Digital TV

[thescreensavers]

Why does the government need to give people money to buy a converter box? Isn't TV a luxury item?

 

[frostedflakes]

It's considered a necessity because emergency broadcasts, severe weather alerts, stuff like that are aired on local channels. Not like you couldn't get these broadcasts on a radio, though. Everyone should have a battery operated radio anyways as you will lose the ability to receive emergency broadcasts on TV if the electricity goes out.

I think the coupon program was very poorly handled (should have been need based and limited to one coupon per household IMO), but oh well. The money's already spent and the June 12 deadline is almost here. Soon this stupid DTV transition will be over and behind us.

edit: Although I guess the NTIA did consider looking at need and believed it would be too expensive and complicated. Might have been cheaper just to hand out coupons to any who requested them than to administer coupons based on need or other factors.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiaho...07/DTVFinalRule_2a.htm

 

[Moonbeam]

Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
It's considered a necessity because emergency broadcasts, severe weather alerts, stuff like that are aired on local channels. Not like you couldn't get these broadcasts on a radio, though. Everyone should have a battery operated radio anyways as you will lose the ability to receive emergency broadcasts on TV if the electricity goes out.

I think the coupon program was very poorly handled (should have been need based and limited to one coupon per household IMO), but oh well. The money's already spent and the June 12 deadline is almost here. Soon this stupid DTV transition will be over and behind us.

edit: Although I guess the NTIA did consider looking at need and believed it would be too expensive and complicated. Might have been cheaper just to hand out coupons to any who requested them than to administer coupons based on need or other factors.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiaho...07/DTVFinalRule_2a.htm

I find I have done well without this "necessity" for the last 10 years, but YMMV

 

[frostedflakes]

Well don't forget that low income households may not necessarily have access to the internet and other forms of communication. It's not difficult to get by without TV if you have a broadband internet connection.

And it's debatable whether TV is a necessity, I was just posting the reasoning that others have used. My understanding is that many low income households rely on free OTA broadcasts for emergency alerts, news, and entertainment.

 

[Lemon law]

What was particularly stupid, IMHO, was to have the coupons expire that fast.
Most people applied too early and then waited until the boxes were needed.
Which was supposed to be 2/17/09.

The second mistake was not to get people to convert early, because digital TV allows
compression and efficiencies in delivery, each channel can now have up to five different
multicasts, showing totally different content in the same time slot. Many PBS stations have
2 or more programming choices in any given time slot, many local major networks use the
extra multicasts to run 24/7 weather radars, and as long as you are on the right side of the
digital cliff, you get a perfect picture. I find OTA digital TV far better than its analog counterpart, but until I bought a digital television, I had no idea about multicasts that offer a compelling reason to switch early.

Of course we also have to understand this only applies to channels that broadcast over the air.
( OTA ). Those that have cable, satellite, or super high speed telephone based system miss out on the multicasts advantages, and as it is, those subscription based systems have been slow to bring that other benefit of being able to use the extra scan lines of High Definition capable set, be it a 720P or 1080P capable set.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers

Why does the government need to give people money to buy a converter box? Isn't TV a luxury item?

Because if they didn't they would have been voted out of office for breaking people TV, to give the spectrum to wireless companies.

 

[MotF Bane]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

Wow, I never expected that from you. :shocked:

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers

Why does the government need to give people money to buy a converter box? Isn't TV a luxury item?

The airwaves belong to the people. The government took them from us, sold them for billions of dollars, and you want nothing in return?

What if the government took all our computers? Would you want nothing in return? What if the government decided to take all of our cars and sell them off? Would you also want nothing in return?

The peanuts that the government is spending on the converter boxes (compared to the profit they made selling our frequencies) is so small, I can't see why anyone would complain. But they do. In reality, the government should be spending far more to give us the true value of what they took from us.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

Panem et circenses.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: thescreensavers

Why does the government need to give people money to buy a converter box? Isn't TV a luxury item?

The airwaves belong to the people. The government took them from us, sold them for billions of dollars, and you want nothing in return?

What if the government took all our computers? Would you want nothing in return? What if the government decided to take all of our cars and sell them off? Would you also want nothing in return?

The peanuts that the government is spending on the converter boxes (compared to the profit they made selling our frequencies) is so small, I can't see why anyone would complain. But they do. In reality, the government should be spending far more to give us the true value of what they took from us.

Oh come on. The DTV transition allows for more efficient use of spectrum and frees up tons of spectrum for wireless high speed data and other uses that will benefit the public, both of which are in accordance with the mission of the FCC. This wasn't just about money, although the FCC did earn about $20 billion from the 700MHz auction, so they still came out way ahead even after spending a few billion on the CECB program.

 

[Drakkon]

I love how you can't find a converter box for the face value of the card. I've yet to find a place that will sell them for at least $10 more than the $40 they give you to buy one.

 

[MotF Bane]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

Panem et circenses.

:thumbsup:

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Oh come on. The DTV transition allows for more efficient use of spectrum and frees up tons of spectrum for wireless high speed data and other uses that will benefit the public, both of which are in accordance with the mission of the FCC. This wasn't just about money, although the FCC did earn about $20 billion from the 700MHz auction, so they still came out way ahead even after spending a few billion on the CECB program.

I never said that there weren't benefits to this whole thing. I was just simply stating the facts that the government is profitting BIG TIME on this even while spending a bit on the converter boxes. And we shouldn't complain about the government returning a bit of the money to us.

I'm fully for the switch. I didn't think P&N needed more.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers

Why does the government need to give people money to buy a converter box? Isn't TV a luxury item?

When you break something does your mommy and daddy not expect you to fix it?

 

[her209]

Is it too late to request a coupon?

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

Pretty much this. If the .gov loses it's ability to spoon feed the masses their version of "the truth," people may actually look elsewhere for information and come to their own conclusions. That coupled with free time they don't know what to do with could lead to activism the politicians can ill afford.

 

[spelletrader]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
I find I have done well without this "necessity" for the last 10 years, but YMMV

According to this article it has been 20 years.

I think the government is assisting with the purchase of the set top boxes because it is the one re-assigning the bandwidth (and profiting from the sale of the old analog spectrum).

Seems fair to me, but I haven't watched over the air TV broadcasts since the early eighties.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

Panem et circenses.

Nice.

However, since the Govt mandated the change, it's only fair that the Govt help make the transition.

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not to mention if people ever stop watching TV and get active the government will fall.

"get active" is the operative phrase there, and that won't ever happen

 

[PottedMeat]

I wonder how much money this has made Broadcom and LG - they've got a guaranteed market of ~75-150 million chipsets in a nice little timeframe.

 

[Zedtom]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
I love how you can't find a converter box for the face value of the card. I've yet to find a place that will sell them for at least $10 more than the $40 they give you to buy one.

I bought one at Target last week for face value. (Free, but you had to pay tax for a $40 purchase.)

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Originally posted by: Zedtom

Originally posted by: Drakkon
I love how you can't find a converter box for the face value of the card. I've yet to find a place that will sell them for at least $10 more than the $40 they give you to buy one.

I bought one at Target last week for face value. (Free, but you had to pay tax for a $40 purchase.)

$40 shipped w/antenna

Another

 

[Modelworks]

I was against the whole switch to DTV . It will do more harm than good. Just wait till after the switch when millions of people will not be able to watch tv even with a converter box and will be forced to switch to cable or satellite. Damn telco's strike again.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I was against the whole switch to DTV . It will do more harm than good. Just wait till after the switch when millions of people will not be able to watch tv even with a converter box and will be forced to switch to cable or satellite. Damn telco's strike again.

Who Moved My Cheese?