Despite government handouts designed to protect their constitutional right to television, 10m Americans with old sets still haven’t picked up their subsidized digital decoder boxes. And it’s getting close to cutoff time: according to the plan, over-the-air broadcasts go completely digital in just four months.
The critical fact that big box retailers don’t mention when you walk past the giant pyramid of these things by the checkout lanes: if you have cable TV, you do not need one. Y’all know that, of course, but your folks might not!
Survey: 10 Million Not Ready for Analog TV’s Death [Wired: Gadget Lab]
My folks got the coupons at the start of summer and have been putting it off to get the box (biggest thing for my dad is re-working the set-up). I got them all hyped up to go get one “before the rush” and when they opened the envelope . . . it turned out to be expired a few days after they got it.
While I’m sure it sucks to be someone who hasn’t picked up a converter box yet, I hardly mind that there’s that much government money -not- being spent.
Other than public television, everything you watch on TV is commercially produced consumer content. I don’t even think it’s the government’s job at all to guarantee access to that content when the receivers for it pass into obsolescence.
This happened purely because it’s TV and TV is so ingrained in society. I didn’t see the government issuing everybody with broadband modems when DSL came onto the scene. Why spend government handouts to keep everyone’s obsolete technology patched into broadcasts?
It should not cost taxpayers a dime to switch over television broadcasts to a better format that television technology has already supported for years.
I moved to this apartment in August. I have Cablevision and I subscribe to their Optimum Online Internet service – no phone, no cable tv. However up until two days ago I was able to watch some basic channels by just hooking up my tv set directly to the cable,- no converter, no cable box. Now I think I get just two channels, one of which is C-Span. Was I supposed to get the other channels to begin with?
“I didn’t see the government issuing everybody with broadband modems when DSL came onto the scene. Why spend government handouts to keep everyone’s obsolete technology patched into broadcasts?”
Because the government — not the free market or the progress of technology — decided the obsolescence of the current tech.
There is a reason for this.
It’s a stupid thing to do, and done unfairly.
When I tried my neighbors digital box I discovered I had lost half my channels, and the other half came in a bit better.
But I’ve lived a lot of places where the only TV was from analog repeaters on the ridgelines. Those won’t forward the new signals.
Again, this is a stupid thing to do, and done unfairly.
I’m among those 10 million. We don’t subscribe to cable and don’t intend to next year. I should pick up two of those boxes, one for the main TV and the other for the emergency TV in the basement, but you know what? I’m lazy, and cheap. The prices on these haven’t gone up or down that I’ve seen, and I know that sitting on the coupons lets them expire. So I’ll wait, and if I turn out to miss them (I guess the supply is not unlimited), well, too bad for me.
I suppose I should request the coupons soon, just in case the boxes go on sale for Black Friday (like that would happen).
John, You know that this was not a decision made by the government, it was a change foist upon the government by well-organized corporate interests focused on selling new hardware.
For those of y’all not old enough to remember, we had a similar situation in the 60′s when this new-fangled color television thing came around. In the olden days however, people said things like, “Screw you, you can’t break my perfectly functional technology and FORCE me to buy new hardware, YOU find a way to make them both work.” And they did.
Fast forward to now, and you see the real issue.
While allowing market forces to shape the change to “digital broadcasting” would have created MORE options for us, killing analog broadcast created THREE cash opportunities for businesses (an they don’t care about what effects it might have on consumers); 1) Selling new TV’s and converter boxes, 2) buying frequency rights for the soon-to-be-available analog TV broadcast spectrum, and 3) most importantly, Digital broadcast means one very important thing to the providers, and you can bet your bippy it ain’t better picture, purer sound or better quality of product.
The MAIN reason for doing this is so that they can digitally protect broadcasted entertainment the same way they already DRM cable, satellite and entertainment media.
Brownlee, call it what it is: Corporatism
I have what may be a stupid question, but it’s not one I see mentioned in the news stories that cover this: how do you know if you need a converter? I know you don’t need a converter if you have a digital TV, but is there anything simple that explains what a digital TV is? Like, TVs bought since X, or that have certain functions?
@ #8
… the “cable” setting on your television is the switch that tells your TV to look for digital broadcasts instead of analog.
Somewhere in your TV’s setup, you have the option of choosing cable or analog. When you use the cable setting and an antenna, the signals you see are digital broadcasts.
If you don’t have an option for cable or if you don’t have an “F connector” (the threaded thing onto which you screw the cable-TV cable), your TV is analog only.
Jennix, I thought the biggest reason that broadcasters wanted digital was the ability to have multiple channels for a given frequency. The mere presence of the digital to analog converter boxes disproves the idea of it being a DRM push; you have every bit as much ability to record the analog converted signal.
I also don’t think your description of how to check your TV for digital readiness is correct. An “F connector” is something that’s been on TV’s for decades and is definitely an analog connector. Digital TV’s have it as well. The cable setting also doesn’t switch it to digital.
Celia, as I understand it, if you are paying a cable TV provider on a monthly basis, you do not need a converter. Your TV provider will take care of any necessary conversions for you. If you have an antenna on your roof (and you do NOT have a TV that specifically says it can receive digital TV signals right on it) you will need a converter.
Jennix, I do not believe you are correct.
Before cable TV came around we connected our TVs to a flat 300-ohm twin-lead antenna wire with two small screws. The cabling is similar to regular lamp cord except that the middle bit between the two wires is wider, holding the two conductors further apart. This wiring is extremely vulnerable to interference and requires special stand-off brackets to keep it away from gutters and siding etc. The signal that comes from such a rig is very weak compared to cable.
An “f connector” is a threaded coaxial jack meant to be connected to 72-ohm antenna wire such as RG59u. If that made no sense to you, it’s the connector that is on all the round tv cables that come out of people’s walls. The middle, signal-carrying wire is completely surrounded by the outer grounded shielding, which is typically foil or braided wire separated from the center core by plastic foam. Because of this shielding, cable companies can provide plenty of juice on the signal wire – much more than you can pick up with an aerial antenna.
In my experience (which is admittedly old since I got tired of TV about 20 years ago) the cable/antenna setting on most TVs simply enables or disables circuitry that compensates for the large difference in signal strength between over-the-air signals and wired sources. AFAIK it does not have anything to do with digital reception.
Disclaimer: I learned electronics when components were still made of glass. Your mileage may vary!
–Charlie
In no particular order:
1) A digital converter box allows you to pick up broadcast digital TV signals on your analog TV. The important word here is “broadcast”, aka “over-the-air”, like we’ve had for 50+ years now. It is for viewers who watch TV from a conventional antenna, with either “rabbit ears” or a rooftop antenna… if this is the way you watch TV, you can:
a) continue to use your old analog set by using a converter box.
b) ditch your old TV and get a new one… no converter box required, as all new TVs must be able to receive digital signals.
The choice is yours. Me, I got a converter box to watch on my $3 Sony Trinitron (garage sale find). Side note: I’m not sure why I bothered, as I haven’t turned it on in over four months now.
2) If you have cable TV or satellite TV, your provider set you up so that you can receive their signal with whatever type of TV you have, usually with a set-top box. You DON’T NEED a digital converter box, as you aren’t receiving broadcast TV (see #1). If anything changes, your cable or sat provider will let you know, but for now, you’re fine.
3) Just to confuse things, lots of folks in rural areas will stil get their broadcast service from analog repeater stations, as they have for years. This is the not often talked about exception to the digital switchover. As I understand it, this exception was made because many rural areas would have been left without any TV service at all without analog repeaters. The reasons for this are both economic and technical.
So… if you are in a rural area, you will want a converter box that has a feature called “analog pass-through”, which will allow you to receive both analog and digital programming without the need to switch cables and rewire your set every time you switch from one to the other.
4) And now, I quote myself from an earlier BB comment rather than re-type the same ideas in a second time (mods, I hope this isn’t a breach of protocol, I apologize in advance if it is):
My prediction: the analog shut-off / digital conversion will be the death knell of television. The broadcast model will go first, followed by cable and sat TV.
As alluded to in the article, those with tech chops and (more importantly) financial means will finally abandon television once and for all as the inferior technological kludge that it is and opt for other means of video program delivery.
This will leave a relatively unsophisticated and uneducated audience as a user base for the broadcast product, not an attractive prospect for an advertiser, or, in the case of public broadcasting, for funders and underwriters of programs. Smart investors and philanthropists will not continue to dump money into such a business model.
An example? Look no further than AM radio… now a vast wasteland of snake-oil salesman and nutjobs pandering to the dispossessed. Not the most attractive marketplace for your product or ideas, to say the least.
Adding on hare-brained DRM schemes will only hasten the decay… they won’t be able to give their product away.
Television will be a dead medium within 5 to 10 years, replaced by file-based delivery systems of individual video programs in whatever viewing format the end user desires.
I thought the cable was so you could get more of those little people into the picture box!
Personally, I think the cutover will be a near-total catastrophe for enough people. Then again, I’ve grown terribly cynical in the past few years. There’s probably enough TV shows of yesteryear out there (DVD and download) that you could raise your kids on the same shows that you watched and never have to buy into the broadcast world at all. Anyone still have a fallout shelter?
…And when you consider just how inaccurate the Nielsens are, that number of 10 million is probably closer to 30-35 million, if not more.
@ #10 DCulbertson – While “bringing you more channels” is a sales pitch, they in fact won’t. It is possible, of course, but don’t hold your breath.
Your thought about the analog boxes is nice, but remember, only people who buy the boxes will be able to rip DRM’d broadcasts. Everybody who decides to use this as an excuse to buy a new HD idiot box will be firmly under control.
To you and #11 regarding the f connector: I said if you do NOT have an F connector, you are definitely NOT looking at a digital TV. Having one does NOT (necessarily) mean you DO have a digital TV.
The cable setting tells a TV to look for channels 14-100+ in the VHF range on the input cable, rather than in the UHF bandwidth where the analog broadcast channels 14-73 are designated. You are correct that this does not guarantee a digital TV.
from the US government’s DTV website:
They ramble on a bit more about how beyond the above rather useless info you should, “… check your equipment for the manufacturer name and model number, and then contact your consumer electronics retailer, or the manufacturer, to determine whether it contains a digital tuner. This information also may be available online through the manufacturer’s website. ”
In other words, head on down to Best Buy and ask one of the rocket scientists there. No chance they’d try to steer you to a new TV, right?
Jennix, you’re right, I mis-read your statement about the f-connector. Adding channels isn’t that unlikely, though, as it adds advertisement revenue. That was my understanding of the motivation: it makes them able to make more money by broadcasting more commercials. Not more exclusive or new content, but more of the same crap with more commercials in it.
To everyone: I forgot to mention that for some reason, and in a manner completely out of character, Amazon royally screws people on pricing for the converter boxes. I was curious and looked around at pricing, and the $80 box at Amazon is available elsewhere for $56 or so. The $60 Amazon box is available elsewhere for $45 or so. So don’t order your converter from Amazon!