Comments:Many US TV stations preparing to make digital switch despite new legislation

This "switchover" is going to be a disaster.

I use an outdoor antenna to receive analog broadcasts, a simple system that's worked just fine for about seventy-five years. I don't get three channels (everyone always says "three"); I get nine, and get them quite well. With the converter, I get a grand total of one. One? Yes, ONE. As if that's not bad enough, it's PBS. Singing puppets and talking animals do not great entertainment make.

I'm one of the few people who can talk intelligently on this subject, having been repairing television receivers and installing antennas for a very long time.

See, the nature of digital broadcast is all wrong for television. Digital receivers require a perfect signal to function at all. Unless you can come up with a perfect signal, you'll see a blank screen. To further complicate the matter, the powers that be have decided to try to broadcast these signals using UHF (ultra-high frequencies). Remember those awful UHF stations that would never come in right no matter what? They were unpopular for a very real reason. You can't broadcast over a hill, or across water, or in the damn rain! Unless you live in town, you won't get a perfect signal.

We've taken the two absolute worst broadcasting methods, and combined them to create this piecemeal dinosaur. And this is supposed to be good? I'm not like most people - I know what the hell's going on around me, and I have to say, this is the absolute dirt-dumbest move I've ever seen.

I smell a fish here. Do you? Is is possible that our good congressmen and representatives have been accepting money from the friendly cable and satellite service providers, the service providers knowing damned well that this turkey won't fly, and anyone who wants television after the switchover will have to PAY for it? Why else would the Govs be pushing this thing so hard? They've got a lot of cars, boats, and vacation houses to pay for, you know? After all, they're only humam.

You know who I really feel sorry for? All the old folks with no minds left, who are still having trouble figuring out their touch-tone telephone. They're going to wind up sitting in front of their televisions, with no clue in this world how to change the channel. Where's the knob?

There's also the issue of cost. How many times have I heard, "If you're not ready now, you won't be ready in June. You're just lazy."? That's not how it works in real life. Let me tell you about an old friend of mine. He's gone now, rest his poor soul, and the last ten years of his life, crippled with arthritis and nearly blind, he received no other income than a monthly check for forty dollars. Even with these forty dollar coupons, you won't pay less than fifteen dollars at any store I know of. What happens when fifteen dollars is a week-and-a-half of groceries? Well, you lose, that's what happens. Are you saying that this guy didn't deserve a television to occupy his last days? Think about that.

Did I mention that you'll probably have to buy a new UHF antenna? Your old one, being mainly a VHF antenna, won't do much good.

These are just a few of the problems I've noticed, and the switch hasn't even happened yet.

This "switchover" is going to be a disaster.

---The One Eyed Bandit

wat —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.61.236.86 (talk) 13:21, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I actually get more than twice as many channels on digital and get them quite fine, even the Boston ones(I live in RI).--CnrFallon (talk) 00:54, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I feel a LOT happier having gotten normal T.V. out of my life completely. I'm not going to get a converter box, I'm going to let the thing go dead. Fephisto (talk) 11:31, 14 February 2009 (UTC)