Results 1 to 10 of 16
-
06-12-2009, 09:50 AM #1
Switch to digital TV becomes final today
Switch to digital TV becomes final today
An era in American broadcast television will end Friday as the nation finishes its delayed transition to digital TV.
Without a converter box, satellite service or cable hook-up, analog TVs will deliver only static now.
By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down their outdated analog transmitters, leaving static to watch for those who are not ready.
Stations all over the country will be making the historic switch all day Friday, Federal Communications Commission officials said.
American TV viewers were given four extra months to get ready for the switch, when Congress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition.
At that time, an estimated 6.5 million homes -- including many elderly, poor and disabled Americans -- weren't prepared for a February 17 switch to digital, supporters argued.
"In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions," said Michael Copps, the Federal Communications Commission acting chairman. "We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we're going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC."
I know it's old news, but it still amazes me that Congress voted to delay the switch for four months after people had plenty of time to update and those stupid commercials were played non-stop. Heaven forbid someone not be able to watch tv...then who would tell them what to think?!?!
-
-
06-12-2009, 10:11 AM #2
I lol'd at that
-
06-12-2009, 10:14 AM #3
What I find even more amazing is that there are still people out there using Antenna's to get a signal??? I just can't imagine!!
-
-
06-12-2009, 10:15 AM #4
I've never seen a commercial about this, but I did hear about it. Not sure if it impacts me - guess I'll find out soon.
-
06-12-2009, 10:19 AM #5
yeah, talk about prehistoric...
in the late 1980's when i was still a kid, my mom married this guy who refused to get cable and everynight he would twist and turn those antennas to try and pick up a clear signal...used to drive me nuts...thank god that marriage didn't last too long...haha
-
-
06-12-2009, 10:24 AM #6
It's not tv, but a similar situation: 3-4 years ago, I read about a tiny community in the deep backwoods in Louisiana that had just got telephone service. There were so few people and it would cost so much to run service out that far that the phone company never had...it ended up costing something like $19,000 per resident to get service out there.
I know there are places that don't have cable running to it (there are some around here), but satellites can reach anywhere.
-
06-12-2009, 11:02 AM #7
my grandfather (dad's side) used to have one of those ginormous satellite dishes in his front yard back in the 80's....i used to love going there because they had a couple hundred channels
but my grandparents (mom's side) just last year were going to get DirecTV installed, but the guy said it wouldn't work because there were too many trees in the way of the signal...he said if they lived across the street it would work, but there were too many tall trees on their side that he couldn't get a strong enough signal
-
-
06-12-2009, 11:18 AM #8
One of my friends had one of those growing up...it was such a pain to work (you have to choose which satellite you want to get channels from, then which channel you want), but it did have a plethora of adult-oriented channels...both wonderful and dangerous for adolescent boys!
In college, our satellite was just skimming the tops of some trees. When the wind blew hard, the signal would go in and out...
-
06-12-2009, 11:24 AM #9
one of my cousins on my moms side visited their house with me, and to this day he still talks about that satellite and the 50 inch box tv that looked more like a grand piano
they had some weird setup where the main tv was like the master and all other tvs were slaves...so whatever was being watched on the main tv was also on the other tvs in the house...i didnt realize this while staying up late one night and searching for smut...i didn't get caught, but when i found out about this, i never dared to look for adult programming on their tv again!
-
06-12-2009, 11:49 AM #10
one of my cousins on my moms side visited their house with me, and to this day he still talks about that satellite and the 50 inch box tv that looked more like a grand piano
they had some weird setup where the main tv was like the master and all other tvs were slaves...so whatever was being watched on the main tv was also on the other tvs in the house...i didnt realize this while staying up late one night and searching for smut...i didn't get caught, but when i found out about this, i never dared to look for adult programming on their tv again!
Yeah that's the setup my friend had too...we waited until his parents went to bed then one person would have to stand at the top of the stairs to make sure they didn't get up. Oh the things boys will do to see a naked woman!
-
Originally Posted by OnePimpTiger 
