Reply #25: This Was 10 Years In The Planning

[KharmaTrain]

I give credit to the many TV engineers out there who built new stations to meet this deadline. Too bad both the government and manufacturers screwed up so badly.

As someone else posted...HDTV is not DTV...just as Stereo isn't FM. The quality of DTV is vastly superior to the nearly 70 year analog system we've been using. The plans for this conversion began in 1997...supposedly plenty of time to make a smooth transition.

Manufacturers saw money to be made...only put the digital ATSC tuners in their high end wide screen models...most costing $2 grand or more...with few, if any smaller models available. Converter boxes didn't start coming out until a year ago...the quality is shitty and the supply has been poor at best. Instead of mandating all sets made after, say 1/1/2001 having an ATSC tuner, the FCC left it to "the marketplace" and it became a mess.

The number of people who will be affected by the "flash-over" will be less than 10% of the viewing audience...but it's predominately poor and elderly...those who can't afford either cable or a new set. Personally, I don't see how a delay of a few months will help...just kick the can down the road...with many stations already heavily invested in this new technology and all set to go.

If there needs to be a revision...it would be to set up low power analog stations to operate within large cities as a repater of the digital signals...reaching those neighborhoods where the largest group of affected viewers are...allow those stations to operate for 5 years (the lifespan of existing TVs) and then fade away.