As of writing this we are about 5 minutes away from the biggest most confusing scam I have ever seen. TV is switching from analog to digital. Normally I am all for modern tech but I am never for having to have something. You need cable or converter boxes in order to get free telelvison channels. They can’t be broadcast in both analog and digital? And when the digital goes down ( don’t say it can’t happen) what do we do then?
Well good luck everyone, this is generally the point in the sci-fi movie where the machines get the first foothold on society before the big takeover!
3 comments:
I'd venture to say that most people don't feel confused or scammed by the "switch". I'm not saying everyone likes it, but I think most people understand it better than you seem to.
First, analog and digital TV can be broadcast at the same time. Many stations have been broadcast in digital for several years now. All that's changed now is that the analog has been turned off.
Second, you only need a converter box if your TV doesn't have a digital tuner. If you were to buy a new TV, it wouldn't need a converter box. It would be ridiculous to expect everyone to buy new TV's, hence the converter boxes.
Third, yes, digital TV can "go down". But so can analog. There's no reason digital is any more prone to going down than analog was.
Finally, the reason analog has been "shut off" is to free up that range of frequencies for other uses. Digital TV constitutes a much smaller range of frequencies.
Personally, I'm mostly indifferent to the analog/digital switch. My one gripe about digital is that when the weather is bad, instead of getting snow and static, the audio and video cut in and out entirely.
Doug,
There is nothing confusing about the situation. Maybe i was not clear on my point, but you kind of proved my point digital and analog can both be broadcast so why cut off the analog? Why force people to buy new tvs or converter boxes in order to get free television?
Converter boxes are not free and if you don't have the money to buy one then you lose your right to watch television??!!! That is not confusing that is just wrong.
Ideally the government vouchers should have covered the full price of the converter box for the first TV in every household (and less for each additional TV). That way, no cost would have been incurred on a family for it to keep watching "free TV". But that would have been very difficult to manage.
After the voucher, a converter box costs $10 or $20. The government gave plenty of notice on this change: over 2 years. If you can't save up $20 over a two year time span, maybe you shouldn't be spending your time watching TV.
Anyway, I told you why they want to turn off analog: to free up that frequency range for other uses. Take a look at how much space (analog) TV broadcasting takes up on the frequency allocation chart:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf
Looks like they'll be wanting to get rid of AM radio as well. :-P
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