Senate passes Bill to delay digital TV switchover.

[sandbox]

The flat two wire adapter is common and about a buck$.
I don't see that slowing anyone down.

On another note:
That signal booster i told you about was borrowed 5 years ago I was told, not reminded, I might add.
Apparently it found it's way back to North Conway N.H. when I wasn't looking.

[chriskleeman]

No delay here in Vermont. All the local stations are going digital on February 17. Participation in the extension is not mandatory. So here we go, one huge mess instead of what could have been a smooth transition... had some very rudimentary organizational principles been adhered to.

Luckily for us, only one TV in the house is affected, which is in my studio. Only gets used for DVD's and VCR's for the most part. Dish Network in the living room.

Guess it doesn't matter that I can't find my coupon, I had no idea when I ordered it that there was a 90 day expiration limit.  

I can't imagine how many senior citizens are going to wonder what the heck is going on when they go dark or can't get cc on February 17th.

Nice job, FCC...  

Chris K

[Paddy]

I'm glad my entire family has cable!! Canada isn't going digital until July 2011, so the discussion here hasn't even begun yet. No idea if the government will offer some sort of coupon program or not. We will need to get something for the cottage - or a new TV. I never watch it there, but my parents do.

I'm sure there will be lots of complaining come Feb. 17 - what a silly, avoidable mess.

[RHPConsult]

"Good Morning, Mrs. Jones. We're the Government and we're here to help you. As soon as we get universal digital TV up and running flawlessly we'll be back to establish our shiny new universal health care system.

Please be patient.

Press 1 for English"

[krissel]

More on the outlets that are switching Feb. 17.   The major networks in large cities are delaying but some affiliates will make their own choice.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090205/ap_...l_tv_transition

[Highmac]

The more I see of this thread, the more I feel we Brits might actually have done a better job of the changeover than your lot

In brief, they started phasing it in about 10 years ago, with digital channels broadcast from the same masts as the analogue channels (of which there were only five main ones). New digital-only channels encouraged most of us to get "Freeview" boxes so we could watch them as well (with the five analogue channels also broadcast on digital). Result in this house is that we never watch anything on analogue any more, so really won't miss it. We have a Freeview PVR with twin tuners, so the old VCR is just a very large digital clock

Anybody wanting to follow the nitty-gritty of our changeover can check out the official site of Ofcom "the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries" and Freeview site, the user's guide site. According to that, "digital switchover" on our transmitter will be in 2011. In this case "switchover" means switching off the analogue signals - we've been using the digital signals for at least eight years.

To check out the users' gripes and comments (nothing is perfect!), check out the Digital Spy forum, which covers everything from basic programming to the financial and technical side of the changeover. Includes this interesting thread (started by an American) about YOUR changeover

 

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

we Brits might actually have done a better job of the changeover than your lot

Probably. But you must remember, we are changing from analog to digital NOT "analogue" to digital. It's that "UE" part that may be tripping us up. Sounds too much like "EU!"

[krissel]

While wandering around I came across these pages on the FCC site.

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

A ton of information:

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/information_directory.html