DTV: The coming crisis

On February 17, 2009, twenty-eight days after a new President of the United States is sworn in , the televisions of hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - of Americans will go to static.

The switch from Analog to Digital broadcasting is not something that someone just came up with recently. It has been in the works for many years, and I believe it has had many target dates for launch before this one. And for years I have been arguing that it ultimately will not happen, or at least will not happen as planned, for one simple reason: the people most likely to be adversely affected by the transition are also the people least able to avoid being adversely affected by it.

Full information on this topic can be found at DTVanswers.com . I haven't studied the situation in depth, but this is my understanding:

• The transition will allow the FCC to chop up the broadcast spectrum into much finer slices, allowing more broadcast licenses to be sold for the same chunk of airwaves. That's the financial motivation behind it.
• People receiving their television signal through a cable or satellite dish will not be affected, only people who are plucking their signals out of the air. So if you have a cable or satellite service that absolutely never ever goes out, forcing you to switch to the "AIR" option if you want to continue to get a signal, you're all set. Also, I'd like to know who your cable or satellite operator is.
• Newer televisions sold in the past few years are DTV compliant, unless they're not. If they're not, they're supposed to be marked as being non-DTV compliant. Unless they're not. Quite a few newer televisions sold in the last few years fall into the "not/not" category, according to reports earlier this year.
• So if you have an older television and always/sometimes get your signal over the air, you need to get a converter box to attach to your TV, and you need to get a coupon to get the converter box. But beware: the coupons come with an expiration date - I think they're only good for 90 days, and once they expire, you can't get them replaced. And getting a coupon from someone else who doesn't need it is a Federal offense of some sort - "While it is illegal to sell coupons, giving a coupon for free to a family member, friend, or neighbor is not prohibited under Program regulations." And the converter boxes are in short supply, so you might not be able to get one before your coupon expires. And the money for the coupon program is running out, so by the time you get around to requesting one, it may have dried up entirely.
• If you have one of those handy little portable TVs with a tiny screen, perfect for watching the evening news at bedtime, or catching the game from the passenger's seat of a car, or watching Wheel of Fortune when you're "roughing it" in the woods, or watching the latest evacuation information when the power is out and a huge storm is destroying your community - well, too bad. From the FAQs on DTVanswers.com:

I have a handheld or battery-powered TV. Will this work after February 17, 2009? Can I connect it to a TV converter box?

If your portable analog TV set has an available RF or Line input jack, it can be connected to a DTV converter box to continue receiving television signals after the transition. Currently, there is at least one battery-powered converter box available now. The manufacturer, Winegard, offers a battery pack for use with its converter box model.

I'm going to take that as a "no."

• If you're a little old lady (see below) or otherwise economically challenged person without the disposable income to buy either a new TV or a DTV converter box and the necessary hardware to get it to attach to your 13" Zenith black & white TV from 1981,* too bad. But you've probably already learned that you don't count to anyone making these calls, anyway. Besides, Bob Barker is off the air, and Drew Carey will never take his place.

So, bottom line: come February 17, 2009, if everything goes according to plan, everybody with a new TV, cable TV, satellite TV, or DTV converter box will be fine. Everybody else is screwed. Or at least as screwed as you can be when your television no longer works. Which for large swathes of society means "pretty screwed."


This video is courtesy of Jen, and comes from Talkshow with Spike Feresten, which Adam Felber wrote for in its premiere season:



(That little old lady is so darned cute.)


Links:

• http://dtvanswers.com/ - DTVanswers.com
• https://www.dtv2009.gov/TV - https://www.dtv2009.gov/ - TV Converter Box coupon website
• http://digitaltips.org/ - Digital Tips: Your Ultimate Guide to Consumer Electronics
• http://www.dtvtransition.org/ - DTVtransition.org (not .gov)
• http://dtv.gov/ - http://www.dtv.gov/ - What You Need to Know about DTV from the Federal Communications Commission
• https://www.ntiadtv.gov/ - TV Converter Box Coupon Program (for retailers)
• http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx - Antenna Web - "locates the proper outdoor antenna to receive your local television broadcast channels"

UPDATE, 11/30/2008: So what do we learn from the fact that two of the .gov websites originally linked above are no longer working because of slight changes to their URLs? I did verify these links when I first posted them, so they have definitely changed since then.

*Yes, I do have one of these.