After years of early warning to all U.S. citizens, and dozens of TV stations broadcasting the deadline to switch from analog signal to full digital signal for TV, millions of Americans will be left out in the dark. The original date was scheduled for February 17, 2009, but days before the conversion, President Obama pushed to delay the changeover forward to June 12, 2009.Even with months of advance warning, millions of Americans waited till the last minute to update their dated television sets to add a digital box. Analysts still predict that millions of Americans still use analog signal and are unprepared for the changeover. As of Friday June 12, 2009 at 12:01am, all full-powered analog signals will terminate transmissions, leaving all dated TV sets with "rabbit ear" antennas in the dark.
President Obama said that there will be no further delays in the transition, "[...]I want to be clear: there will not be another delay." said President Obama.
The TV Stations want this, it will save them so much money in having to maintain only a single transmission.
It was Obama who already delayed it past the date it was supposed to occur back in february, which was a delay from the original date in 2006. This should have happened a long time ago.
comment of the day.
LoL. Nice comment
LOL you crack me up so bad
If people didn't get prepare during all these years, they won't do it now until their TV screens only show white noise.
Yeah, it must be really hard to scrape up $40 over a period of years.
Illidan has been saying this since I dont know how long, and people are still NOT prepared.
[/badjoke]
Wonder how many ****ed off people I will be transferring to the TV people today
Riot.
Seriously. Never underestimate the American Idol-watching crowd, deprived from what keeps it subdued.
Majority of people have digital on their Main Tvs.
Howver power of digital signals won't be increased, until analogue has been switched off. Which means most bedroom/portable tvs can't pickup digital signal because of their small aerials.
You may not be aware that 80% of Americans are blithering idiots with attention deficit syndrome. They are incapable of comprehending written instructions.
Truth.
While it may be harder to feel sorry for someone relying on broadcast when their TV "goes out", not every cable outfit is going to pump analog -- for their customers, those TVs without cable boxes will go dark. Even if you went out & bought a TV with digital tuning (QAM), many cable providers DRM all but a handful of stations, so no way to access digital channels without a box. For many (most?) going digital doesn't mean a thing... In theory you'd get a better picture, but, less signal loss also lets cable & satellite providers send a partial video frame, &/or use higher compression.
That's impossible. The minumum standard for ATSC is a 480p picture with 2 channel sound...so DVD quality. Not to mention guaranteed picture and sound quality as well...so I think you need to upgrade your TV/sound system or have your vision checked.
you are right ofcourse, analog is always better than digital ... in utopia. Unfortunately in the real world there always is signal degradation
For crying out loud. How difficult could this have been, even if you HAVE been using just rabbit ears, up until now?
I'm not sure if that makes me evil, but I've done too many things to not go to hell anyway. :p
How is this even possible? Even in Canada, I've lost count how many public service announcements or advertisements I've seen for the DTV switch. There's been more than enough time and more than enough information. Just do it and get it over with.
So what, house bound and bed ridden people have to survive with no contact from the outside world? Nobody brings them the necessities of life? Nobody takes care of them? If they can't save $40 over a period of years perhaps they shouldn't be watching tv.
I absolutely agree. There is nothing more than the 70 year old plus population not working. Those lazy people on fixed income. They either need to just die or go out and get a job.
Of course, when they do, they will be significantly more qualified (work experience) than the mass number of individuals who don't at least have a 4 year college education... (last I checked this was a lot of individuals). They would get the majority of the jobs and we would have a lot of younger individuals out of work. I am personally all for this.
On a serious note, Shhac, you do realize that the converter box is pretty basic TV... right? We are not talking about your fiber connected 120+ channel, 20 meg internet connection and free calling to anyone in the States (typical sub $100 plan). We are talking about a few local channels and PBS. From 4 to about twenty channels.
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