Lawmakers worried over digital TV transition
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 27th 2007 9:46PM
posted Jul 27th 2007 9:46PM
It's one thing to fret over the estimated $1.5 billion Congress has to set aside to pay for the "coupon program" to aid Americans in the analog-to-digital transition of 2009, but now lawmakers are "worried that too few of us know that the analog TVs we have been using for years could become big cathode-ray paperweights after February 18, 2009." Essentially, those in power feel that "too little is being done to get the message across," and that quite a few disgruntled individuals could be smacked with a reality check of gigantic proportions if no one tells them beforehand. According to a poll released by the Association for Public Television Stations earlier this year, some 61-percent of those surveyed had "no idea" the shutoff would even take place, so we'd expect a commercial blitz to give your fast-forward finger a workout in the coming months.
this is a joke!
one and a half years to go and they worry people don't have enough time to get their shit together???
once the screen goes dark people will have to adapt... if they choose to ignore DTV until then...
if they postpone again DTV transition will take FOREVER!!!!
Great...sounds like another excuse to postpone the transition. At this rate maybe we'll be lucky to be digital in another 10 years.
hmmmm....most people already have digital cable and there is no law saying that cable companies must cut off analog cable.
It should only really effect OTA customers. Analog cable customers should get notice from their provider when / if they turn off analog cable.
Also, the so called "paper weight" it won't be. With a digital cable box and / or a DTV OTA tuner, you can use your "so called paper weight" until the tube burns out.
Please quit trying to scare everyone telling them their CRT's will stop working in 2009. This kind of thing only hurts the DTV transition, not help.
My 20" CRT works just fine and I don't have analog cable nor use an analog over the air signal. DTV via a DTV tuner works great and it is far from a paper weight.
Most People have cable!?!?!?!
I know around 600 people that would beg to differ..........
a little town(Willow Springs, NC) JUST started getting time warner to run cable there........for a LONG time most people had rabbit ears........a few had satellite.....but there are SOME people that stay SO Far away from a main road that they wont run cable ALL the way down their dirt road......
and something tells me THEY arent the only one........y'all gotta stop looking like people that live in the city are the ONLY people that watch TV........hell even then not EVERYONE can afford even BASIC cable........
Lawmakers need to just let this alone. Another delay would just be stupid.
Its not the old CRT that is obsolete, its the tuner, a digital tuner with down conversion in the form of an external device or stb will extend the life of the old CRT for the foreseeable future.
CRT "paperweights" are still the best technology out there. My wide screen 32 inch wide screen sony not only displays HDTV, it also has a superior SD picture that knocks the socks off of any LCD or plasma tv.
The 'paperweight' reference implies that an object has no other use. Your tv obviously gets hdtv, and thus, is no paperweight. No doubt many pre hdtv projection tvs will also become paperweights.
It's funny that congress thinks people are confused and unknowledgeable about this, when they caused the confusion by pushing back the switchover date about 5 too many times.
Are there real statistics of percentages of people that only get their TV from over the air analog broadcasts?
I believe that most people get their TV from a cable company, and it's already been pointed out that the cable transmission probably won't change when analog over the air stops on 2/17/2009.
A little over a year ago, I dropped my $50 a month cable bill, and spent $300 on an ATSC tuner and antenna. I'm generally happy with the results.
For the love of Pete. Just suck it up and switch it already. I agree, if it delays again, it'll be years. Anyone who can't just get one of those silly converters is just lazy and doesn't deserve TV. Hell, I have people return VCR/DVD combos lately because all the companies decided to remove coaxial input (The TV tuning part) from their new models and decided to go all Line-Input only. People will have to get used to it. The longer we wait, the worse it becomes.
I think the transition can becom a real option for cable viewers to have a alternaive. Think about it. There is allready HDTV in OTA broadcast. With no fee.
Second thing - about 60% of all households dont know anything about the transition. Government and the TV industry realy need to get going with information to be able to get people moving. Viewers will be surprised of how great DTV looks with new channles and services.
Anders Bjers
blog: dtvbrief.wordpress.com