Uncreative Labs

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

starting next year all tv broadcasting in the usa will be digital.
if you have an antenna you will get NOTHING
if you have dish or cable, the company will convert.
there is $91 million allocated but get your $40.00 off coupon now
https://www.dtv2009.gov/ReferenceNumber.aspx

Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 274 Location: USA

i thought pay services had to have analog util 2012... thats what i heard...

any ways, im not gona go digital for a long long long long long long while.
still use an analog cellphone! there 3 thing i hate about dtv
1- pixelates alot
2- corrupts to easy
3 lags when changing channels, and lags when watching it.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Even having satellite doesn't guarantee that you wouldn't need one of these (some of us still have local channels "over-the-air"). Grab 2 coupons and hold them until the price of the boxes drops (after they've been on the market a while and supply keeps up with demand). It's kind of laughable about digital TV anyway. Few people know the reasoning behind it (FCC has already sold off the bandwidth to other communications providers) and no one has clearly stated how this will affect the average Joe who can't afford (or doesn't want) a new TV. There's also still been no clear call as to whether it'll include a "broadcast flag" (Google the term if you're not familiar) or not. Saw it in the comics section a few weeks ago---can't justify high-definition TV with low-definition eyes...

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

Coupon is good for 90 days after it is issued, then it expires.

I have 2 coming, and depending how cheap the boxes are covered by the coupon I might use them.

I expect to get a new digital TV sooner or later, but I do have vintage computers with TV tuners that would be cool using the adapter down the road.

Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 274 Location: USA

there will be chaos april 2009. right now, there 20 million analog TV's still in use, i think, mabey more. the landfills will be pack, tv quality will drop, now i cant record stuff with out the FBI knowing about it. The spectrum is probly gona be used for 4g cellular or something. well, all analog will not get canncelled. there 2 types of tv stations, a high power one and a low power one. the fcc is only mandating high power stations to go digital.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

i didn't know that there was a 90 day life on the copupon.
I am not really ready to go digital, my tv is 10 years old. I bought it when i was still working.
My vcrs's are analog and will not tune digital
and many pl;aces are diccontinmuing vcr's in favor of
recordable dvd's or dual recordfers.
you are right it will be a nitmare
I still have an antenna to get the 3 networls.
as a backup.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

My understanding is if you have a decent roof mounted antenna you should be able to get decent reception for digital TV (which unlike analog you either see a perfect picture or nothing).

The 90 day expiration was in the fine print if you read it. They won't ship the coupon untill the boxes are expected to be in stores.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

if you have a decent roof mounted antenna you should be able to get decent reception for digital TV

Yeah, but I'm using rabbit-ears (like a lot of folks around here). Winds up here can knock out a "well-rooted" (i.e.-cemented post) antenna fairly quickly, especially in winter. The "off/on" characteristics of digital TV will not be well-received. A marginal picture would be better than no picture...

Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 274 Location: USA

yep. around here we have 2 types off channels, extremly fuzzy or slightly fuzzy.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

I have a nice rotating antenna on the roof thats only a few years old ( storm messed up the roof and the old abandonned antenna and insurance paid to fix both). I only used the old one (permanently mounted in one direction) for my stereo since we all have Dishnetwork here, not that we have the new one I figured it will come in handy for digital TV as well as general stereo.

The directional antenna (you just pick a direction on the remote box in my room) gives me great stereo reception for Cleveland and Pittsburg channels (I am in between Youngstown) so it should be decent for normal TV. Being on a slight hill and having a high roofline helps.

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

There are a lot of boxes already available, my favorite type of hd tuner will output VGA, DVI, RCA, Component, SVIDEO.

My figuring why buy an HD TV when I already have a stack of 20/22" SVGA monitors that are much clearer than the HD televisions I have seen?

Just add a boombox/stereo system with RCA inputs and you have the perfectly el cheapo HD setup without the wide screen.

I have found used tuners as little as $20 I figure I will have my folks order the coupon and I will try later, maybe get a box I want as opposed to the overpriced cheesy units that will come out initially and be reduced in price once the coupons are gone.

wdegroot wrote:

i didn't know that there was a 90 day life on the copupon.
I am not really ready to go digital, my tv is 10 years old. I bought it when i was still working.
My vcrs's are analog and will not tune digital
and many pl;aces are diccontinmuing vcr's in favor of
recordable dvd's or dual recordfers.
you are right it will be a nitmare
I still have an antenna to get the 3 networls.
as a backup.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Just wondering about this---if the frequencies for the video change, what about the FM spectrum for the audio? A change there would make all the TV-band portion of all these multi-band radios pretty much useless...

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

Hmm, HD is in the UHF spectrum and is compressed, so I doubt it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071226113650AAXrVPA

T-R-A wrote:

Just wondering about this---if the frequencies for the video change, what about the FM spectrum for the audio? A change there would make all the TV-band portion of all these multi-band radios pretty much useless...