The Big DTV Switch: The World Didn't End

[exfileme]

Looks as if Americans aren't as stupid as government officials make them out to be after all.

The Big DTV Switch: The World Didn't End : Read more

 

[falchard]

Democratic Motto. Your constituency are retarded children and you are there caretaker.

 

[Shadow703793]

Lol! I have been using cable... did I miss something?

 

[jkeelsnc]

Its easy to assume that people just want to sink money into cable when they don't watch that much TV. That and $50/mo is silly for 70 channels of which only 2 or 3 even hold my interest. There are plenty of people who use OTA reception. Mainly people who are financially savvy and those who'd rather read a book than dumb out in front of the flat screen.

 

[pocketdrummer]

Digital TV via Antenna SUCKS!!! It's like listening to a call with bad quality even when your getting 75% signal. Before it would just fuzz up, but now it just stops altogether. It's incredibly annoying.

 

[eltorgo]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]Democratic Motto. Your constituency are retarded children and you are there caretaker.[/citation]
falchard,why are you making a tech site political? The digital switch was subpposed to happen under bush but they failed. Go cry on ann coulter's site with all of the other failures and crybabies.

 

[ericr]

Help out your low-tech friends or volenteer at your local Senior Center!

Instructions for a fantastic (& cheap) homemade UHF antenna:

http/www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=798265

If you read down the thread a ways you'll find instructions for a better design (from member "Mcclap") than the original poster provides.

 

[Honis]

A neighbor of mine has been paying for cable for months and had no idea that she had the TV plugged into the wrong cable jack in the wall (our apartment has a dead line from an old setup). She was drawing OTA channels through tuning the cable through the walls. I'm her tech guru and she started asking me about setting up a converter box which threw me a few flags something was wrong. She now is amazed that she doesn't need to get a converter box and at how many channels she has.

Before anyone starts making fun of her, she has been in America for maybe a year on a work visa and comes from somewhere much less technologically advanced (some part of India, sorry she wasn't specific). She's also as old as my Mom, who has only a slightly better of knowledge.

 

[sailfish]

[citation][nom]eltorgo,[/nom] falchard,why are you making a tech site political?[/citation]

I'd say the invitation was rather obvious:

Looks as if Americans aren't as stupid as government officials make them out to be after all.

 

[megamanx00]

They wouldn't have needed so many converter boxes if the government had mandated that TVs be sold with digital tuners earlier. Instead, they set the date for digital TV and still let TV makers sell sets that only had analog boxes. Makes me kind of wonder if people who produce the converter boxes weren't in on the delay for that mandate. I feel kinda bad for people who got early 720p and 1080i TVs without a digital tuner though as I haven't seen any of those tuners with at least an S-Video out. Oh well.

 

[Guest]

Made the switch without too much trouble. Sadly, I can't find a good "smart" DTV antenna. You think that someone would have jumped on this by now?

 

[h0llow]

it's freaking horrible! yes it looks better but I've had nothing but problems. You can tell that its all compressed into some sort of mpeg. But no, thats not where the problem lies. You know when you play a video and sometimes it glitches and you can see squares across the screen from it skipping, and it takes seconds to refresh itself, then seems to do it again and again constantly even at the best parts coming up. Cha... thats the junk I get ever since they switched everything to digital. comcast is c***

 

[leafblower29]

I actually didn't notice lol. I have cable so...

 

[Kami3k]

[citation][nom]h0llow[/nom]it's freaking horrible! yes it looks better but I've had nothing but problems. You can tell that its all compressed into some sort of mpeg. But no, thats not where the problem lies. You know when you play a video and sometimes it glitches and you can see squares across the screen from it skipping, and it takes seconds to refresh itself, then seems to do it again and again constantly even at the best parts coming up. Cha... thats the junk I get ever since they switched everything to digital. comcast is c***[/citation]


You do realize if you had a actual cable for cable, it was digital.

Then again your rant was just unreadable to begin with.

 

[Guest]

WELL WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE CABLE AVAILABLE?
At least I could get "channels", sometimes snowy
but better than nothing. Still haven't figure out
why I can't make my VHS work anymore since the
"CONVERTER" supposedly outputs the sig to the TV
and it runs thru the recorder. Then of course the
extra $60 for a new antenna some "Brain" at the
800 number said I needed to get but that didn't
help anymore that what the old Rabbit Ears already
got....
To me it was just a big "GRAB' and a few BILLION
more added to the Gov treasury.....
like the Cellphone scam in the 80's that
took more "freq" away from John Q. Public for a few
billion more.
Now if I'm lucky I can get 2 channels - not snowy
for sure.....just a bunch of "streaks or garbled
sound, if at all, in place of the 9 I used to get...
that's progress FCC.....What's the next scheme....
license us owning a radio or a tv or a cellphone ....
or maybe blow a few TRILLION more and just TAX us
for having them....But why am I surprised - I've seen
the "STREAK/JUMPING PIX/MESSED UP SOUND - OR NOTHING"
on DVD's for a long time....Oh, one other thing - do
I want "16 by or 4/3 or compressed or letter or whatever
other choices I can get converted to by the glorious
"Converter Boxes" I HAD TO BUY OR ELSE????
Oh well what's next? HAHAHAHA
PS - Does anybody thin maybe we could just OUTLAW
politicians or just send them on a long cruse so
they can't screw up anything else.....I pay the
way for at least the first 10 volunteers!

 

[nelson_nel]

I hate Tom's blogs seriously...

"Now that DTV is here and the world didn't come to an end, has the transition made an impact on your viewing? Is it better, or is it worse? We want to know!"

WHY would it be any better OR any worse????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

Mine is better. The digital signal strength is a lot higher now that they've shut off analog.

 

[cimtaurus]

Anyone who pays for a HD or digital antenna is making a mistake. I made one from spare parts in my garage that consisted of about $3 worth of extra stuff I had laying around.
Just FYI, you can easily make your own antenna, there are DIY articles all over the net that describe how. Mine may not look very pretty but it sits behind the TV anyway, and it works great.

 

[LightWeightX]

I had a converter box on my main set before the switch and now that they have dropped analog, I have seen an improvement in the quality of the picture and the digital signal is stronger. That being said, since some of the stations changed frequencies and/or tower locations I'm on the edge of a couple of stations I used to get. It looks like I will have to put up an outside antenna to get full coverage.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

I don't subscribe to cable because I find it insulting to watch tv most of the time. The commercials are louder than the program and they also last just as long. One sided liberal news stations were just to much for me to take any longer. Since then I have a TV but I only play DVD's that I want to watch without the BS. Not buyin no converter box.