Air waves rant

sanssouci · Dec 6, 2006

They used to be free....The local news paper ran article that said that by 2009 in my area all TV broadcasts will be either satellite or cable,no more air wave broad casts.

Their reason is that the equipment is old and the towers need to be replaced. They also state that 80% of the population uses sat or cable. Well I'm part of the cheep 20% that still uses an antenna. We get seven channels and we find that's enough. If we want more we'll rent a movie. Satellite or cable is just another bill.

Mark42 · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Not to worry. Soon the broadcast channels will be encoded and you will need to purchase a box to watch those free air waves.

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

February 17th, 2009 is the official conversion to digital broadcast date. After that there will be no analog broadcasts. It's likely the towers in your area can't handle the digital signal. TV broadcasting is a business. If they can't make enough to offset the upgrade cost- POOF. No more TV for you. :'(

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Mark42 said:
Not to worry. Soon the broadcast channels will be encoded and you will need to purchase a box to watch those free air waves.

You need a "box" to watch those free airwaves now. It's called an analog tuner and it's inside your tv. Most newer tv's are now including digital tuners.

sanssouci · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Who needs really 300 channels? Aren't 200 of them repeats anyways.

tommays · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

I still want to know who got payed off to force the switch to HD and give them the abilty to turn off your LEGAL abilty to record for personal use

Tommays

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

tommays said:
I still want to know who got payed off to force the switch to HD and give them the abilty to turn off your LEGAL abilty to record for personal use

Tommays

I can't speak for the recording part but I can tell you who got paid to force the switch. "We" did. The government is reclaiming some of the bandwidth for EMS use and auctioning off a lot of the rest.

KaGee · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Note of Clarification... HD can only be broacast on a digital channel... but not all digital channels are HD! Matter of fact... most digital broadcasts are not in HD format. Please don't confuse the two.

Be careful when buying that new HDTV! Make sure it has an internal DIGITAL tuner so you can tune off-air digital channels. Some models only have an analog tuner, requiring a "set-top box" to tune in digital channels.

Digital channels are hyphinated. If your analog channel is 13, the digital channel is 13-1, 13-2, etc..

tommays · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

I like the guy in PA who is getting the kickbacks to try and turn OFF the NOAA broadcasts on VHF and turn it into a pay weather service

As giveing weather to people outside at risk for free is bad for them ?

Tommays

Haut Medoc · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Santorum got voted out, rightly so....
He is/was a Rehub- Imagine that!

jtexas · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

I'm with you sansoucci...watch enough TV as it is, don't need to pay extra for it...even with 4 stations switching to spanish language program in the last 5 years, still have 9 or 10.

But the direction the networks are headed, how long before they'll have nothing but crap? Like WifeSwap, Howie Mandel and the Next Top Model (they could combine those two shows and save even more money, bet Tyra would kick Howie's butt the first week), the Rich Prince Gets a Wife, etc.

WifeSwap has potential...think how much better it'd be on cable....

Hey froggycat, do my "regular" TV's become obsolete on that magic date of 17Feb2009?

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

jtexas said:
Hey froggycat, do my "regular" TV's become obsolete on that magic date of 17Feb2009?

Yes and no. You'll need a set top digital tuner. Kinda like a cable box only you won't need cable, just the digital tuner box.

And KaGee is absolute right about the distinction between digital and HD. All HD is digital but not all digital is HD.

Pony · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Almost every TV now has a built in tuner, the only ones that still may not are the smaller LCD's. At work I used to have to run component from a big set top box to every HDTV we had.......in about a years time I have been able to completely remove the component "runs" and can use strictly coax. Tuners aka set top boxes have REALLY dropped in price now too, as less and less TV's actually require one.

Kagee is correct, not all channels are HD......during the day it is almost strictly SD broadcasts. Prime Time and sporting events are about the only things that are HD right now. Regardless, a HD antenna is a must buy with any HDTV. Even if your Digital cable company or Satellite company offerers your local stuff in HD, you will get a much better picture going through the antenna.

Pony · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

RubberFrog said:
jtexas said:

Hey froggycat, do my "regular" TV's become obsolete on that magic date of 17Feb2009?

Click to expand...

Yes and no. You'll need a set top digital tuner. Kinda like a cable box only you won't need cable, just the digital tuner box.

And KaGee is absolute right about the distinction between digital and HD. All HD is digital but not all digital is HD.

A set top box will run you a couple hundred bucks right now..........down from $1000 not too long ago.

Which at this point means nothing. You can get an SD tube and still watch the digital broadcasts for that money (if they continue to make them) I have heard rumors that we (Best Buy) wont be selling tubes much longer, but I dont know how practical that is.

ZmOz · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

Most (if not all) cable companies offer basic cable - that is, all the free channels that are broadcast in your area - for about $5/month. If you can't afford that then you shouldn't be watching TV...

sanssouci · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

If you can't afford that then you shouldn't be watching TV...

You're right $5.00 /month is nothing but that's not the point.

The point is choice. I chose to pay nothing.

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

No, no, no sanssouci. You either do it Z's way or you hit the street!

ZmOz · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

sanssouci said:
The point is choice.

Yep, and your local TV companies choose not to broadcast any longer. You're still free to choose whatever you want.

Why should they have to pay millions to upgrade their equipment just because you don't want a bill?

sanssouci · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

ZmOz said:
sanssouci said:

The point is choice.

Click to expand...

Yep, and your local TV companies choose not to broadcast any longer. You're still free to choose whatever you want.

Why should they have to pay millions to upgrade their equipment just because you don't want a bill?

Point taken....That's why the rant.

RubberFrog · Dec 6, 2006

Re: Air waves rant

sanssouci said:
ZmOz said:

sanssouci said:

The point is choice.

Click to expand...

Yep, and your local TV companies choose not to broadcast any longer. You're still free to choose whatever you want.

Why should they have to pay millions to upgrade their equipment just because you don't want a bill?

Click to expand...

Point taken....That's why the rant.

It's all becoming so clear now! 8)

Air waves rant

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