Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
We are getting a better deal here in the USA. The government will send two US$40 coupons to buy tuner boxes starting next January or so, to any household that requests them. Digital tuner boxes are already available for US$80, and will probably be about $50-60 next year. Regarding "perceived benefit", with any halfway-decent antenna, these boxes will tune in perfect, ghost-free signals, and many stations already have two or more channels in the space of one analog channel. I have the choice of two 24-hour local weather channels, a 24-hour news channel, 24-hour children's commercial-free channel, and others, all crystal-clear (but those ones are not hi-def). At worst case, some people might need to add a US$10 RF modulator to the box. With that, for $25 I can watch all those added channels as well as all of the existing ones except they are clearer, on any TV made since 1946 in the USA... Certainly, anyone in the USA who thinks this is a bad "value" simply has no idea what really deserves complaining about.
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When analog tv goes away what is the incentive for price reductions in digital tuners. The only ones available here (they are no longer available) were $149 not $80. Even if the price drops to $50 I would have to buy 7 of them. Now the government is graciously going to give me two coupons, but what about the other $270 for my sets? I havn't seen a ten dollar rf modulator either, not here. Even at Wal-Mart they are $19.88. So lets see I am now at $409.16 plus tax that's $449.05. Thats almost four hundred and fifty dollars to watch the same sets I can watch now for free with a large antenna. Some "value".
Add to this the fact that I live between Memphis and Nashville. Here we have one ABC station, and one PBS station in Lexington. Memphis is about 80 miles away, and Nashville 130 miles away. Even the Lexington transmitter is about 30 miles away. With a large antenna I could receive the Memphis stations and the local stations, and if I turn the antenna the other way I could receive the stronger Nashville stations. Since the new digital stations will be UHF, at best I will be able to get our 1 local channel, and if there are no birds or bad weather I will get the 1 PBS station maybe, and those will eventually not be free. Some "Value".
Now if I had cable what would happen? Well if JEA of Charter follow the lead of Comcast I may have to still have a box for each set. At a cost of lets say $5.00 per box per month that would be an additional $35 per month to the cable bill, that's an additional $420 per year. Some "value".
Either way the average consumer gets screwed. I think this is something worth complaining about. The digital conversion could have been mandated to coexist or be backwards compatible with the current system. But then nobody would have any incentive to subscribe to the new digital channels other than for HDTV. Bottom line is that digital broadcasting was not consumer driven. It was purely corporate driven for profit. I am not against any company making profits, but I am against forcing it on people. Why not open UHF up to digital HDTV, and leave the rest alone? That way I have the option of buying digital with it's potential HDTV or not. The government does have the right to regulate the air waves spectrum usage, they always have. As a citizen I have the right to use them, and the forced change is going to force some people to simply not watch tv. I am not so sure that is a bad idea (not watching tv that is).
How about this a massive consumer revolt. Leave the system alone, or make it compatible, or we all stop watching broadcast television. For what it's likely to cost me I could buy the DVDs for the programs I watch most.
Just a thought.
Bill R