Digital TV Transition Date Approved..

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,976
141
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Text


Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a large budget reconciliation bill that included a deadline of February 17, 2009, for broadcasters to stop broadcasting analog signals and move to digital television (DTV).

The House approval came after the U.S. Senate in December amended other parts of the House-approved budget reconciliation bill conference report. The final bill includes up to $1.5 billion in funding to provide two $40 vouchers per household to use toward the purchase of digital-to-analog set-top converter boxes. TV owners receiving over-the-air analog signals on older TV sets will need the converter boxes.

The legislation directs the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to begin an auction of the cleared airwaves by January 28, 2008. The High Tech DTV Coalition, made up of 18 IT companies and trade groups, pushed for a DTV transition deadline to free up the spectrum for new services such as mobile broadband, mobile video and WiMax.


 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
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wow. i'm not up on any of this tv stuff but how can they make this mandatory?
 

Gunslinger08

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
13,234
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Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
Originally posted by: joshsquall
Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
DTV = HDTV???

DTV = Digital TV.

and how is that different from HDTV?

Go look up the definition of digital. Digital isn't describing the same thing as HD.

Digital is a described signal, meaning it's made up of discrete values (1's and 0's). Analog is sampled. It is a continuous signal, such as a film camera.
 

ivol07

Golden Member
Jun 25, 2002
1,475
0
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So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.
 

sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
7,183
45
91
Originally posted by: ivol07
So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.

Wow, that sucks. Where do you live? The major stations in columbus, aside from FOX, are all really good with their Digial/HD transmissions.
 

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,411
57
91
Originally posted by: pontifex
wow. i'm not up on any of this tv stuff but how can they make this mandatory?
Basically, the government "owns" the broadcast spectrum, and they are telling broadcasters that they can't use it any more. Digital is the next option.
 

ivol07

Golden Member
Jun 25, 2002
1,475
0
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Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers
Originally posted by: ivol07
So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.

Wow, that sucks. Where do you live? The major stations in columbus, aside from FOX, are all really good with their Digial/HD transmissions.

Orange County/Los Angeles, CA. It's not bad 100% of the time, but if everyone was watching the digital signal there would definitely be major complaints.
 
Dec 27, 2001
11,272
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Originally posted by: ivol07
So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.

That's exactly why I never watch HD broadcasts....the audio is always messed up. Plus the video lags behind the corresponding non-HD channel by about 1 second and that bugs me for some reason. :)

But, again, that's HD and not DTV.
 

mrSHEiK124

Lifer
Mar 6, 2004
11,488
2
0
Seems like sh!tty FOX HD isn't just a problem here in Tampa, freakin picture is always jittery, and I don't know if its 480p or 720p.
 

Linux23

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
11,374
741
126
Originally posted by: ivol07
So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.

well you better contact your local station, because my HD Broadcasts from all of the nets are trouble free 95% of the time.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Originally posted by: ivol07
So that gives the stations 3 years to get their sh*t together. I hope they do because right now it's a gamble to try to watch something on OTA Digital TV. Last week NBC's audio was not in sync with the picture, PBS still doesn't have audio at all, CBS's audio is always 2 times louder than any other station and FOX's signal seems to always drop out now and then. Hopefully they'll get rid of the multicasting too and just put up a great looking HD signal instead of all this HD Lite.

That's exactly why I never watch HD broadcasts....the audio is always messed up. Plus the video lags behind the corresponding non-HD channel by about 1 second and that bugs me for some reason. :)

But, again, that's HD and not DTV.

no offense, but you really need to read your manual.

"won't watch HD because I don't know how to operate a TV"

that's a new one, although it does happen often. Some people simply can't operate a TV and I understand that.

I mean it ranks right up there with "OMG!!! there are black bars when I watch a movie!!!!
"