Digital Television may not be coming soon!

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

<snip> in IMO, the only thing wrong with all the publicity to date is that it didn't say "convert now" instead of "convert on Feb 17" The digital signals are available and have been available for months. Have you converted your mother. grandfather, great uncle yet? If not, shame on you! You are a greater problem than Congress! You are the guru in your circle of acquaintances. You should be finding out if there are any problems beforehand, not after analog shuts down.

So, yeah, the bill was written a little goofy, but the program as a whole appears to have worked very well even given the limitations that were put on it by Congress.

Actually, the digital signals have been available for -years-, about 9 years in the larger metros, and about 5 years everywhere else (exceptions - some PBS stations, stations in very small markets, and independent stations that were handed an out-of-core temporary channel - acknowledged)

This, of course, only further proves your point!

The whole thread should have been titled "Analog may not be leaving soon!".

The statement about people living "more than 20 miles out" being unable to receive DTV is ridiculous. In fact, in most areas (those with full power DTV transmitters), more people -within- 20 miles of the local transmitters will have problems with DTV than those 20-45 miles out (sounds strange, but PM me and I'll elaborate).

As for the problem with the Funai CECB: My Philco works fine for DTV (though the analog pass-through feature is not quite perfect) (also, my Philco is an earlier production model. If the newer boxes have problems cause by trying to meet the increased demand, I'm not aware of it).

I also wonder how the coupon program "ran out of money" so suddenly. The program was supposed to go to a second phase when the money started running low (only one to a household, and ONLY for households that did not have cable nor satellite), which would have greatly increased how long the coupons would be available.