Let the Digital Television Revolution begin! Oh, wait, millions of us have converted to digital cable boxes already. Let me try this again. Let the Government-Enforced Digital Television Revolution begin! Okay, much better.
In order to test out the conversion of all media outlets and consumer televisions to digital service by February 17th, 2009, Wilmington, North Carolina decided to beat everyone to the punch and perform the conversion early. So, at noon on Monday, Wilmington mayor Bill Saffo and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pulled a huge, symbolic power switch to convert all of the city from analog to digital broadcasts. Of course, things went off without a hitch. Uh-huh. And, Platyrrhini Cebidae soar out of my tushie!
Not long after the cut-over broadcasters in the area reported dozens of calls from residents within the city limits and surrounding counties who either weren't prepared for the conversion or couldn't get their brand-new digital-converter boxes to work with their old analog sets. Both the networks and the FCC knew that this would happen and expected to receive calls over the next few weeks from the 14,000 households who received their signals from over-the-air broadcasting.
Despite the phone calls, both the broadcast networks and the FCC seemed to be pleased with the conversion. Andy Combs, general manager of Wilmington's ABC affiliate, said that even though they received about three dozen calls, the conversion was a big success. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the success of the conversion in Wilmington is not what happens in the present but what they can learn from it for the total digital switch early next year.
I have to wonder if Wilmington was the best test bed for the digital conversion. Even combining the city population with the three counties that encompass the Metropolitan Wilmington area, the entire population is only about 374,000. The 14,000 over-the-air households comprise under 5 percent of the viewing public. This doesn't seem to be a good gage for a conversion in say Philadelphia, Boston or Los Angeles -- older cities where you potentially have a higher percentage of non-digital television watchers. With the conversion only a mere five months away I foresee some big issues getting everyone converted. And, with the conversion hitting right in the middle of February sweeps, this would be trouble for the networks. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-09-2008 @ 9:18PM
JW said...
I see stupid written on the government's forehead. I saw if it ain't broke why fix it? It's just one extra thing that the government wants us to panic about. I still don't even know if I need a box or not.
Reply
9-09-2008 @ 10:09PM
Usama said...
If you only watch via cable or satellite, you don't need a box. If you do some watching with rabbit ears, you will need an antenna after that date.
Bonus: if you have an HDTV, you don't need the box as almost every HDTV sold in the past 4 years comes with built-in digital tuners
9-10-2008 @ 10:42AM
Nicolas Graf said...
yeah, over the air DTV sucks. We've had it in Germany for a few years now, and while it's nice when you have good reception, it's pretty much useless with not-so-good reception. Because anaologue TV just added some noise but was still watchable - digital TV simply stops when the signal isn't good enough.
9-09-2008 @ 9:17PM
Willie said...
"And, with the conversion hitting right in the middle of February sweeps, this would be trouble for the networks..." Ugh. I didn't think about that until just now. Something tells me that we're going to see popular shows take a sudden hiatus from February until April..
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9-09-2008 @ 10:03PM
delusionaryx said...
This conversion will only confuse or even likely concern the very poor, who advertisers do not care about, and the elderly, even if the average extremely elderly person cannot convince their children or grandchildren to help them, it will only be a problem for a short while, as death is knocking on their door.
Reply
9-09-2008 @ 11:14PM
StillBash said...
Just a small hint:
Dawson's Creek.
Just sayin'...
Reply
9-09-2008 @ 11:39PM
JW said...
So do you need a box, if you don't have a cable box? That's what confuses me, I figure it's a way to push people to get a box and pay extra a month for cable...
Reply
9-10-2008 @ 1:41AM
StillBash said...
This is about over-the-air TV. You now the big towers that usually signify a TV-Station.
They switch from analogue transmitting of airwaves to digital transmitting. Which results in either better quality, added content, or more channels transmitted in the same frequency bandwidth than before.
To be honest you could've clicked on the link in the article, but then again Richard isn't really helping you out by talking about digital cable boxes either... which has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is all about the airwaves and how to redistribute the sparse bandwidths available.
All you need is a box for EVERY TV now but you can get rid of your old Antennae on your roof because every box has a built in antenna.
Here in germany we've been switching for a couple of years now, area by area. Before, we had three government run TV stations and two privately run ones in my area. Now we are able to get 9 government run stations (which were broadcast in the past via digital satellite and digital cable in our area, so it's kind of a recycling) and none of the privately owned stations for they deemed the cost/revenue ration too low (there aren't that many people who were still getting their TV via analogue signals and their old antenna - most of us, and that's what the author here is referring, already switched to cable or satellite feeds, which in the past were also analogue but are also switching to digital now).
But again - this is not about cable nor satellite, this is all about those old fashioned TV towers and the way your grandparents used to get their TV.
9-10-2008 @ 12:44PM
Patrick said...
What StillBash said isn't necessarily true. --It's possible that boxes will have an internal antenna, but you might still need an external antenna depending on your location.
The UK also has digital TV now, and I've never had any problems with it. Even in the heaviest rainstorms I never lost a signal. If the signal drops too low, the station will stop coming in (black screen rather than complete static), but during inclement weather, you might see some pixilation.
And, of course, as has already been said, you only need a converter if you are using an antenna. Cable and satellite customers will not be affected by this at all.
9-10-2008 @ 8:37PM
StillBash said...
Yeah you now I meant "built-in" as in "there's a small antenna sticking out of the box".
There are also a lot of USB-sticks available here in Europe converting your Laptop or PC into a TV. They usually have a small external antenna but there are also some that don't have any sign of one at all anymore.
They've been around a couple of years and get smaller and smaller every year. The first ones were real bricks but now they've shrunken to the size of the first USB memory sticks.