Gadget Wisdom

Since mid-February, the original digital television transition date, more than a half-million homes have prepared themselves for the revised transition date of June 12. As of March 1st, 3.9% are unprepared, compared to 5.1% a month earlier.

In a surprising move, older households(55+) are still the most ready of the groups, with the least ready under 35. Of course, these under 35s may have cable, and thus need no change, or dumped cable in favor of Netflix or IPTV. The statistics Nielson provides do not cover why this might be.

Assuming these statistics are accurate, what do you think? We’d love to hear your comments.

Engadget HD  reports that even with the DTV Transition delay signed into law, the FCC has approved the request of at least 368 stations to switch analog off this Tuesday. Crunchgear places the number of stations at 40% of the country’s broadcast stations. Another posts reports some preliminary lists of stations going off the air.

There is no obligation or mandate to broadcast in analog, only a mandate now effective in June to cease broadcasting in analog. The four major networks have agreed to stay on the air, but that applies only to the 100 or so stations they own, not any privately owned affiliate. The FCC could also pressure broadcasters to stay on if doing so is in the “public interest”.

We’ve already weighed in on the DTV transition. We are for it. The boxes are out there, the coupons were out there, and will be again, we hope. And even without them, there are ways to get through this. Digital broadcast brings free HD, clearer picture overall, and additional bandwidth for extra channels(although we have yet to found a secondary channel we watch regularly, although NBC Weather Plus wasn’t lacking in usefulness, but it is no longer with us.).

In some markets, there are apparently channels people want to watch offered on digital subchannels. NBC offers NBC Universal Sports in many markets. RTN, the Retro Television Network, airs classic television on digital subchannels of its affiliates. Or the This TV Network, offering movies and old shows from the MGM library. As fans of classic TV no longer offered by supposedly classic networks Nick at Nite and TV Land, we wouldn’t complain if we got any of these. For a synposis of digital subchannels, Wikipedia has a good summary of possible uses.

For those of you wishing to consider dropping cable service, over-the-air digital broadcast is certainly the way to go, with or without bolstering by internet and dvd services.

Here is the supposed complete and final list of stations shutting off on Tuesday.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 681 stations to turn off analog broadcast on 2/17 (crunchgear.com)
• Many TV stations to make DTV switch next week (news.cnet.com)
• Switch to Digital Television Wins a Delay to June 12 (nytimes.com)
• The complete DTV shutoff list straight from the FCC (crunchgear.com)
• Some TV Stations To End Analog Signal On Feb. 17 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stations can still yank analog plug this month, though many won’t (engadget.com)
• Digital TV Changes means more channels, changes for the future (lockergnome.com)
• What is the Retro Television Network, and how do I get it? (tvsquad.com)

[youtube xy-pD-M0rY4 Digital Transition Information Video]

The Senate had signed off on a delay of the mandatory broadcast digital TV transition until June 12th, from February 17th, but despite Obama administration support, House Republicans defeated the bill, leaving the transition date where it is.

“In my opinion, we could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date,” said Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Commerce Committee. “The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.” Barton led the push to scuttle the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously on Monday night.

The problem stems from the converter box coupon program, administered by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, is now sending out coupons only as older, unredeemed ones expire, freeing up more money. They have nearly 2.6 million coupon requests and those people will not be receiving theirs till after February 17th.

Eliminating analog television is a good move in that the possibilities offered by digital television are much improved. Discounting the freeing up of bandwidth for other applications, digital television is clearer, higher resolution, offers multiple subchannels in the same space, and converting older televisions, with or without coupons, is a simple process, as outlined by the above video. And if you have cable or satellite, you aren’t even affected right now unless your cable company is using it as a smokescreen to try and upsell you based on fear.

it is an improvement, it will be confusing, and instead of the government delaying it, they need to put together a new coupon program, which will be less expensive than it will cost to delay analog transition. It would cost PBS $22 million alone to delay. Many have leases for signal transmitters that were due to expire on the date of the switch over and will have to make new arrangements.