[BC] DTV Transition Wrinkle

[Alan Kline]

At this point, no, translators and Class A TV's do not have to convert 
by 2/19/09. In fact, I was just reading in one of the TV trade papers 
about how the class A's are whining about the FCC's DTV publicity. 
They're upset because the public will supposedly think they've gone away 
on 2/19/09. They want the Commission to back off the "all TV is going 
digital" bit. They're also trying to gum up the DTV converter coupon 
giveaway by trying to block use of the coupons on any box that won't 
pass an analog signal.

Methinks they should spend less time whining and more time keeping up 
with the technology. What are they going to do when manufacturers stop 
making TV's with analog tuners?

ak

Mark W. Croom wrote:
> I am somewhat curious about this myself. I do not subscribe to cable
> television service, and of 5 channels I receive at my home most of the time,
> three of them are translator stations. I can't cleanly decode closed
> captioning on those signals because they are relatively noisy.
> 
> After the cutover date I'm probably going to be down to two stations, a CBS
> affiliate and a public TV station. Maybe I'll just have to put up enough
> antenna to get the ABC station that's down the road apiece. 
> 
> Or not. We don't watch much TV anyway; the DTV transition could cure us once
> and for all.