Digital TV Transition Date Approved - stop using analog signals in 2009

PCWorld ^ | Grant Gross, IDG News Service

[Calpernia]

WASHINGTON -- Legislation requiring U.S. broadcasters to abandon their analog spectrum, opening up the "beachfront" spectrum to next-generation wireless services and emergency response agencies, is headed to U.S. President George Bush to be signed into law.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a large budget reconciliation bill that included a deadline of February 17, 2009, for broadcasters to stop broadcasting analog signals and move to digital television (DTV).

The House approval came after the U.S. Senate in December amended other parts of the House-approved budget reconciliation bill conference report. The final bill includes up to $1.5 billion in funding to provide two $40 vouchers per household to use toward the purchase of digital-to-analog set-top converter boxes. TV owners receiving over-the-air analog signals on older TV sets will need the converter boxes.

The legislation directs the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to begin an auction of the cleared airwaves by January 28, 2008. The High Tech DTV Coalition, made up of 18 IT companies and trade groups, pushed for a DTV transition deadline to free up the spectrum for new services such as mobile broadband, mobile video and WiMax.

Part of the spectrum will also go to help public safety agencies better communicate with each other.

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[Tall_Texan]

Any word on whether this will make the quality of the programs any better?

The TV has a control called "brightness" but it apparently doesn't work.

[Calpernia]

No. No more Analog broadcasting.

[Decepticon]

Part of the spectrum will also go to help public safety agencies better communicate with each other.

Cool, I can crank my home AM and FM transmitters to 100 watts and not P.O. my neighbors.......life is good......I Heard It on the X.......

[RWR8189]

Analog cable doesn't go over the airway.

And its been my understanding that this only effects broadcast tv.

[Myrddin]

DTV->Digital TV. HDTV is High Definition (digital) TV. The new signals sent over the air or over cable are digital instead of analog. As long as you have a decent signal level, the picture and sound is digitally perfect. SDTV signal at 480i are essentially identical to standard analog TV in quality. Higher resolutions of 720i and 1080i are available. LCD style displays prefer a progressive (write the screen one time per frame instead of two interlaced images on a CRT). The 480p, 720p formats look better on a digital display device. 480i means 480 horizontal pixels. 1080i has 1080 horizontal pixels. The standard analog display uses a 4:3 aspect ratio (4 wide : 3 high). New widescreen digital display prefer 16:9 (16 wide : 9 high). The 1080i will be 1080 wide X 608 high.

Digital transmissions occupy less bandwidth than the analog signals. Many more channels can be packed into reduced frequency spectrum.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The final bill includes up to $1.5 billion in funding to provide two $40 vouchers per household to use toward the purchase of digital-to-analog set-top converter boxes.It would be interesting to see who manufactures these set top boxes that the vouchers qualifies for. A must be "Made in the USA" provision would be nice.

[RWR8189]

The feds are going to subsidize at least a portion of the cost of the converter box.

[mpreston]

http://www.dtv.gov/

[HairOfTheDog]

This is just the elimination of the old broadcast signal to the big TV antennae on the roof. The TV stations want to stop having to do that, and rightly so. Why is there still a law that says they have to broadcast anything?

[Calpernia]

Thank you for that link!

[Bogey78O]

Yes, only broadcast. Right now all broadcasters use the NTSC standard to broadcast but come 2009 they'll switch to ATSC which is the digital format.

[Decepticon]

This is just the elimination of the old broadcast signal to the big TV antennae on the roof. The TV stations want to stop having to do that, and rightly so. Why is there still a law that says they have to broadcast anything?

? They don't, they can give up their portion of the broadcast spectrum, and all the advertising revenue, at any time. The Fed will then sell that analog bandwidth to the highest bidder......for billions......

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

Kewl!

[Alex Murphy]

Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a large budget reconciliation bill that included a deadline of February 17, 2009, for broadcasters to stop broadcasting analog signals and move to digital television (DTV).

Which either means they continue using the existing UHF/VHF bandwidth, just changing what and how they transmit over it...

Or all of your local (free) network channels will be going off the air February 17, to broadcast exclusively via some form of satellite or land-line (copper/fiber).

[savedbygrace]

So retailers can add $40 to the price of the converter boxes, huh?

[Alex Murphy]

Any word on whether this will make the quality of the programs any better?

Your TV does does come equipped with a control marked "brightness", but mine never seems to do anything....

[Rte66]

Now there's a law that says I have to pay for TV if I want to watch it? Guess I have to give it up. Good heavens. I knew it was coming, but I thought there would be an escape clause of some kind.

[SengirV]

If you don't have cable, then you can probably buy a broadcast converter box, but it would probably be half the price of a new TV.

Depends. You can get tube HDTV's that have the HD tuner built in. I got a referbed 32" tubr HDTV for $299 and it works like a charm.

Of course I assume that when they talk about DTV, they are actually talking HDTV as we know it now.

[savedbygrace]

Signal-wise, Digital cable is crap and most satellite channels are crap.

But there's no other choice for those of us who live far away from a major city, so we live with it and grunt.

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to the modern age....