Television switches to digital
 

As some of you might know, the United States' government has mandated that, by February 17th, 2009, all TV stations must broadcast in digital.

Here is a link from everyone's friend, the FCC. Supposedly, the switch will allow for "improved picture and sound quality and additional channels."

So, what do you guys think about this? Why would the government mandate this? What could they possibly gain? I'll go off on a branch and, in the nature of my cynical side, say that better quality = more people watching TV, which means less people worrying about other issues (effectively using TV as a means of escaping their life).

Also, is this happening in any other countries, other than the US, or is this just another reason to disapprove of Congress?

By 2012 in the UK. The BBC is subsidising 'freeview' digital tuners for those with old television and I believe over-65s are getting them installed for free but I'm not entirely sure.

Communication during 9/11 was a major issue. Analog radios were cut off by other analog signals. Our emergancy system will communicate better during a crisis. I love this idea. I have already made the change.

Picture quality is an improvement, but the signal can sometimes be lost. I have cable in the living room; however, I don't have it in my family room. I can save some money. We only use the dvd player downstairs. Digital is an improvement.

I'm with Litofsky on this one. What right does the Government have to suddenly mandate: "You're going Digital?"

Now, granted, most new TV's already have Digital tuners, so it's not going to affect many people, but the ones it is going to affect...

But, Yar-El also makes a good point, the Emergency Broadcast System needs an overhaul. However, I wouldn't mandate a switch to the Digital TV system like this right now, since the Digital Signals aren't as good as they should be, yet. I was watching the Late, late show with Craig Furguson at my cousin's house and the signal just kept cutting out and out....

I guess that once the system gets the kinks out it'll be just fine...

Oh well... :giveup:

There's been a lot of talk from the government in public service announcements, claiming that digital television promises "better picture and sound quality" over analog. Of course, I have digital cable, and that is a pure lie; I get compression artifacts galore, slow buffer times when switching channels, and annoying static. They could allow better compression and picture quality, if they used a better codec rather than the standard MPEG-2, perhaps even the MPEG-4 codec. Of course, the government has also said that the leftover bandwidth from the analog switchoff will be used for emergency communications, but I'm sure that's a white lie, and that it will probably be sold to communication companies for their own use.

Not to mention, now that all new TVs sold are built with an ATSC tuner, TVs are much more expensive than they were even five years ago. In 2003, I bought a standard 480i, 27" tube TV for $300. Yesterday, I saw a TV made by the same company as mine, also a 27" tube, for $450. Of course, there could be several factors for the increased price, but I'm guessing that it's the digital tuner that is the primary reason for the higher price.

They did that here a couple of years ago. All television is digital and you need a digital box to plug into older TVs to be able to watch non-satellite channels. I bet someone in the electronics industry made quite a bit of money when a few million people suddenly needed to buy those. :)

As for improvements... Well, I guess there's slightly better image quality and a lot more channels to choose from. On the downside it seems to be a lot more sensitive to interference. With poor signal quality you get stuttering images, missing sound and mosaic distortions rather than some white noise.

I'm sure that you're right. I'd love to find the vote in Congress that authorized this bill, then find out who voted yes and compare that to which Senators/Representatives are taking money from which lobbying groups. Wow, that was a mouthful.

Essentially, how many Congresspersons were paid to vote this way.

My country is incredibly delayed on the implantation of the digital TV. That can be adressed to the government's choice on which system to adopt. We had the north american ATSC, the european DVB and the japanese ISDB to choose from. And so we did chose the latter, for it was the one with higher quality. As a result of the delay, the deadline to switch to digital is 2016.

Digital TV will allow governments to monitor the exact viewing habits of citizens across the nation. It's all about surveillance: they want us to be watched, whether its through observing your television habits or installing cameras at street corners.

They want to find potential security threats with this measure, or want to assist plutocratic corporations who want to tap into viewer data for market research, or dozens of other disgusting purposes.

It's all a conspiracy.

HAHAHA WHAT IS YOUR SOURCE FOR THIS BLATANTLY FELLATIOS STATEMENT?

When a neighbour of mine switched to Digital TV, I saw a black helicopter nearby and two guys with heavy suitcases wearing sunglasses and black suits.

THE SIGNS ARE OBVIOUS

Like many others, I'm not pleased that the UK will be switching over to digital in 2012. Yes, there are more channels than analogue, and yes sometimes the signal is clearer, better teletext services, etc. - but my main problem lies in the fact that whenever anyone anywhere near me begins cutting the grass or switches on a haridryer the signal deteriorates badly, to the point that it becomes impossible to watch. There is NOTHING more irritating than watching a comedy show, listening to a building joke, only to have the signal break up at the punchline!:swear:

sabre i'm makin you head of scheduling for my pirate tv station it's gonna broadcast on the frequency fox is broadcasting on around these parts currently so we can grab the out-of-touch 90 year old viewer group who doesn't know what digital means. get back to me.

I sense that M. Night Shyamalan will want to read this thread now! :xp:

the main character's really an ai http://lucasforums.com/picture.php?a...pictureid=2069

i'm in will also handle radio station for extra money

I have had digital TV for quite some time now. It does make you wonder a little bit why the government is mandating this, as others have pointed out.

In my experiance with it, it just gives you more channels to choose from.

Hmm...

[Dr. Frankenstein/Gene Wilder] That just! Might! WORK!