Well, wouldn't you know it. It seems like West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller has the same idea as the
Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), as he introduced legislation on Thursday that would effectively
postpone the digital TV transition from its current date of
February 17th to June 12th. On top of that, John Podesta -- the co-chairman of Barack Obama's transition team -- has issued a letter to Congress signifying that the president-elect supports the aforementioned proposal. The delay would supposedly give the government more time to find funding for the now
2 million-deep voucher waiting list, and we're told that House lawmakers are "considering similar legislation and may schedule a vote as soon as next week." Here's a thought -- why aren't we spending our time getting the money now and keeping the confusion
to a minimum?
posted Jan 16th 2009 3:50PM
I've requested two $40 coupon cards and promptly lost them upon receipt. Do I have any recourse in this case or do I just deserve a head slap?
head slap.
I will go insane if I have to deal with those stupid TV commercials "reminding" me about the DTV switch for 4 more months. I volunteered and voted for Obama, but this is just stupid. He'd be a fool to accept this because there's no reason to do it. There is enough confusion already, and delaying the switch will not help at all.
This is stupid. Goes against his whole campaign about "change". Typical politician.
Anyhow, there's been PLENTY of time for folks to get ready for this cutoff, why would another 4 months matter? besides, the government should not need to come up with funding for vouchers for people to watch TV. There are much bigger problems with our country and economy, and a few rabbit ear TV's going blank shouldn;t be on the top of that list. How about using that money for unemployment assistance? TV is not a need.
you do realize they are spending millions f dollars on vouchers to in tern get BILLIONS for auctioning it off right???
I don't think the transition should be postponed.
However, the public owns the airwaves. And since our government stands to make billions of dollars by leasing these frequencies, the least they can do is make sure that this system continues to be available to everyone in case of national or regional emergencies.
There are other considerations to consider. Its not just about whether people can get their American Idol.
Um, the airwaves are not public. There should be no confusion about that.
That's funny, a commissioner at the the FCC seems disagree with you.
Michael J. Copps claims:
"Using the public airwaves is a privilege — a lucrative one — not
a right, and I fear the F.C.C. has not done enough to stand up for
the public interest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/opinion/02copps.html
If the airwaves in the US are not the collective property of the
citizens of the united states, who on earth do you think owns them?
They may be administered by our government on our behalf but the
government exists to serve us, not the other way around.
what a GOOD way to get people who already didnt like him to dislike him even more......Honestly it doesnt affect me as I have cable.......but MILLIONS upon MILLIONS have been spent by stations nationwide to make these upgrades.......now they feel as if they spent moeny earlier than they could have......hell people on the AVS forums are Steaming.........
Just on the AVS forum:
Delay blocked by senate republicans.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090116/ap_on_hi_te/tec_digital_tv_transition_7
I think that's the only time I cheer for the republicans.
lol.......Good thing.......I'm with you.....only time I'd agree too.......it will avoid a shitstorm on the internetz......which is essentially what Helped Barack out to get to where he is......
Let's just hope the Republicans can stop more Obama's Husanly dumb ideas.
Postponing the transition is a horrible idea. Just yank off the band-aid. People will be fine, and they'll get over it. If they're not already prepared, they won't be prepared by June either.
So typical of a democratic president and the democrats in congress. This transition has been delayed long enough. I would bet the lives of both my children that not everybody requesting these vouchers is using an antenna anyway. The vouchers are government waste at its best. If you have cable or satellite you don't need the converter. I have read posts by dozens of people on other industry related sites that are just trying to get their freebee and don't really need it. Well, it isn't free people. If only people that needed vouchers for the converters ordered them there would have been plenty. It doesn't help matters either that companies like Best Buy and Radioshack advertise by saying "free after government voucher." They should have banned that ignorant practice when they designed the program. It is human nature to take something if it is free. You may have 50,000 pens at home but when you walk by a vendor at a show giving away pens you grab one just because it is free. Well, this program isn't really free. And before you say it is being paid for by auctioning off of the analog spectrum, that may be true, but those funds could have gone for other things, thus making it cost American taxpayers and NOT FREE.
Now I might be wrong, but even if the people applied for and were granted two coupons last week, would they not still get their coupons later than the transition date? It took my coupons two months to arrive. If the people waited this long to apply for the coupons, there was no hope they'd get their coupons in time. They have had more than a year to apply and waited until the last minute, so they should have to face the repurcussions. I feel the money for the coupons will come sooner or later, so these people will have to wait and if they need tv that badly, go buy a single box then get two more when your coupons arrive. To delay the transition would just create more confusion (like everyone else said) and I feel would lead to even more jaded people who will completely blow it off because the last date got bumped, so why won't the next deadline, and the next, and the next....
I imagine a lot of the two million people on the waiting list is due to what I saw at work. Two individuals were discussing this topic and decided they need to get a box 'just in case'. The two individuals just purchased HDTVs and are well paid non-technical people who are among probably 70% of the 2 million that don't need a box but are getting one 'just in case'.
If they must extend the deadline, they should put a constant scroll on the analog signal that says to switch to digital.
The scroll message should use half the screen to motivate by annoyance.
You sir, are brilliant!!!
Just get rid of the scroll on digital...kind of stupid to warn people watching a digital feed that their analog feed won't work in the future. Only put that crap on the analog feed....we've figured it out if we are watching the digital feed.
What normally happens when you procrastinate in life? You end up paying more...deal with it and be a grown up.
Please keep it as planned on Feb 17th, please do America a favor and just allow some more funding for the coupons and not postpone this big day in Television and alot of Americans have waited a long time for this transition. finally if the transition was postponed until June 12th, then a lot of America would wonder why did i switch to digital for no reason?
Just please don't make America panic by switching the Transition date, this would not work out in the long run without happening on Feb 17th.
This has been scheduled for 2 years. Why should we help out those who procrastinated and did not get set for the transition.
Make the change and get on with it. Wilmington had few problems. Hawaii had few problems. If it is just a money thing, allocate more money. If it is pushed back, more unneeded coupons will be requested.
Because the US government does nothing but cater to the lower common denominator anymore. Give people everything for free and pooh-pooh over their every cry and they will vote for you.
the main reason they want to do this is so advertisers dont lose viewers
Yeah, the type of people that are still using an analog TV and an antenna fall right into the demographic of big bucks spending, don't they? You've got to be kidding. Ever watch the broadcast networks in the day? The advertising is geared towards people looking for handouts. You'll see plenty of law ads fishing for people with diseases, car accident victims, and anything else where the person has a shot at getting something for nothing. Maybe losing TV would be the best thing for these daytime TV watchers. They could go out and get jobs and buy a newer TV or buy their own converter box. Instead, we are enabling the idiots by making sure they still have TV after the transition is made.
Is this why I bust my behind running a business, burning the midnight oil trying to get ahead? So I can pay for these people to have TV because they don't work and buy their own $50 converter box?
Cut 'em off. Keep the deadline!
This is what I think we'll hear from a lot of people that don't get the message on Feb 18:
"So I can't seem to pick up any channels on my TV anymore"
"Yep, that's because of the digital switch. You need to get one of them converter boxes. They got a bunch of them over at Wal-mart"
"Really? Is that what all them commercials is about?"
"Yep, they changed the way they broadcast so now you can't pick it up the old way anymore"
"Now why'd they go and do that"
"Somethin' about some cell phone networks. But this new digital stuff is a nice clean picture. In my opinion it's worth a few extra bucks."
"Is that so? Maybe I'll have to get one of them things. What do you call 'em again?"
"Converter boxes. They usually sell 'em in electronics at Wal-mart by the TV antennas. But you might just think about using this as an excuse to go HD."
"Now why would I do that?"
"Just tell the wife that since the old TV doesn't pick up any stations, you need to get a new one. She probably doesn't know what a converter box is."
I'd be willing to bet a majority of the people who aren't doing anything before Feb 18 probably aren't going to do anything before June 13. Just shut 'em off, and let them figure it out. Maybe for a few days let the stations broadcast a message on those screens telling them they need to get a converter box or an HDTV with built in digital tuner.
Un freaking believable it's 2009 and there are litterally people out there watching tv with only rabbit ears and still have analog? I made the switch in 2004 come on you ignorant bunch of lowly uneducated Obama supporting scum. How hard is it to just go buy a new HDTV their cheap now. To all of you Obama supporters this us the first sign you'll be sorry you supported him many more dissapointments to come. Im sitting back and laughing at this show. Vouchers for converters Jeez people just get a new tv. I bet if they changed ciggerettes or booze or drugs you ignorant folks would switch the day it was announced. Amazing the amount of people that don't even know what a blu ray disc is and they are even sold at walmart now by the dozens. LOL
You're a riot, guy. I take it by the number of misspellings, grammatical errors, and lack of punctuation used that you were simply attempting to portray the very object of your ridicule. You really drove your point home when you wrote "you ignorant bunch of lowly uneducated Obama supporting scum." Haha. Excellent.
I also loved when you asked "How hard is it to just go buy a new HDTV their cheap now." Wait... was that a question or a statement? No time to contemplate - I've got to go down to the local "walmart" to buy some cheap HDTVs and "blu ray discs."
Please tell me that your post was meant as a joke, BarryL. Please don't tell me that you were really using this site's comment system as your platform for spewing your crazy political views. If so, the only thing you accomplished was making you and anyone else who agrees with your views look ridiculous. What's really sad is that you probably aren't even smart enough to recognize the irony in your statement.
I just don't understand how someone with your level of intelligence finds themselves on a site like this and claims to have some level of knowledge about technology. I wouldn't trust you to turn the sound down on one of my TVs.
don't feed the troll, aka BarryL.........
I'm with you Barry... the bad ideas are just going to keep coming from the president spending more on inaguration then Bush2, Clinton, Bush1 and Regan combined.
Can someone post a 2014 countdown clock?
Hey, "Mike" - when you reply to my comment above, be sure to log out and sign back in as "BarryL." You wouldn't want to accidentally reply under your "Mike" moniker and expose yourself for creating that second engadget account you set up just to agree with your views.
Please tell me your real name is Kevin...I hate it when I see a Mike being such tard.
Look at many of the posts above..plenty of Obama supporters hate this idea...not hard for those that are afraid what an obama president will do to this country to see this just 1 of many dumb idea he will pull out of Michelle's mouth.
I don't need 2 accounts...I speak for millions of people.
"How hard is it to just go buy a new HDTV their cheap now."
Yeah, they seem cheap at $700 for a small one. Nice the way they tricked us into thinking the $4000 TV's have gotten so much cheaper. I remember when a square TV was $300 or less at every shop. Now we all need a loan from a bank for a television and it will be obsolete 6 months later. fun industry.
I don't know where you've been shopping but I've seen a lot of 26" LCDs in the $400-500 range, some of them being name brands and not just the Vizios at Walmart. There's also a lot of 32" LCDs in the $600-700 range these days. If you go back to the 80s, our parents were paying $700 or more for a 27" tube. Anything over 30" was well over $1000. I think we've got it pretty good all things considered. It wasn't until almost 2000 when you could start finding 27" TVs in the $400 range. Basically a 26" HD flat panel LCD is now selling for maybe $100 more than a 27" tube was going for maybe 3-4 years ago. That doesn't sound unreasonable to me.
Either way, this doesn't affect me any.
My televisions all have ATSC tuners built-in. No sense of keeping dinosaurs around.
;)