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"Morgans" wrote in
:


"Marty Shapiro" wrote

Those coupons for a DTV to analog converter are only worth $40 each.
Wednesday, Fry's Electronics was selling this converter for $179. The
Feds
are NOT giving the consumer a free converter.

40 bucks is way too low, and 179 bucks is way too high.

I hope the price of the converters come down, a lot.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
expects the price of the converter box to drop to about $50 to $60. Of
course, if the manufacturers want to push us into buying new TVs, VCRs,
DVRs, etc, they will just keep the price on these high. At Fry's
Electronics, they only converter they had for sale was from Samsung. My
guess is that there will be a run on these come February 17, 2009.

The web site http://dtvanswers.com gives a lot more information.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

Morgans wrote:


The government is going to be doing a similar type of purchase of technology
for the public to make the change from standard definition TV to high
definition TV,


A common misconception. It's not an SD vs HD issue. It's analog vs
digital.

"Newps" wrote

A common misconception. It's not an SD vs HD issue. It's analog vs
digital.

Close enough, for the great masses. My mom has a hard (very hard) time just
operating a TV remote. Tell her HD vs. SD and she has a chance at it.

The only thing you need to know is that it is a different signal format, and
one won't work with the other.
--
Jim in NC

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:20:11 GMT, in rec.aviation.piloting, Marty Shapiro
wrote:

"Morgans" wrote in
:

I hope the price of the converters come down, a lot.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
expects the price of the converter box to drop to about $50 to $60. Of
course, if the manufacturers want to push us into buying new TVs, VCRs,
DVRs, etc, they will just keep the price on these high. At Fry's
Electronics, they only converter they had for sale was from Samsung. My
guess is that there will be a run on these come February 17, 2009.

The sensible part of my mind wants to think that if DTV adoption is not high
enough, the television advertising industry (which is the only bunch of
folks with any real stake in this) will subsidize the devices to whatever
degree necessary to retain their audience. The cynical part of me says that
in that circumstance, the ad industry will cry and whine until the
government pays to subsidize them.

I'd be more ashamed of my cynicism if that business model didn't seem to be
working so well for the airlines.

-Scott

Morgans wrote:

"Newps" wrote


A common misconception. It's not an SD vs HD issue. It's analog vs
digital.


Close enough, for the great masses. My mom has a hard (very hard) time just
operating a TV remote. Tell her HD vs. SD and she has a chance at it.

The only thing you need to know is that it is a different signal format, and
one won't work with the other.


It is also irrelevant for the vast majority of people. If you have
cable TV or satellite the changeover is a nonissue. It only matters if
you are getting your signal over the air such as by using rabbit ears.

"Newps" wrote

It is also irrelevant for the vast majority of people. If you have cable
TV or satellite the changeover is a nonissue. It only matters if you are
getting your signal over the air such as by using rabbit ears.

How so?

Most of the cable system's local channels are picked up from over the air
broadcasts, and then transmitted to the user over the cables. If there is
no analog signals being broadcast, the signal being sent to the consumer
will be analog. That will require a converter, then.

I would imagine all of the cable only networks will also be using digital
broadcasts at that time, also.

Are you thinking that the cable system will be using boxes that will have a
built in analog output? I have not heard that that is what they will do;
have you?

If that is so, I will still have a problem. I have 1 TV in the house hooked
to the box, with the rest using the raw cable signal, to provide independent
viewing, at least up to channel 77. I would still need converters for those
channels.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

"Newps" wrote


It is also irrelevant for the vast majority of people. If you have cable
TV or satellite the changeover is a nonissue. It only matters if you are
getting your signal over the air such as by using rabbit ears.


How so?

Most of the cable system's local channels are picked up from over the air
broadcasts, and then transmitted to the user over the cables. If there is
no analog signals being broadcast, the signal being sent to the consumer
will be analog. That will require a converter, then.

It is irrelevant how your provider gets their signals or in what form
they get them. I have satellite. All satellite signals(Directv and
Dish) are digital. All older satellite boxes output analog only
signals. These would be the cable jack, RCA jacks and the S Video jack.
Newer boxes eliminate the cable jack but keep the other two. My
current generation Directv HD boxes do this. They also output in
digital format as well, these being component video, DVI and HDMI.
Cable TV is virtually the same. Standard cable is analog. Digital
cable is of course digital but the box will output both formats just
like satellite.



Are you thinking that the cable system will be using boxes that will have a
built in analog output? I have not heard that that is what they will do;
have you?

They do this now.




If that is so, I will still have a problem. I have 1 TV in the house hooked
to the box, with the rest using the raw cable signal, to provide independent
viewing, at least up to channel 77. I would still need converters for those
channels.

I am not aware of any cable system that allows direct hookup of digital
cable right to the back of the TV without first going thru a converter
box. It's certainly possible but I think the hangup is a lack of a
standard. So you're forced to run it thru the box first and the box
simply converts it to channel 3 or 4 if you have an analog TV.

(Scott) wrote in news:4748e56a.551894267@localhost:

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:20:11 GMT, in rec.aviation.piloting, Marty
Shapiro wrote:

"Morgans" wrote in
:

I hope the price of the converters come down, a lot.

The National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA)
expects the price of the converter box to drop to about $50 to $60.
Of course, if the manufacturers want to push us into buying new TVs,
VCRs, DVRs, etc, they will just keep the price on these high. At
Fry's Electronics, they only converter they had for sale was from
Samsung. My guess is that there will be a run on these come February
17, 2009.

The sensible part of my mind wants to think that if DTV adoption is
not high enough, the television advertising industry (which is the
only bunch of folks with any real stake in this) will subsidize the
devices to whatever degree necessary to retain their audience. The
cynical part of me says that in that circumstance, the ad industry
will cry and whine until the government pays to subsidize them.

I'd be more ashamed of my cynicism if that business model didn't seem
to be working so well for the airlines.

-Scott


I wouldn't hold my breath. OTA (over-the-air)class A channels (high
power) must switch to all digital on February 17, 2009. They do not have
the option of continuing to broadcast in analag after that date. Most
channels already are broadcasting in digital as well as analog. Just about
every HD set sold for the past three years already has the ATSC (digital)
tuner. As of March 1, 2007, all tunable sets (TV, VCR, DVR) imported to
the U.S. or manufactured in the U.S. have to have both the analog and
digital tuners, although existing stock without a digital tuner could be
sold as long as a warning about the requirement of a converter was clearly
displayed at the point of sale. If the price of the converter remains
high, it might just push the sale of new sets. The prices I saw last
Wednesday on VCRs and DVD recorders, for example, made it a much smarter
choice to simply buy a new one rather than buy a converter even with the
$40 coupon.

Cable and satellite are not required to switch to digital. Since
their customers pay for service, there is more clout there for them to
supply an analog signal, at least for a few years. But some cable
companies are already switching some cable only channels to digital to
better utilize their available bandwidth.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

"Newps" wrote

I am not aware of any cable system that allows direct hookup of digital
cable right to the back of the TV without first going thru a converter
box. It's certainly possible but I think the hangup is a lack of a
standard. So you're forced to run it thru the box first and the box
simply converts it to channel 3 or 4 if you have an analog TV.

I'll have to tell Charter that they are doing their signal wrong, cause I
can get channels till the cows come home with the cable going right into the
back of my TV's.
--
Jim in NC

On 25 Nov, 10:50, "Morgans" wrote:
"Newps" wrote



I am not aware of any cable system that allows direct hookup of digital
cable right to the back of the TV without first going thru a converter
box. It's certainly possible but I think the hangup is a lack of a
standard. So you're forced to run it thru the box first and the box
simply converts it to channel 3 or 4 if you have an analog TV.

I'll have to tell Charter that they are doing their signal wrong, cause I
can get channels till the cows come home with the cable going right into the

I have no idea how the US digital TV works and
little idea how th UK one does so I might be comparing
apples with bananas but you can get a convertor
box for 10 GBP (20 USD) here now. These will
absolutely not work with a US TV but they are probably
quite similar in function.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007...digitaltvradio

"We've seen the cheapest digital box go from £100 to £10 in just five
years"
"was introduced in October 2002 and to date, 19m
set-top boxes and TV sets with built in digital receivers
have been sold."