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EVERYONE complains about the quality of TV programs, the endless repeats, and the scheduling, but are there programs that NO-ONE actually watches? An old AFL thriller, Italian soccer, an animated children’s program about underwear-obsessed pirates and a triathlon were just four of the 24 programs which managed to attract zero viewers in Australia on Wednesday. IS DIGITAL TV A DISAPPOINTMENT OR WATCHABLE. TELL US BELOWWhile the launch of digital channels on major networks Channel 7 (7Two), Channel 9 (Go!), Channel 10 (OneHD) and public broadcaster ABC TV (ABC2 and ABC3), as well as SBS Two, has added variety to the...

Here is one of the MANY commercials we all had to see on switching from ANALOG to DIGITAL TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LjItFkWdgI Greta's show last night was asking why the government was paying for this. Does anyone know why? Why was a political flunkie given 6 million dollars in the stimulus 1 package to produce these commercials? I have found no answers but one and that is the online youtube video that claims that the new digital boxes are big brother watching equipped with mini-cameras and a microphone. Cameras in Digital Convert Boxes! BEWARE!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4iIM8Eljc As nuts as the above sounds. As...

I have a "box" (gummint issue) and have yet to install it.I came across this a couple of months ago and now I'm wonderin' if it works as shown.

HELP, this digital TV conversion really is horrible! I used to get 9 channels with my antenna. I bought a new digital TV and now I get 2 channels, and they are spotty. I live outside the cable covered area and they will not bring it on up the road, so how can I get local TV stations like I did before?

WHDH-TV acknowledged yesterday what thousands of viewers had already discovered since last Friday’s nationwide conversion to digital television: its Channel 7 signal is hard to get in the post-analog era. The NBC affiliate said yesterday that it has begun simulcasting its signal on Channel 42, its temporary sister digital station, until it works out “signal difficulties” with the Federal Communications Commission. “We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our viewers, and we hope to have this resolved quickly,” said general manager Chris Wayland. In a statement, WHDH blamed the problem on a “power allocation” issue. The station said that...

FYI- WE ARE NOW UP ON CH 42- PLEASE LET OUR VIEWERS KNOW We received your recent e-mail regarding our digital channel. We are now simulcasting our digital signal on Channel 7 and on Channel 42 (our pre-transition digital channel). In order to see us on Channel 42, you will need to rescan again. To rescan, press "menu" on your remote. Then choose "auto-scan" or "installation." This begins the rescan process---it may take several minutes to complete this process. Like a number of other stations in cities across the country, WHDH is experiencing signal difficulties following the transition that took...

Millions of households will lose television reception next week when about 1,000 broadcasters around the nation shut off their analog signals and complete their conversion to digital programming, federal officials say. The government has spent more than $2 billion to ease the transition to digital television, and in the last few months has cut in half the number of households that are unprepared for the final conversion on June 12. But the latest survey by the Nielsen Company indicates that as of the end of May, more than 10 percent of the 114 million households that have television sets are...

The lowly TV antenna is making a comeback, and bringing free TV along with it. Sales of over-the-air TV antennas jumped last year thanks to the digital TV transition, as users upgrade their gear for better reception. At the same time, some consumers looking to save money in today's economy are dumping cable and satellite pay TV services in favor of free broadcast television. Makers of antennas, as well as local broadcasters, hope to drive more viewers to free television by touting its merits. Besides being free, broadcast television offers the best high-definition picture quality, because it's uncompressed. Cable and...

DTV Transition Partially Occurs, World Doesn't End Federal call center easily handles user calls, problems... 05:58PM Thursday Feb 19 2009 by Karl Bode About 421 of the nation's roughly 1,800 stations made the transition to digital broadcasts on the originally scheduled date (February 17), and so far the world has continued rotating. Fears that consumers weren't ready for the switch resulted in Congress extending the deadline into June, though TV stations were given the right to cut over ahead of the deadline -- as long as they got permission from the FCC. According to the Associated Press, the Federal call...

Some TV stations will cut their analog signals today and move to digital-only broadcasting. Others will take advantage of a grace period passed by Congress and wait until June 12. In theater superstition, a bad dress rehearsal is supposed to foretell a good opening night. If so, the U.S. might be in good shape when it turns off the last analog TV broadcasts in June, because the lead-up to the smaller-scale turnoff Tuesday has been confusing to both viewers and TV stations....snip... A patchwork of 641 stations across the country, mainly in thinly populated areas, are still turning off their...

(AP) -- Television viewers who use antennas and were expecting a few more months to prepare for digital TV may not have much time left before their sets go dark: Many stations still plan to drop analog broadcasts in less than two weeks. When Congress postponed the mandatory transition to digital TV until June, it also gave stations the option to stick to the originally scheduled date of Feb. 17. That means the shutdown of analog signals, which broadcasters had hoped would happen at nearly the same time nationwide, could now unfold in a confusing patchwork of different schedules. Lawmakers...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today sent a letter to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging her to postpone a vote on legislation to delay the transition to digital television until the impact of a reported conflict of interest from an advisor to President Obama is fully known and disclosed. “The policy recommendations made by President Obama may have been influenced by an individual with a conflict of interest of which he may not have been aware,” the letter states. “Any improper influences on the President’s policy positions that...

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Monday voted unanimously to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12 — setting the stage for Congress to pass the proposal as early as Tuesday. Monday's Senate vote is a big victory for the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, who have been pushing for a delay amid growing concerns that too many Americans won't be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover. The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast...

Switch from analog signals deemed too important to leave in private hands, with predictable results. If you watch TV for more than a few minutes a day, you have probably seen ads and public service announcements about the Feb. 17 changeover from analog to digital television broadcasting. During the other transition, several officials of the incoming Obama administration have suggested pushing back the transition date three months, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller has submitted a bill to push back the date to June 12. Why the fumbling and confusion? The short answer is that the government, beginning as...

A telecommunications company has confirmed for this columnist that its vice president for policy—who is also an Obama donor and a former lobbyist—is advising Barack Obama’s transition team on telecom policy. Obama’s transition team, which has failed to disclose this executive’s involvement, happens to have proposed a significant change in telecom policy that will profit that very company, called Clearwire. ...snip... Salemme, a former telecom lobbyist who has given thousands to Obama, including $5,000 to Obama’s transition team, has helped Obama craft a policy that will benefit Salemme’s company. This is just the sort of arrangement that led to years...

(SNIP) Hawaii was moving to all-digital TV before the Feb. 17 date set for the rest of the nation because of an endangered bird, the Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel. Broadcasters and park rangers want to take down analog transmission towers on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala volcano before the bird's nesting season. (SNIP)

President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting. In a letter to key lawmakers, transition team co-chair John Podesta warned today that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcasts won’t be ready. The incoming administration is pushing for a delay in part because the Commerce Department has run out of money for the coupons that subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. People who don’t have cable or satellite TV or a new TV with a digital tuner will need the converter boxes...

Consumers Union is urging Congress to delay the nation's transition to digital television, saying the program to help TV viewers prepare for the switch next month has been underfunded and poorly implemented. In a letter sent last night to President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the consumer advocacy group said Congress should push back the transition "until a plan is in place to minimize the number of consumers who will lose TV signals." The request comes two days after the federal government said it...

Choosing & Installing an Antenna for HDTV TV antennas may seem like relics from the last century, but a growing number of viewers are finding them to be indispensable in getting the best picture from their HDTVs. In this article, we'll discuss the advantages of over-the-air (OTA) reception and explain how to find digital TV signals in your local TV market and in nearby cities. We'll introduce the different types of TV antennas and tell you which ones perform best under various reception conditions. And we'll offer tips on how to install larger attic- and roof-mount antennas. To learn about...

Top execs say it might be tough to provide enough digital converters. Two top CE retail executives yesterday expressed deep concern over the nation's planned switch to Digital TV. On February 17, 2009, all local broadcasters must switch their analog signals to digital which means viewers will need a Digital TV, a digital converter box or a pay TV subscription to watch television. The federal government has begun taking applications for $40 coupons for the digital converters, which will enable analog TVs to display the new digital signals. But Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said yesterday that he's "very nervous"...

WASHINGTON - Millions of $40 government coupons become available Tuesday to help low-tech television owners buy special converter boxes for older TVs that might not work after the switch to digital broadcasting. Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a digital set and still gets their programming via over-the-air antennas will no longer receive a picture. That's the day the television industry completes its transition from old-style analog broadcasting to digital. The converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and $70 and will be available at most major electronics retail stores. Starting Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and...

For cable customers, the digital TV transition just got much simpler. Under rules approved by the FCC Tuesday night, most cable subscribers, including those without digital cable, will continue receiving local stations after the shutoff of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009. In the absence of the rule change, many analog cable customers may have lost access to certain local broadcast channels or been forced to get a digital cable box. Instead, the FCC will require cable systems to offer “must-carry” stations in both analog and digital form, unless the system is entirely digital. (Must-carry stations are typically independent...

Many owners of older TV sets who still receive free, over-the-air broadcasts are unaware that their sets will no longer function after Feb. 17, 2009 without a settop converter, lawmakers observed at a Washington D.C. hearing on Thursday.

WASHINGTON--Americans who want a converter box permitting older televisions to receive digital broadcasts will be eligible for federal subsidies, according to new rules announced Monday that clear up some confusion about how the program will work. As part of the lead-up to a scheduled February 2009 shutdown of over-the-air broadcasts in the United States, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) held a press conference here Monday to unveil its long-awaited final rules for a congressionally mandated subsidy program. Under the rules, all U.S. households will be able to apply for up to two $40 coupons to defray the cost...

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...

The federal government wants to pay for some U.S. residents to be able to watch television -- the only question is how much. The Senate's budget bill, which passed last week, contains a $3 billion subsidy for owners of televisions that are not ready to handle the eventual transition to digital television. The House budget bill, which ran into trouble Thursday but which will be on the floor this week, contains slightly less than $1 billion. Both bills set a date when broadcasters must return their current licenses and instead broadcast a digital signal on a different part of the...

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - The House Commerce Committee on Tuesday began consideration of legislation that would shut off broadcasters' analog TV signal at the start of 2009, sparking rancorous partisan debate over just how much federal help people should get when the switch is made. ADVERTISEMENT Democrats on the committee sharply criticized the GOP for failing to provide enough money to ensure that the nearly 21 million U.S. households that depend solely on over-the-air broadcasts won't have their TVs go dark on January 1, 2009. Under the GOP proposal, less than $1 billion is set aside to assist people in...

Senate Panel Sets a 2009 Date For Transition to All-Digital TV By AMY SCHATZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 21, 2005; Page B6 A Senate panel approved a plan to propel the U.S. toward all-digital television in 2009, despite concerns that it will require converter boxes for millions of television sets. The Senate Commerce Committee agreed to set a hard date of April 7, 2009, for all television broadcasts to be transmitted digitally. The transition would free up valuable radio spectrum, some of which would be used to expand two-way radio communications for emergency responders. The rest...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A House Commerce Committee draft bill sets a Dec. 31, 2008, deadline for the transition to digital from analog television signals - three months earlier than legislation approved by the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday. The House Commerce Committee is expected to mark up its version of the digital-TV bill later this month. The legislation, details of which were obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, also sets aside nearly $1 billion to conduct a consumer education campaign and fund a subsidy program for consumers with analog TV sets to purchase digital converters so that they don't lose...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A Senate bill, scheduled for committee vote Thursday setting an April 2009 digital television transition date, will include a $3 billion subsidy program for digital converter boxes, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Wednesday. The subsidy will cover "everyone who has a TV who needs a box," Stevens said at a luncheon speech sponsored by the Free Enterprise Fund. The $3 billion will come out of the roughly $10 billion in proceeds expected from sale of the block of 700 megahertz spectrum currently occupied by broadcasters that will be freed up with the...

U.S. local television broadcasters said on Tuesday they would accept a 2009 deadline to switch to airing only higher-quality digital signals, a date being considered by lawmakers. However, they urged Congress to give consumers the choice of receiving the new signals as-is or converting them to analog so that they would work on older television sets -- and to require cable companies to carry extra channels broadcasters offer. "Broadcasters accept that Congress will implement a 2009 hard date for the end of analog broadcasts, and we're ready," Edward Fritts, president and chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, which...

Posted on Fri, Feb. 18, 2005 Digital TV costs could be a problem By Genaro C. Armas ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Lawmakers eager to speed the transition to digital television said yesterday that the government might need to help millions of low-income Americans keep their analog TVs working. There are 21 million homes, or 19 percent of U.S. households, receiving their TV signals using over-the-air antennas, which would be useless by the end of 2006 -- the date Congress would like the digital shift to be complete -- without a converter box. Digital broadcasts offer sharper pictures than traditional analog...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Bill Gates (news - web sites) predicts a future for the entertainment industry in which traditional broadcast television is rendered irrelevant. It's a positive vision, however, because new and better business models made possible by technology are emerging. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Microsoft Corp. chairman and chief software architect, recalled a conversation in 1991 during which Larry Tisch was having buyer's remorse over his investment in CBS, noting that the impending changes were evident even then. "Broadcast TV is under a challenge. That's news to no one," Gates said. "You know,...

The newest Russian communications satellite was successfully launched Monday as a Proton rocket boosted the Express-AM11 craft into geostationary orbit. Liftoff occurred from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After a multi-hour flight by the Block DM upper stage, the satellite delivered into its orbital perch. Controllers will operate the satellite from 96.5 degrees East longitude. The Express-AM11 was designed by NPO PM in cooperation with Alcatel Space. The satellite carries 26 C-band transponders and 4 Ku-band transponders. The satellite lifetime is 12 years. The Express-AM11 fixed beams will provide reach of Russia, Middle East and Asia countries. Two steerable beams...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007. The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available....

<p>The price of television sets will rise substantially in a couple of years because of an FCC ruling Thursday that mandates digital tuners be included in the sets. In addition, consumers will likely see increased restrictions on home recording in the near future thanks to an FCC decision to open discussions on copyright-management technology.</p>