Posted on 01/15/2009 5:21:38 PM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Why? Exisiting property is being made obsolete by goverment fiat. Also the federal goverment is getting almost $20 billion in revenue from the resale of the VHS frequencies previously used by TV broadcasters. Using a small portion of the revenues generated by spectrum sales (actually rentals) to help people pay for equipment to get through the transition is reasonable.
If the date comes and your TV doesn't work, f*** you, dummy. Go outside and get some exercise.
You aren’t entitled to my money because the government has decided not to support a TV broadcast license that expired and whose eventual expiration was never disavowed by the Federal government - something you should have considered when you bought your TV but probably didn’t - and it’s not my fault and it’s not the government’s fault, either.
I suppose the playing field is now more "even", but what would DuMont think?
Explain to me how you're being made worse off by this? The federal government is gaining a source of revenue that doesn't require anyone's taxes be increased. A small portion of that revenue gets used to help defray the cost of other people's costs of switching. Furthermore the spectrum gets used for new services that generate more income for the country and increase the tax base.
Personally I avoided buying any new TV's after 1996, because I knew that the old NTSC system would be shut down in 2006. It's been delayed almost 3 years already.
If TV were forced back to over the air service only, I don’t think it would survive this transition. Cable and Satellite are the glue holding the transition together. I think many of the early UHFs had better real service areas than the new DTV ones. You could get a fuzzy but watchable picture or better with a bowtie or a loop, and the set didn’t interfere with the signal.
My totally non-techie wife, upon seeing a commercial on the switchover tonight:
“I’m really tired of seeing these commercials. Let’s do it, and get it over with. Haven’t they already put it off once? I really hope they don’t do that again.”
When someone like her is saying that, you know people are tired of it and just want to see it through.
>>Of course, since the digital signals are much weaker, I’ll probably have to spring for a rooftop or attic antenna.
We moved around a fair amount when I was a kid. Dad was always setting up / hooking up rooftop antennas. It has been done for decades, and isn’t that hard or expensive.
When I got to point six and the name of Bernie Sanders, the socialist, came up I knew I had been led down the garden path. The real reason was point seven, so that Bernie's buddy Barry can keep his flock of sheeple together.
Shut off the broadcast TV as planned. Have the police put two or three empty HDTV boxes in the back seat.................... ghetto problem solved.
All this stuff brings memories of the book “1984”. I don’t our Government should be in the picture.
Well, that’s not much of a problem - I know about a year ago my dad got some wire and stuff from the garage, did a Google search, and rigged up one of his own, and it works great. Even if you don’t have a whole lot of skill with building things, it’s not that hard.
come feb 17th, women, children, and obama voters will be hardest hit
The libs believe that after next week they don't have to worry about their car payment or home mortgage, Zero is going to take care of them.
I guess that Zero will also provide a 61 in 1080p HDTV (120hz of course) and a free Blu-ray players on top of all the other perks...
His plan stinks. The last thing needed is more delays. Part of the problem this thing is having is all the delays. The delays have caused people to get completely confused about the relationship of HD and digital and what we’re switching to and what they need to handle. More delays will just spawn more confusion.
We know a large percentage of the coupons weren’t actually used. What they should do is spend the next 4 weeks figuring out how many weren’t used, that’ll tell them how much money the program actually still has. Then they should be ready to send the coupons out FAST (next mailing day at the latest) on the 17th. Make the switch, everybody that needs a box will get one with or without the government’s help by the end of the month, or they’ll learn to read books.
This thing is like pulling a bandaid off a hairy part of your body. In the end the best path is to just rip the freaking thing off and get it over with.
Technically they aren’t getting any of your money. The money for the converter boxes is coming from the additional licenses sold as part of the digital conversion, they’re getting the money from the TV stations that will profit from having the viewers. As government handouts go it’s pretty clean.
It’s not necessarily something people should have thought of when they bought their TV. TVs last a while. My mom has a TV I bought in 1990, still works great. There’s no reason that should get bricked now because of a government mandated switch that nobody was even discussing then.
Yeah, it has to get bricked. It's called 'progress.' If the UHF TV channels weren't bricked years back, you wouldn't have mobile phone.
And in this case, it isn't getting 'bricked,' it's getting upgraded. For a small fee, your mom will receive a much better picture and audio. Welcome her to the 21st century. Be a good son and drop the $40 or so on a new tuner for her and quit yer bitchin.
It doesn’t need to get bricked, it still works, and with the converter box it continues to still work, which was the point of the post. She already got the converter box. But without the converter boxes it would be bricked, and it IS the government’s fault and it WASN’T something that should have been considered when it was bought.
I’m not bitching, I’m pointing out the fallacies in your post 23, the fallacies in YOUR bitching.
I see very little benefit in digital HDTV. The increased resolution does not outweigh the upheaval. The 16:9 screen is a giraffe-a horse built by a committee. It is planned obsolescence at its worst, and in bad economic times where the last thing people should be thinking about is buying a new TV.
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