change occurred before FM radio was in wide usage. There weren’t
hundreds of millions of receivers for it throughout the land. Indeed, there weren’t even a hundred stations broadcasting it back then.
FM was little-known out here in Flyover Country until the late '60s–more than 20 years after the switch from the little-used “old” band to the not-yet-common-outside-major-urban-centers “new” band.
Well given that MOST news is just stuff you cant do a damn thing about, I’d say lack of news for the socially downtrodden for a few months might be be a good thing 
So basically, you want to increase the length of the switchover from 2 years to 8 years. That’s 8 years of stations being required to transmit their signals over both bands (which costs them a lot of money).
Also, as others have noted, the two bands are interfering with each other in some markets, so we’d just extend that problem over a longer period of time.
Old cars work just fine without airbags. However, old TVs stop working for broadcast TV unless we require the TV stations to continue the analog broadcasts, or use converter boxes.
I think it’s stupid too. TV tech hasn’t changed much for the last 50 years. Now the goobermint asks you to spend $40 to keep receiving FREE TV. Even without the coupons, it’s not a bad deal at all. Anyone who actually watches TV would have seen the commercials a hundred times by now.
Our local stations are going ahead and doing the switchover this month, and I applaud them for that. They say they save $40,000 a month in transmitter costs by shutting off analog transmissions.
Nobody is requiring TV stations to continue analogue broadcasting. They’re being required to stop analogue broadcasting on 2/17 (or not, as the case may be).
The cost of getting my car’s emissions tested effectively doubled a couple of years ago, with hardly any warning. And the goddamned State refused to pay the difference!
It made me so furious I almost managed to get my fat ass up from the couch to write a letter.
Had 300 million people been relying on the original FM band for 70 years when it was eliminated?
True enough, but consider this. I have two televisions, one in the living room, the other in the kitchen/work area. Since we don’t watch a lot of TV, we don’t see the need to stretch our budgets to pay for cable or satellite. We DO like to watch some broadcast prime-time and the news. Since the government is mandating that my perfectly good equipment will be useless, they’ve offered to give out coupons to all who apply for them. That’s only fair. It is also only fair that they honor their agreement with the public and supply the coupons. We have our boxes, and have had them for a while, but I don’t see why people are getting all worked up about the issue.
Calling it “free TV” is also a misnomer. It isn’t NOT free, I pay for it by watching ads. In fact, if I had cable, I would be pissed as all get out that I was paying for content AND being forced to sit through ads. I would happily pay a few bucks a month to be free of snuggie, sham-wow, get an education ads, and the plethora of local lawyers.
I used to feel this way, too, and then finally resigned myself to the fact that I’m paying for variety and choice, not content. With hundreds of channels, it’s just not possible for any one of them to get the eyeballs necessary to sustain itself on ad income alone. While I don’t care much for a lot of the channels I’m effectively subsidizing, I’m glad I do have access to channels I like that only a few other people probably ever watch.
hah, ha ha, that’s a good one!! Electronics made in America? For the same price? Don’t make me laugh. They would cost twice as much. Does America still make any electronics? When was the last TV made in America? Are any computer motherboards still made in America? I do not believe I have heard of any made in America since the Pleistocene.
ETA: BTW, remember Zenith TVs? The ones who proudly advertised they were carefully made by hand and not with those cheap printed circuit boards the japanese were using? Where did they go?
Well, when you do, maybe something will be done. You know, kind of like they did with the converter boxes
When I was in the Navy in the 1970s, stationed at nearby Norfolk, Portsmouth, VA had a GE television plant whose sets sold for at or near the prices of Mexican TVs sold at Sears.
Fair enough, But if you think about it it really doesn’t make much sense. For 50.00 a month here, you can get about 200 channels, including premiums. So that’s about 25 cents a channel with ads. Why not charge a dollar a channel and let people pick as many or as few as they’d like? I’d happily pay for cable if I could select the 10 or so channels I watch and exclude the rest.
They’re owned by South Korean company LG now: Zenith Electronics - Wikipedia
I get by on an amplified antenna, a 42" plasma, and a Tivo HD. The Tivo has two tuners, so it can record two programs at once. The high-def picture is beautiful, both straight from the antenna and when played back on the Tivo. I’m about 25+ miles from the nearest TV station, and I get about 20 channels total. For those that aren’t getting good reception with digital, try an amplified antenna if you haven’t already. I’ve found most digital tuners need a constant 50% or higher signal strength to avoid breaking up.