Relax: Digital TV Now Looks Certain to be Delayed

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ATSC was a standard that was created to save the Zenith Television Company and was bought out by LG in South Korea. The other standard in Japan and elsewhere similar to QAM cable was the solution to close range muktipath and to make incompatible to other places in the world like DVD zoning. Besides, the range they assumed for the new lower power transmission levels being sent as assumed the same is way out of whack compared to before.
Was a Buddy involved the decision making process before the standard was enacted? Enjoy and have fun in Obamaland while it's around. Bush and his drunk buddies have left.
Thanks for trying out a unique expenriment and Goodday.

Tim Hortini of VT 9:19AM January 27, 2009

Some people haven't had enough time to prepare for the transition? What planet are they living on? Stop babying these people - it's watering down the gene pool.
Also, with the additional funds Nancy Pelosi just requested, we will be spending $2 BILLION to help rabbit-ear people convert to DTV. What nonsense. When states are cutting funding for healthcare services, education, public safety (and the list goes on), there HAVE to be better things to spend $2 billion on.

Steve of ME 12:22PM January 22, 2009

I am a broadcast engineer, and I have watched the progress toward HDTV and DTV for some time. I was at one of the first stations to participate in the early attempts at HDTV. That was the analog HDTV, not the new ATSC based HDTV. ALthough I am not a fan of the over compression that some stations have done to cram multiple channels into the ATSC channel, I am glad we did not go with the analog solution.
The previous comment was correct about the US choosing the wrong standard. I watched the debate play out in the tech journals, and the superiority of the COFDM system. But, it was "not invented here." And, the entrenched entities would not have made as much money through royalties. Therefore at almost the last minute, our 8-VSB system was adopted. This choice meant we had much more difficulty in mobile reception. We don't have the smooth fallback the COFDM could have afforded. COFDM can take interference on several of its subfrequencies and still deliver a usable signal. 8-VSB relies on some serious adaptive filtering to get nearly the same result.
So, we have what we have. I have been viewing ATSC DTV from fixed location over the air since 2001, and with a good antenna I have had good results. I've even had reception using a particularly good receiver of a station over 65 miles away. Nonetheless, I know better than to try and get reception in a moving vehicle in a metropolitan area. That poor filter can't adapt fast enough to maintain a good lock.

Karl of WI 4:45PM January 21, 2009

What gets me is all these complaints over digital tv reception, reception which is on temporary channels and/or broadcasting at reduced power to accomodate analog tv. Digital TV has been (since around 1998) and will be until analog is turned off the stepchild living in temporary quarters waiting for the day they can step up and perform at full power. Only DT channels on their final allocations and broadcasting at full power can be judged, assuming the broadcast aerial isn't lower than it would be because the analog aerial is still taking the space.
Analog's time has come and gone, come 2/17/09 it's time to lay it to rest. Let analog step aside and let digital have its day.

Andy from Dover of DE 2:55PM January 21, 2009

Let's wait four more months, and then start crying that "We're still not ready", then.
If nine years was not enough time to get "ready", how will four additional months of inaction help?
Four months will not turn everything around. Four months will not get 100,000 antenna installers trained and equipped. Four months will not get instructional articles in the papers and magazines. Four months will not get "cool commercials" on the air, explaining how it all works. Four months will not get MATV systems in apartments, condos, hotels and schools all upgraded to actual Digital signals, rather than a "reconstituted analog" substitute.
And, four months won't get "one person" in Michigan's friends to accept that "one person" might just be doing something wrong, rather that the whole system being flawed.

Ken English of UT 7:42AM January 21, 2009

Reveal the idiot behind the curtain. The US picked the wrong standard that will not work well in many areas. I only know one person that has tried to watch digital terrestrial TV, and the signal was intermittent at 13 miles distance from antennae to antenna. This is Katrina for TV. Sell the RF spectrum and screw the American people. Thanks Bureaucrats.

Daniel J Swanson of MI 6:04AM January 21, 2009

God, I'm so sick of hearing public service announcements that your box might turn black. NO,NO,NO,NO MORE. Some have already gone berserk from this constant repetition like the Chinese water torture and been committed to asylums for the criminally insane.

Luther of IL 1:31AM January 21, 2009

No need to delay. Go ahead and change over.
Make a buch of people MAD. Maybe they will ask again why this was done at all and for whom.
THEN we get people interested in issues.
THEN maybe people, not corporations, run the country.

of 6:15PM January 20, 2009