FCC proposes mandatory switchover PSAs

FCC head honcho Kevin Martin outlined a proposal for mandatory public service announcements (PSAs) to educate the masses about the coming digital switchover. The proposed schedule would bring an ever-increasing wave of announcements in six-month stages, starting in November. Here's a rundown of the daily schedule requirements during each six-month phase, with each PSA lasting a minimum of 15 seconds: 1) four PSAs, each in a different four-hour daypart; 2) eight PSAs, two in each daypart, plus four crawls, one in each daypart; 3) 12 PSAs and 12 crawls, three of each in each daypart. If the proposal is approved at the October 31 meeting, expect to see some hastily assembled PSAs (are there any other kind?) in at least the first wave.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 1:32PM]

Crawl? Sorry, for the uninitiated you might want to define your jargon.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 1:57PM]

@Big John: sorry about that, it's a little ticker-type of bulletin that "crawls"/scrolls across the screen.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 2:18PM]

Too bad the FCC doesn't regulate HD formats, because I'm sure HD DUD would not have met the requirements to be the next generation HD format (e.g. promotion of 1080i players, tiny capacity and low bandwidth, widespread use of lossy audio, excruciatingly long warmup/startup times, etc.), and we'd all be enjoying our favorite movies on Blu-ray this very moment. Oh well, just means we have to wait a little bit longer for HD DUD to disappear, but still, it's disappointing.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 2:39PM]

WTF is wrong with you? This has nothing to do with the format war yet you still post this bullshit.

[JDM Posted Oct 23rd 2007 2:44PM]

h4idol; go away. By supporting Blu-Ray in such an assish manner, you are actually supporting HD-DVD.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 3:41PM]

What a douche.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2007 3:57PM]

@h4idol

Thanks for the suggestion, I wasn't sure if I was leaning toward BlueRay or HD-DVD. I'm now pretty sure I want to see HD-DVD succeed just so that you look like an even bigger fool. You do realize that HD-DVD and BlueRay are pretty much the same thing. Same video and audio codecs... the disks are a little bit cheaper to produce. I guess that brings out the elitist in you, no HD for the masses, only overly expensive stuff!

I wonder if Wal-Mart carries HD-DVD, if so I'll be picking one up this weekend, I think.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2007 11:20AM]

- getting back on topic -

HD and DIGITAL ARE NOT THE SAME THING PEOPLE!!!!

While HD channels ARE digital, they are not the same thing. you will not have to have an HD tv to watch tv off air, you will just need a digital tuner equipped tv. Now, HDTVs are all digital, since the off air feeds and QAM feeds that display hd are digital channels, so us HD users are all set. As for the world without digital tvs, you can get non-hd digital TVs. They are out there and abound at stores that sell low end electronics (must...display...tact...).

I have a portable digital tv. hand held, 35 bucks at a Drugstore. So this changeover is just scaring the consumer base right now.

Course, you could just buy and HD tv and get it over with...