Relax: Digital TV Now Looks Certain to be Delayed

Stick to the Schedule

Some people haven't had enough time to prepare for the transition? What planet are they living on? Stop babying these people - it's watering down the gene pool.

Also, with the additional funds Nancy Pelosi just requested, we will be spending $2 BILLION to help rabbit-ear people convert to DTV. What nonsense. When states are cutting funding for healthcare services, education, public safety (and the list goes on), there HAVE to be better things to spend $2 billion on.

Steve of ME @ Jan 22, 2009 12:22:52 PM

This was expected

I am a broadcast engineer, and I have watched the progress toward HDTV and DTV for some time. I was at one of the first stations to participate in the early attempts at HDTV. That was the analog HDTV, not the new ATSC based HDTV. ALthough I am not a fan of the over compression that some stations have done to cram multiple channels into the ATSC channel, I am glad we did not go with the analog solution.

The previous comment was correct about the US choosing the wrong standard. I watched the debate play out in the tech journals, and the superiority of the COFDM system. But, it was "not invented here." And, the entrenched entities would not have made as much money through royalties. Therefore at almost the last minute, our 8-VSB system was adopted. This choice meant we had much more difficulty in mobile reception. We don't have the smooth fallback the COFDM could have afforded. COFDM can take interference on several of its subfrequencies and still deliver a usable signal. 8-VSB relies on some serious adaptive filtering to get nearly the same result.

So, we have what we have. I have been viewing ATSC DTV from fixed location over the air since 2001, and with a good antenna I have had good results. I've even had reception using a particularly good receiver of a station over 65 miles away. Nonetheless, I know better than to try and get reception in a moving vehicle in a metropolitan area. That poor filter can't adapt fast enough to maintain a good lock.

Karl of WI @ Jan 21, 2009 16:45:15 PM

Relax: Digital TV Now Looks Certain to be Delayed

What gets me is all these complaints over digital tv reception, reception which is on temporary channels and/or broadcasting at reduced power to accomodate analog tv. Digital TV has been (since around 1998) and will be until analog is turned off the stepchild living in temporary quarters waiting for the day they can step up and perform at full power. Only DT channels on their final allocations and broadcasting at full power can be judged, assuming the broadcast aerial isn't lower than it would be because the analog aerial is still taking the space.

Analog's time has come and gone, come 2/17/09 it's time to lay it to rest. Let analog step aside and let digital have its day.

Andy from Dover of DE @ Jan 21, 2009 14:55:14 PM

Yes! Let's wait.

Let's wait four more months, and then start crying that "We're still not ready", then.

If nine years was not enough time to get "ready", how will four additional months of inaction help?

Four months will not turn everything around. Four months will not get 100,000 antenna installers trained and equipped. Four months will not get instructional articles in the papers and magazines. Four months will not get "cool commercials" on the air, explaining how it all works. Four months will not get MATV systems in apartments, condos, hotels and schools all upgraded to actual Digital signals, rather than a "reconstituted analog" substitute.

And, four months won't get "one person" in Michigan's friends to accept that "one person" might just be doing something wrong, rather that the whole system being flawed.

Ken English of UT @ Jan 21, 2009 07:42:06 AM

I agree, throw the switch.

Reveal the idiot behind the curtain. The US picked the wrong standard that will not work well in many areas. I only know one person that has tried to watch digital terrestrial TV, and the signal was intermittent at 13 miles distance from antennae to antenna. This is Katrina for TV. Sell the RF spectrum and screw the American people. Thanks Bureaucrats.

Daniel J Swanson of MI @ Jan 21, 2009 06:04:46 AM

God, I'm so sick of hearing public service announcements that your box might turn black. NO,NO,NO,NO MORE. Some have already gone berserk from this constant repetition like the Chinese water torture and been committed to asylums for the criminally insane.

Luther of IL @ Jan 21, 2009 01:31:04 AM