Yes I have heard the pitch for years now esp. on the tv sales.
Do not worry Retailers will stop odering them when the time comes and the price will go down and down till they will be dificult to find. keep in mind it is like the dial phone with the ring and numbers (remember them?) haha we do not see them much but if you have one it will work and your old tv analog will still work.
They will not take all the satellites down . I doubt they will even touch them.
they will not be repaired and eventualy they will float away in a few HUNDRED years maybe.
reception will sound like poop next to digital but they will still work like they all did when evryone thought they were great.
No new satellites will be put up , so if you cant get reception now it is unlikely you will in the future as was once the selling card of most cell phones.
my phone is not digital believe it or not and I am grandfathered in for under 15 dollars a month , unlimited nights and weekends and 500 daytime.
yeah even my carrier freaks when they look at my plan. but I cant get a new phone unless I find one on e-bay without getting a new plan and all the new plans are for digital.
it is just a matter of time really till we will all be forced to switch on the cell phones cause they only last so long but tv wont be a problem the satellites will float around as they always did . but within a decade you will only find them at garage sales .
they will be like the balck and white tv of today why bother?
You both will please note that the article says that broadcasters will have to stop using the current analog broadcasting techniques and that they will have to stop broadcasting on the frequencies they are currently using -- and that the right to use those frequencies will be sold off at auction.
Therefore, your current TV will be obsolete after 2009. It is a different issue than going from B&W to color. There will be converter boxes that will help for those who have older TVs, but that will hardly be a substitute (like having an old cable box...where you had to manually turn a knob to change channels)
As for cable, this wouldn't affect cable operators; however, I imagine that, after a few years, they will stop offering analog signals at all (after they figure folks have mostly gotten digital TVs, anyway)
The biggest thing is that if you're planning on getting a TV in the near future, you may want to snoop around and get one that will be compatible with the new digital signals.
By Marc Gunther, FORTUNE Senior WriterJanuary 19, 2006: 12:10 PM EST (snip.......)
Government handouts
The difficulty, of course, is that the analog broadcast system will then be shut down -- which will leave most of today's TV sets unable to receive a signal over the air. Roughly 20 million of those soon-to-be-obsolete sets are in homes where people don't subscribe to cable or satellite. The other 50 million or so are in pay TV homes, and used as second, third or fourth sets. Sets hooked up to cable or satellite services should work fine no matter what.
To avoid a consumer revolt, Congress has set aside about $1.5 billion to smooth the transition. Owners of outmoded TV sets will be eligible for two vouchers, worth $40 each, to help buy converter boxes that will enable today's analog TV sets to receive digital signals.
Yes, the very same federal government that is cutting back on college loans and food stamps will soon be issuing TV vouchers.
.......(snipped)
Free TV signals scrambled
People are supposed to apply for the vouchers during a three-month window in 2008, and use them within three months. But there probably won't be enough vouchers to go around, and no one really knows how much converter boxes will cost. Disadvantaged people are most likely to be left behind in the scramble.
The nightmare scenario is that people who depend on free, over-the-air TV for news and entertainment will lose their access, or have to pay more for it, so that the rest of us can get faster service on our Blackberries and ESPN on our cell phones....................
You know, Hap, I don't necessarily disagree with you on this. But one thing: TV in the good-old US of A is a profit-making business, not a government handout. Advertisers, who really run the TV industry, make loads and loads of money, not only from the well-heeled, but from all classes (in fact, one could make a very good case that the 'disadvantaged' are actually more susceptible to the messages from television advertising than the more affluent classes. If there was a question about that, just look at the ads out there).
Because of this factor, I have a feeling that the television industry will do everything within IT's power to make sure that people will be able to receive the advertising...people of all classes who they believe can be manipulated by that advertising.
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GarthP2000
How about those of us who have TVs that work with cable/satellite dishes?
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pond
Yes I have heard the pitch for years now esp. on the tv sales.
Do not worry Retailers will stop odering them when the time comes and the price will go down and down till they will be dificult to find. keep in mind it is like the dial phone with the ring and numbers (remember them?) haha we do not see them much but if you have one it will work and your old tv analog will still work.
They will not take all the satellites down . I doubt they will even touch them.
they will not be repaired and eventualy they will float away in a few HUNDRED years maybe.
reception will sound like poop next to digital but they will still work like they all did when evryone thought they were great.
No new satellites will be put up , so if you cant get reception now it is unlikely you will in the future as was once the selling card of most cell phones.
my phone is not digital believe it or not and I am grandfathered in for under 15 dollars a month , unlimited nights and weekends and 500 daytime.
yeah even my carrier freaks when they look at my plan. but I cant get a new phone unless I find one on e-bay without getting a new plan and all the new plans are for digital.
it is just a matter of time really till we will all be forced to switch on the cell phones cause they only last so long but tv wont be a problem the satellites will float around as they always did . but within a decade you will only find them at garage sales .
they will be like the balck and white tv of today why bother?
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markomalley
Garth/Pond,
You both will please note that the article says that broadcasters will have to stop using the current analog broadcasting techniques and that they will have to stop broadcasting on the frequencies they are currently using -- and that the right to use those frequencies will be sold off at auction.
Therefore, your current TV will be obsolete after 2009. It is a different issue than going from B&W to color. There will be converter boxes that will help for those who have older TVs, but that will hardly be a substitute (like having an old cable box...where you had to manually turn a knob to change channels)
As for cable, this wouldn't affect cable operators; however, I imagine that, after a few years, they will stop offering analog signals at all (after they figure folks have mostly gotten digital TVs, anyway)
The biggest thing is that if you're planning on getting a TV in the near future, you may want to snoop around and get one that will be compatible with the new digital signals.
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HAPe4me
Cutting back on student loans and food stamps, but here comes your TV voucher from the government!
~HAP
From: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/technology...taltv/index.htm
By Marc Gunther, FORTUNE Senior WriterJanuary 19, 2006: 12:10 PM EST (snip.......)
Government handouts
The difficulty, of course, is that the analog broadcast system will then be shut down -- which will leave most of today's TV sets unable to receive a signal over the air. Roughly 20 million of those soon-to-be-obsolete sets are in homes where people don't subscribe to cable or satellite. The other 50 million or so are in pay TV homes, and used as second, third or fourth sets. Sets hooked up to cable or satellite services should work fine no matter what.
To avoid a consumer revolt, Congress has set aside about $1.5 billion to smooth the transition. Owners of outmoded TV sets will be eligible for two vouchers, worth $40 each, to help buy converter boxes that will enable today's analog TV sets to receive digital signals.
Yes, the very same federal government that is cutting back on college loans and food stamps will soon be issuing TV vouchers.
.......(snipped)
Free TV signals scrambled
People are supposed to apply for the vouchers during a three-month window in 2008, and use them within three months. But there probably won't be enough vouchers to go around, and no one really knows how much converter boxes will cost. Disadvantaged people are most likely to be left behind in the scramble.
The nightmare scenario is that people who depend on free, over-the-air TV for news and entertainment will lose their access, or have to pay more for it, so that the rest of us can get faster service on our Blackberries and ESPN on our cell phones....................
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markomalley
You know, Hap, I don't necessarily disagree with you on this. But one thing: TV in the good-old US of A is a profit-making business, not a government handout. Advertisers, who really run the TV industry, make loads and loads of money, not only from the well-heeled, but from all classes (in fact, one could make a very good case that the 'disadvantaged' are actually more susceptible to the messages from television advertising than the more affluent classes. If there was a question about that, just look at the ads out there).
Because of this factor, I have a feeling that the television industry will do everything within IT's power to make sure that people will be able to receive the advertising...people of all classes who they believe can be manipulated by that advertising.
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