Posted on 01/16/2009 5:25:13 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
A pair of call centers logged around 900 calls yesterday, but organizers of Hawaii's early switch to digital TV are calling the mission a success. The state shut off analog TV yesterday at noon, and did so with what appears to be a manageable level of issues from viewers.
"There were no major surprises," says Hawaii Association of Broadcasters President Chris Leonard.
There was a wide range of questions from viewers, some wondering how to hook up their converter boxes and some wondering why they weren't receiving a signal. Despite the state's-and the nation's-considerable efforts to spread the DTV message, some Hawaiians inevitably called to say they were unaware of the shutoff. "We had a handful of calls where people said, ‘Hey, how come nobody told me about this?'" says Leonard.
KITV Honolulu President/General Manager Michael Rosenberg, who's also the state's DTV coordinator, says the station received about 20 calls from viewers. "It's not been overwhelming," he says. "Technically, everything went well."
Calls are still coming in steadily today, though Leonard had not seen a tally at press time. (Extraordinarily high winds in the state compounded some technical issues.) He says the next stage is an outreach program, where viewers can meet face to face with FCC representatives to troubleshoot their TV issues. Viewers whose TVs are not compatible will see a message broadcast on a loop through the end of the month, instructing them on how to get up to speed.
With the big switch now in the rear view mirror, Leonard says the whole thing was "pretty smooth," all things considered. "I'm really proud of the outreach efforts we've done," he says
There's always that 10%....
Can anyone answer this:
We do not have cable.
We have a non-digital TV (16 years old) and get adequate tv reception.
I understand that when the switch occurs we will not have ANY reception without one, but would a converter box actually improve it or will we also need a special antenna?
Depends on how far you are from the tower. If you get good reception now, your old antenna should work. If you are in a fringe area, you’ll probably want an amplified antenna.
I’d certainly try it with the old one first, and then look at either adding an inline amplifier or an amplifier if needed.
As for converter boxes, I found the $60 Digital Stream from Radio Shack to be a lot better than the $50 RCA from Wal Mart.
You'll need to experiment to find out. The frequencies will all be UHF, and many transmitters have been relocated. Go to the antennaweb.org website. They have information about what antennas work well in each ZIP code in the US.
Note:this is a 125 page document,and there are a couple more related if you need them.
“The frequencies will all be UHF”.
Almost 100% correct BUT the upper frequencies will still be in use. (See link at the bottom of this reply for channels in your viewing area).
An example of what Seattle’s channel 9 is doing:
Is KCTS 9 currently operating in digital?
Yes. All Seattle television stations, including KCTS 9, are currently operating in both analog and digital formats. KCTS 9 operates digitally on UHF channel 41 (remapped to appear on your receiver as channel 9). KCTS 9 will return to our VHF channel for digital operations after the transition after February 17, 2009.
In the Cleveland viewing area we will still have channel 8 on the upper VHF frequency, (the lower frequencies may be auctioned off). A standard VHF/UHF antenna or even rabbit ears will work depending on how far you are from the broadcast towers, but you will need a digital TV, HDTV, or the U.S. Government coupon for a converter box (if you do not have a coupon or have an expired coupon, you will need to go to a waiting list, the allocated monies are gone). http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx is a great site to find that information, the TV antenna installers use it. (For example, where I live from the broadcast towers are almost all @ 230/231 degrees on the compass from my house, so I would not need an antenna rotor. But if I also wanted to pick up the our of town broadcast stations IE: Toledo, Akron, Youngstown, Detroit Mi, London, Ontario, or Erie Pa. I would need a rotor AND “larger” antenna with the best gain rating.)
If you have cable or Satellite TV, you will not need a converter box for now, but this may change in the next few years for Satellite TV, but I am not sure about cable.
If you want an education on antennas go here:
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html
For channel designations, go here:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A2.pdf
“Antennaweb.org” wants too much information (full address). They look more like a scam to gather marketing information for mailing lists. All they need to perform their supposed “service” is a zip code. No thanks.
What I am curious about is is the rest of the country getting bombarded by Comcast commercials, like every third commercial or so?
Obviously they’re trying to scare the chit out of folks about the conversion, and thus profit from it.
Not to mention that their commercials are almost as bad as the Verizon ones.
I thought the government had already decided that the VHF bands were going to remain open, so they could give them to GPS or whatever sometime in the future?
Damn. I halfway understand this stuff and my head still hurts...
““Antennaweb.org” wants too much information (full address).”
Give them any address in your neighborhood and no name or email. You are safe.
Hard to tell. Go to this site and play around with “Choose an antenna”, to get some idea:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
What do you have for an antenna now?
That's not necessarily true. In places with hilly or mountainous terrain, different street blocks may have different signal strengths than the centroid of the ZIP code polygon. If they are using a digital elevation model (DEM) of the terrain, knowing the exact address could be important.
I just went to the site. The only required information to use the website is the ZIP code, and it has options to opt out of mailing lists if you enter in your full address. If you only enter your ZIP code, you will have the opportunity to adjust the spot on the map used for the assessment. Just using the ZIP code option, I was able to interactivley change the spot to my home. It gave a list of channels with distance and direction to the transmitters and the type of antenna needed to receive each station. The angles and distances would be wrong if I just used the centroid of the ZIP code.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling...
Oh, nevermind.
The last 4 ch. I've been able to get these past few months pulled the plug and have shut down analog programing.
Where were you getting “ala carte” programs from in the past?
I used to get the “ala carte” choices from NPS (National Programming Service).....but they don’t seem very “active” at this time. When I called them a couple weeks ago, I was put on hold for 45 min....and I’ve been told I was lucky to get anyone to speak with me, as others have had no luck at all....so I don’t know what’s going on with them.
I’d delt with them for years, since way back before things started going digital....the good old days, but eventually one by one programs were no long available to me...I was down to TNT,CNN(yuk), Headline News, and finally even they went off a couple weeks ago.
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