The Switch To Digital Television

[Ash]

Most everyone in the U.S. knows that the switch to digital television will happen in February.
If you have cable or satellite, you're good to go.  If you use rabbit ears, you have to buy a converter.
I got my card from the government and used it to buy an RCA converter box.  It cost $49.99.  The card takes $40 off so I paid about $12 out of pocket.  (that included tax)
Been watching digital TV for several weeks now and for the most part, it's pretty good.
You''ll find that most of the regular networks have already made the transition to digital.
When it comes in good, the picture is crystal clear.  As good as cable.  There are overlays onscreen that tell you what's on now and what's on next.

One thing, though.  You have to use the converter with a pair of rabbit ears or another type of antennae.
Currently I've got rabbit ears and to tell you the truth, watching digital TV with them sucks!
To get certain stations, you have to adjust the ears just like you would for analog TV.
If you walk into the reception area, the picture becomes extremely pixelated. (like cable TV) and the sound will stutter like there's no tomorrow.
During inclement weather, some regular stations like NBC don't come in at all.
In a nutshell, the rabbit ears pick up the digital signal and convert it to analog so your TV can decipher it.
One cool thing is the addition of subchannels.  Instead of just Channel 9, you get 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 and so on.
You'll also find that you get many more channels on top of the ones you already had.  On my first channel scan, it found 27 channels.  Whereas before I only got 5 or 6.

If you use an antennae for digital TV, do yourself a favor and spend the extra $$ and get a nice powered or "Smart Antennae".  Don't waste your time with regular old rabbit ears.

Check out this interesting article on how digital television works:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dtv.htm

How about you?  Watched any DTV yet?

[Menard]

Nope, I stopped watching television.

Being that government has legislated it out of the hands of anybody who can afford any cheap TV they picked up at a yard sale and made it into something that is a luxury, I don't care for it.

From my cheap black and white portable to my little LCD pocket TV, they have been negated now. I don't see any need to pay for something again.

I have my DVDs and VHS tapes and that's all I'll watch from now on; on my outdated 20" TV set.

That's just me, though. 

[Jack]

We've had digital cable for a few years now.  There's a lot of variation between the channels.  Some might come in really nice, while others don't look very good at all.  Especially with dark scenes, instead of a nice, smooth dark background, I'll quite often get a bunch of dark squares - it's really distracting and looks like crap.  Medium gray backgrounds can look terrible as well, it'll toss a couple of black squares in there, that stand out like a sore thumb.  Then switch to a different channel and everything looks great.  Watch a movie on a certain channel one night, it looks awful.  Watch the same movie on the same channel a different night, it doesn't look nearly as bad.  And I've read somewhere that digital cable is supposed to give you "perfect" picture, it either looks as good as it did when it was transmitted or you get no picture at all.  Doesn't seem like that's what I'm experiencing.

I don't mean to make it sound like everything looks bad all the time - probably 85% of it looks really good.  You just tend to notice it when it doesn't.

I'm not at all impressed with the quality of digital cable boxes either.  I had one that gave me a static sound on the majority of channels.  Of course it took me two weeks of screwing around before I finally narrowed it down to a problem with the cable box.  Took it in and exchanged it for a new one and the problem went away.  Now with our other cable box, we hooked our new HDTV up to it.  The picture sometimes disappears entirely, leaving us with a black screen.  Change the channels back and forth and the picture comes back.  It's also making the static sound.  I took the TV and hooked it up to our other cable box and it worked perfectly for two days, so apparently it's a problem with that box.  So now I've got to take that one in and exchange it.  And just the other night I noticed that the new cable box was making a static sound on one channel.  Good grief. 

Bottom line though, they can "improve" the way TV is transmitted but the quality of the programming is more abysmal than ever.  Seriously, if the wife and kids wouldn't kill me, I'd ditch cable and use the money to buy TV shows and movies on DVD. 

[Menard]

I agree with Menard though, they can "improve" the way TV is transmitted but the quality of the programming is more abysmal than ever.

Although I didn't exactly say that, you make an excellent point and I agree with you whole-heartedly. I'll be happy to take credit for it, though.

Years ago, there used to be television shows I would so anxiously look forward to. That desire to watch a TV show has has progressively decreased over the years from 'must see TV' to 'must I watch it? TV '.

Hell's Kitchen was the last thing I looked forward to watching, and that's pretty damn sad when the best of TV is a reality show.

TV has progressively turned into self-righteous TV with its constant cloning of Law and Order and CSI shows, and the ilk, that do nothing but berate us with everything that is wrong with people, everybody is guilty, and the compassionless treatment of people as nothing but biological novelties.

Just my take, though.

[Jack]

LOL, I edited that after realizing that it wasn't exactly what you said.  Oh well, close enough I guess 

[Psycho Circus]

Was talking to Ash about this last night. I believe the switch is coming in over here about the same time. I'm not really fussed, as like Menard, I don't watch TV. I gave up some months ago as I'm annoyed at paying a licence fee just for one channel because I own a TV and then have to put up with low quality programming. I have some old dutch make TV that's like 20 years old. It used to be my dad's and I just watch DVD's all the time anyway.

[lester1/2jr]

ours started yesterday.  we now get "the pentagon channel".  isn't that a little redundent?  we already get FOX

[raj]

I've got satellite, but I'm going to get one of the analog converter boxes for when the weather interferes with the signal.  (but that's when I want to know about the local weather.) About the only broadcast shows I watch anymore are The Simpsons and SNL, and those more out of habit than anything else.

Can we please get rid of the "reality" tv shows?  I've seen about 5 minutes of the original Big Brother (or was it Survivor?) and gah.  Three's Company and Dukes of Hazard were better.

Usually I'll watch History/Discovery/Military/National Geographic type channels, but that's because I'm a geek.  With the occasional Sci-fi movie, and the last part of Battlestar Galactica (man are they stringing that one out).

I've got an analog tv and see no reason to spend $$$ I don't have (no more credit card debt for me, thank you) on something I don't really need.

[Jim H]

Being that government has legislated it out of the hands of anybody who can afford any cheap TV they picked up at a yard sale and made it into something that is a luxury, I don't care for it.

It is kind of funny that TV isn't considered a luxury anymore.  It certainly was when it first came out.  Just wait a few more years, you'll start to see dated TVs with built-in digital tuners/antennae in yard sales.  Same with portables.  I personally think the switchover could have waited a while longer, but I can see why they wanted to free up the spectrum.  I really do hope it is used to make wider access wireless internet available. 

It is sad how many portables are useless now though.  Even something like the venerable Game Gear TV Tuner.

Medium gray backgrounds can look terrible as well, it'll toss a couple of black squares in there, that stand out like a sore thumb.

That's something I've almost always found to be the case - analog artifacting is much less intrusive than digital.  Static on channels I find much less distracting than macroblocking as you describe.  The hiss on vinyl is less obnoxious than, say, heavily compressed MP3s.  DVDs freezing up is far more annoying than VHS glitches (well, with the possible exception of mucked up audio) and the snow/lines/pulse you get on LDs.

But on the whole, I'd say digital stuff is generally superior. 

[Menard]

Being that government has legislated it out of the hands of anybody who can afford any cheap TV they picked up at a yard sale and made it into something that is a luxury, I don't care for it.

It is kind of funny that TV isn't considered a luxury anymore.  It certainly was when it first came out.  Just wait a few more years, you'll start to see dated TVs with built-in digital tuners/antennae in yard sales.  Same with portables.  I personally think the switchover could have waited a while longer, but I can see why they wanted to free up the spectrum.  I really do hope it is used to make wider access wireless internet available.

This isn't when TV came out, though; this is over 50 years after the fact. It's taking an appliance common to most households already and pricing it out of range of many. Sure, it will drop in price over the next few years, maybe even to affordable levels, but I'm certain that doesn't mean much to an elderly person on a fixed income trying to fill their day with something.

The message from retailers has pretty much become clear: 'if you can't pay for it now, we don't want your business'. A good number of retailers, including Walmart, have done away with layaway leaving people who have to scrimp for spending money and having options for Christmas shopping taken away.

I can't afford one of these HDTVs. I guess that means I'm not welcome in these stores either. I at least have my old 20" TV for watching videos. I don't see any reason to pay 4 times as much for a TV set that seems tiny compared to the one I have.

[BTM]

Been trying to figure out how to hook up my digital converter when I already have ANOTHER converter on there for my DVD player (got one of those older TV that you need a converter for the DVD to work on.)

Course, I really could use a new TV, but I'm short on money right now.

[Jack]

Been trying to figure out how to hook up my digital converter when I already have ANOTHER converter on there for my DVD players (got one of those older TV that you need a converter for the DVD to work on.)

Are you talking about an RF modulator?  You can get those with multiple inputs.  I've got one of these:  http://www.amazon.com/Philips-PH-61153-Automatic-Selector-Modulator/dp/B000165AOY/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227275588&sr=8-3

[ER]

I think this whole switch to digital thing is just da man taking away our freedom. Used to be you had a TV, you could watch shows for free. Now you're all but forced to get cable or satellite, or at the very least line their already deep pockets by buying a converter. When I was growing up we didn't have cable and only had one TV in the entire house, and now it's like it's de rigueur to have television in every room and have six gachillion channels, all in hi-def, and you know....

...well, anyway.

[ghouck]

Strange how the number of sets in each household is going UP, while the quality of programming is going unanamously DOWN.

There is so little that interests me on TV these days. All the shows everyone is talking about are horrible IMO. Most of my TV viewing is either Cartoon Network or nickeloden (Spongebob or Fairly OddParents). Reality TV just plainly SUCKS, the only one that is even remotely worthwhile is The Ultimate Fighter, and only because they end the show with a FIGHT. "How it's Made" and "Dirty Jobs" are pretty good, but only because they're educational, and even those are wearing thin. All the big ones people are talking about "Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, Jack", those just suck IMO. There's been very little truly entertaining to me since Newsradio and Arrested Development.

[ER]

Mostly I'm with ghouck on this one, the decline in TV quality is noticeable and ongoing, and even PBS has slipped, with the elimination of Mystery! being among the stupidest moves in its history. I do find some encouraging signs here and there on TV as a whole, and think AMC's Mad Men is the most complex and intelligently-produced program anyplace on the spectrum of the medium. Anyone who's not watching Mad Men should give it a chance because its IQ is about twenty-five points higher than just about anything else you could surf to. Life on Mars is watchable but requires a greater suspension of judgmental analysis for its "oh, come on" crime show plotlines than for the fact we are expected to get behind the idea of a cop sent back thirty-five years in time. I do think if more people demanded quality it would appear, but when the big four can churn out reality shows and re-heated sitcoms for a slight investment and see a big return, well, it's not going to change anytime soon.

Let's face it, the average person is easily mollified when it comes to what entertains him or her. Or to put it bluntly, most viewers come across as dumb.