Science and Society

We have hd tv's pay the extra to the cable co...and it is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. If the signal is not perfect at all times, you end up with squares, words not matching mouth movement, etc. A lot of times I have ended up so disgusted, I change to the regular channel, forget the hd version. As for those people who don't have or can't get cable/satellite, it sucks, but in the world we live in, it's all about the money, and they can't make money if the signal is going out for free....

I find this whole thing absurd. What happened to free TV? I couldn't care less if I get HD, digital or not and I'm not buying a new flatscreen HD TV for $1000. And the folks in the stores don't seem to know what's going on, either. My elderly mother was told she'd need a new HD roof antennae or something along with the converter box. You know, not everyone can afford this big switch. She's never had cable and will be forced to get it. Yet another monthly expense she doesn't need. I wish the government would stay out of my house and my private life and not fix what isn't broken.

What government idiot decided that these coupons should have expiration dates before Feb 2009 ? Plenty of people have acquired coupons only to have them expire.

Hey davej - you are on the money with your comment. We got our coupon's last February/March - but they expired two weeks after we got them and there were no converter boxes available in our stores yet. Yes, we have satellite, but our local channels don't come in and in the case of storms it doesn't work...so need these. Help! If you didn't get to use yours, can you reapply?

After the last blackout, I brought small battery operated TVs so that if the power went out again, I could still get keep up with what is happening. Now since everything has to be PLUGGED IN, I have just lost all contact with the outside world in case of an emergency. Did ANYONE think of emergency situations like that before demanding that we have to uses electricty in order to keep informed about the world around us? Oh I get it. Cable, Converter boxes and the Utility companies thought of this new method to pull in more money.

Some of the local channels in my area have already converted. SOoo... I got a convertor and guess what, it still doesnt work. When this was all started I read that the military needed the bandwidth. Now I hear google and others are lobbying to use the freed bandwidth for cell phones. There is no justifiable reason for this stupidity and it will get worse before it gets better. I really feel for the elderly who won't understand any of this.

If you have cable or satelite TV.....it doesn't have to be a HDTV...you don't need a converter box. This is the biggest brohaha over "almost" nothing!!!! I'm sure there are some in more rural/remote areas that don't have(or can't get)cable/satelite....but most people don't rely on local/antenna service anymore.

The Digital Coupon program sounds good but I live in Wilmington, NC and we went digital Sept. 8th 2008 and I still can't get a $40 converter coupon. I have tried three times since early 2008 but no response. There is no real person to help, no complaint dept., no contact info, no nothing. I'm frustrated.

Sorry newtonianlass, i had the same situation i went to buy the box and they told me "It expired 2 weeks ago." Heck i work for the government and i am just as disgusted with this.
You cannot re-apply

maybe the program wouldn't be running out of money if they screened the people applying for coupons a little better. i know three people who have no financial difficulties whatsoever who felt they were "entitled" to a free box. also know several people who have cable/satellite who have gotten boxes anyway, just because they were free.

You don't need a new antenna or new TV set to get digital TV, just a converter box. Everyone I've seen that has actually done it has been very pleased with the improvement -- more channels off the air and better quality than they were before.

You only need a converter box if you are still using a rooftop antenna. If you have cable or satellite you do not need anything, and you DO NOT NEED an HD tv.

This isn't a welfare program. You don't have to be poor to get the coupons. I'm not sure why you'd think that. Most people still get their T.V. over the air. That's real people, not the rich people that appear to think that people always pay for T.V. if given the option. Basically T.V. is getting taken away. You need a much more powerful antenna to get the new signals, but most people don't even own their own home to have this option.

"What happened to free TV"
"She's never had cable and will be forced to get it"

the ignorance of this switch is just staggering. you dont have to "get cable", you dont have to have an HDtv. your 20 year old tv is fine if you already have cable. if you dont have cable, you get the little box, and thats it. this is no big deal

I thought the manufacturers started converting to digital like 10 years ago. Why all this drama now?

Television will still be free after the transition, it just will be digital instead of analog. The only people making money off of this is the United States Government and the companies that saw the future coming, and decided to build convertor boxes.

I almost had one of my coupons expire too, I do think that is crazy!

But 10 years ago the government figured they were going to run out of bandwidth in the frequency spectrum, so they decided to force the change to digital. Had the companies manufacuting tv's started right away putting in digital tuners, a lot of this could have been prevented. I mean most people replace their television every 10 years, but they kept dragging their feet, and didn't include the extra cost of the digital tuner in their tv's.

Noone should have to buy a new antenna unless they want to recieve channels from further away.

Currently a single television channel takes 6 MHz of space to broadcast. When the switch is made to digital, many more channels will be able to fit into a smaller space. This will open up available space for everyone, military, cell phones, wireless networks, ham radio operators, police dispatchers, you name it. The government will sell some of this space to companies, and they will make back all of this money for the convertor boxes, and probably more.

I too have noticed that the old signals sometimes are better. With analog transmissions, you may get a little snow on the screen, but if the signal degrades a little with digital, it will either break up into little boxes, or freeze, or go to a blue screen. Hopefully when the full power analog stations shut down, they may be able to transmit a little more power on the smaller frequency spread, and improve the reception a little.

As for emergency communications, most of these boxes will run off of battery power, you just need to wire something up. If nothing else, you could use a UPS from a computer. If your little tv is running on batteries, the battery backup from a computer should be able to keep the digital convertor box running for quite some time. I suspect much longer than the batteries in your television last.

Take Care, and remember, it is all in the name of progress.

"Most people still get their T.V. over the air"

false
less than 20% of homes only get over the air

For all the people complaining about having to pay extra to cable to get HD, you can get it FREE with an antenna. And the quality is better because there is no compression. I get all my local networks (50 miles away) 100% fine with a UHF yagi and amplifier in my attic.

The new digital off-air is free and looks very good on HD, better than the same channel on cable since they compress it further. You do need a roof antenna and pretty much line-of-sight to the tower. Nobody talks about the ratio of converter boxes to analog tuners. VCRs and TiVos sometimes have two analog tuners. Most household have many TVs and VCRs so if you count them all you'd need say 7 converters if you have none of the newer electronics with ATSC digital tuners. For 3 years cable companies are required to carry local channels and will feed basic analog to old TVs but watch out after that. Personally, free off-air DTV is the best deal. Fill in gaps with on demand TV via Internet downloads to Apple TV, Boxee, TiVo or whatever. Cable may be easy but you will have a big bill with monthly rental fees.

This changeover is far too early. What about rual customers and all those portable TV's? Hook up a $60 box to each one??

All the more reason to stop watching tv, if I want to watch something, I download a pirated, commercial free torrent. Bye bye networks.