what? no more analog tv by 2006?

[sitlet]

i was watching the news yesterday and they had a report that said the FCC is requiring all tv stations to brodcast hdtv only by 2006. that means that everyone will have to trash their current tv's and go out to buy new ones. does anyone know if this is true? i highly doubt that they will shut down analog broadcasting in two years.

heres a link to the article:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/2909823/detail.html

i like the quote ""What you want to look for is a wide screen TV with a rectangular picture able to accept a digital signal," said Paulson."

a rectangular picture, as opposed to a triangular one?

[jeex]

converters will be sold, and i imagine they will be very cheap, considering there are more tv's than fridges..

think about all the money the networks would lose if converters were expensive..

[flaninacupboard]

well in this country digital receivers cost as little as £40 (about $55, although they'll actually cost you more like $30) and come with everything from RGB to RF outputs to accomodate older TV's.

Im quite looking forward to analogue switch-off, more space for digital channels!

[Capmaster]

i was watching the news yesterday and they had a report that said the FCC is requiring all tv stations to brodcast hdtv only by 2006. that means that everyone will have to trash their current tv's and go out to buy new ones. does anyone know if this is true? i highly doubt that they will shut down analog broadcasting in two years.

heres a link to the article:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/2909823/detail.html

i like the quote ""What you want to look for is a wide screen TV with a rectangular picture able to accept a digital signal," said Paulson."

a rectangular picture, as opposed to a triangular one?

Analog eliminated by 2006? Shyaaahh! Like we were supposed to go to the metric system here in the states....it didn't happen, no will it ever.
I agree with jeex ...there will always be a way to convert the signal, and cheap too. Think of all the people, voting people, who will not be ready to invest in a new TV or several TVs in many cases.

[ChrisX]

what? no more analog tv by 2006?

Same here in Australia and analog TV broadcasts is expected to cease 2008.

I am preparing to buy a HDTV converter box into my analog Sony Wega TV pretty soon, maybe mid-year.

Prices are going down all the time for these HDTV receiver boxes.

[Marco33]

Since the goverment wants to sell off all the old analog stuff... meaning they can make money, It might just happen in 2006.

Sound& Vision: Quote

The switchover won't take place till 85% of the households in each market can recieve digital broadcasts, even if it means going beyond 2006.

It's not realy a big deal. Most D* & Cable stuff is already "Digital".

and lets not confuse Digital with HD, which is NOT requiered by the FCC.

[flaninacupboard]

not sure if the UK govt has set a percentage, but there was a report released a few weeks ago stating 60% of homes receive some form of digital TV, and i believe digital set top boxes were one of the top selling items at christmas.

[Capmaster]

I think analog sets will linger for a long, long time. It'll be like the 3.5" floppy

[Marco33]

I think analog sets will linger for a long, long time. It'll be like the 3.5" floppy

Probably, The projected price for a convert (Digital to Analog) is about $30.

[flaninacupboard]

Oh for sure, after all if you just bought a digital convertor it would seem like a waste of money to buy a TV with the convertor built in. plus of course there'll be people watching nothing but cable and VHS tapes. i don't think there'll ever be a TV with Digital only connections. just you watch, someone's bound to post a link and prove me wrong!

[Capmaster]

Oh for sure, after all if you just bought a digital convertor it would seem like a waste of money to buy a TV with the convertor built in. plus of course there'll be people watching nothing but cable and VHS tapes. i don't think there'll ever be a TV with Digital only connections. just you watch, someone's bound to post a link and prove me wrong!

Damn the web!

[zzyzzx]

Where can I get one of these converters for $30?

[Marco33]

Where can I get one of these converters for $30?

For a split second, I'll assume you are serious. That price is a projected amount of what a converter will cost "after" the Conversion of Analog to Digital.

I spend a lot of time surfing HDTV forums and that amount seem to be "in the ball park".

[flaninacupboard]

well,

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=1751&productId=85571&Trail=C$cip=12724 >C$cip=12779>C$cip=12780&categoryId=12780

but a similar box will cost you, as i said, about $30 when they become available.

[BobV]

I may be wrong, but I think the tight schedule is a effort to heat up the economy.

[BobV]

zzyzzx, that signature is great! Where can I down load, I hate cats.
<sorry was that too off topic?>

[alenhard]

uhh...you can right-click and "save picture as"

[ChrisX]

I think analog sets will linger for a long, long time. It'll be like the 3.5" floppy

I agree and I can tell that analog TV will last a long time in Australia, the U.S and the world.

Analog TV is likely to be extended way past the deadline and I can see it still broadcasting say on 2015.

[jeex]

i'm thinking $30 is way off.. i'm guessing $5 or less, hell you might even be able to get them for free.. not now, when the "movement" happens.

this will be such a mass produced product that the prices should be very very VERY cheap..

[parsonsj]

This isn't a sudden thing here in the U.S. The cut off of the Analog Frequencies was mandated about 8 years ago when the FCC gave the Digital Frequencies out.

[flaninacupboard]

It has been rumored that people will be issued with free boxes at switch over in this country. that annoys me, no-one gave out convertors when BBC started broadcasting in 625 lines, you had to buy a new TV. it was just one of those things. but now it's like a crime to stop people watching TV! hopefully the incarnation of topuptv will make a lot more people buy/dig out their Ondigital boxes.

makes me wonder though, what are the BBC going to do if they startr giving out free ones? one per household? one per person? one per TV? We'd need six boxes here!

[handyguy]

To record hdtv to disk you'd need a bluray recorder 23 ? gigs per disk but that only records 4.5hrs of hdtv per disk. Looks like we have to use hdvcrs, so back to vcrs again

[flaninacupboard]

well a PVR with a big hard drive will be practicable. with a 300gig hard drive for £180 you've got over 50 hours of TV. for channels/programmes not recorded in HD that's more like 150 hours.

[DoubleShadowIce]

This is not new gnus for US. Read here. This has been proposed in 2002.

[RabidDog]

Analog TV is likely to be extended way past the deadline and I can see it still broadcasting say on 2015

No they wont bcoz the govs all over the world are selling off these freqs for other users, and they are getting big bucks for them, in the billions of pounds. Y too much for them to ignore. As someone else stated HDTV and digital Tv are not synonymous.

[ChrisX]

Analog TV is likely to be extended way past the deadline and I can see it still broadcasting say on 2015

No they wont bcoz the govs all over the world are selling off these freqs for other users, and they are getting big bucks for them, in the billions of pounds. Y too much for them to ignore. As someone else stated HDTV and digital TV are not synonymous.

We can wait and see if this happens and if so, we will be forced to buy convertor boxes for our affordable analog TVs.

If analog transmission to cease by 2006 or 2008, then the only way to watch your favorite shows is to buy a HDTV or the box convertor.

Otherwise, I still think analog TV will still be around by then, 2015.

We see what happens in two years from now?