Delay Of June 12 DTV Transition?

[Neel]

Saying that the American people are not ready is probably the reason we never switched to metric like the rest of the world (and makes it super confusing when I travel to other countries). But anyways, I hope they don't delay the digital tv transition again.

I just hope people are right and that the reception of digital channels will improve. Right now, it is horrible in the Los Angeles area and although most people have cable, we have TVs in our breakrooms for work, etc where we can't expect our employer to get us cable or satellite... and while we could watch analog just fine, it is very difficult to get DTV. It almost feels like the cable and satellite companies won on this one since the range of DTV is so limited compared to analog and it's gonna force more people to subscribe just to watch TV.

 

[kenglish]

If your employer saw what Cable and satellite would cost, maybe he'd buy an antenna, and let you guys install it during one of your breaks.

Unfortunately, most broadcasters (as well as the Cable, satellite, and retail industry) seem to hope no one ever discovers OTA. (Where is the "stickie" for "Shooting ourselves in the foot"?)

 

[Neel]

Unfortunately, the employers would rather just get rid of the TV than bother with an antenna or cable.

I guess my point is that lot more of us will lose access to free TV because of the bad coverage of digital signals whether it is due to the technology or they just aren't running the transmitters with enough power. Maybe this might change once the analogs are shut off. I'll have to wait and see

 

[willcail]

Where do I start?

Digital broadcasting does have it pros and cons. The pros that the digital broadcasting does offer better picture and sound, muticasting, digital towers that uses less energy to broadcast the signal. Now DTV works best when its broadcasting on UHF channels. Now the cons that the signal will be pick up by your digital tuner or not. There isn't any "middle ground" reception. Your cheap rabbit ears (VHF/UHF antenna) antenna might not pick up the digital signal, and an upgrade to your antenna is needed. The digital broadcast towers are more directional then the old analog counterparts. Low VHF is terrible for DTV broadcast. The low VHF bandwidth barely can handle DTV signals. High VHF band (channel 8-13) does a better job but just barely.

My residency is an fourth floor apartment downtown Columbus east side. The only two DT stations that give me issues that are WSYX DT (WSYX DT is broadcast on VHF 13) and WDEM CA. (WDEM ERP is 1.05 KW) I do use an Antenna array.

The antenna array is the following:
One TV splitter with four out three in.
One Omni-Directional RCA HDTV antenna,
One Omni-Directional Phillips HDTV Antenna with the amplifier connected to the HDTV TV tuner
One C.Crane FM Reflective antenna (passive)
One Jensen UHF/VHF passive antenna (the cheap rabbit ears) with an gain dial.

The four antenna's are connected to the four outports. Input A coaxial connects to the Phillips TV amplifier, and the Phillips TV amplifier connects to the Samsung 1080i LCD HDTV. Input B coaxial connects to the RCA TV amplifier and the RCA TV amplifier to the bedroom Vizio HDTV LCD TV. Input C coaxial connects to my HD100 tabletop radio.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Now the cons that the signal will be pick up by your digital tuner or not. There isn't any "middle ground" reception.

This was true for me to begin with, but I have some stations that have pixilated lately. Some days it is worse than others. It's just something that gets on my nerves if it's more like what used to happen with anlaog. But if it's almost constant, that makes the program unwatchable. The sound goes out with pixilation. The station where this is worst is, according to what I've read on this site, at half power until the analog signal is turned off. So I watch the analog station.

The other stations are in the direction opposite from where the antenna is pointing, and I'm on the wrong end of the house, and I have trees on that end. But the location of the TV and antenna are for the other channels, which aren't on cable. I don't know what was wrong with one of them, but it seems okay now.

I think my antenna setup is as good as possible without going outdoors, though the antenna could be higher. I'm just afraid to pick the thing up after the cable was so hard to plug in. Actually, last Friday I was rewinding a tape and I walked over to the window to squash a bug. I lost the bug, but when the tape finished rewinding I had a frozen picture and then "No Signal". I tried another station. It was like what you see in some museums, and then "No signal." Again, "No signal." So it was happening to all stations--that meant the antenna was out. I checked the power strip and while the light blinks, everything else was working. I think I know why walking across the floor was causing pixilation on this one channel. Because I remembered how hard that cable was to plug in, and I pressed on it and BINGO!

 

[vchimpanzee]

There's really two separate questions here:

1. Can the Congress delay the digital transition again?
2. Will there be another delay, or will June 12 stick?

The answer to the first question is "yes" -- the transition date is set by legislation, and can be changed by legislation, as we saw in February.

The answer to the second question, however, is almost certainly "no". Remember, we were hearing suggestions about the need for a delay several months before the previous February 17 transition date -- and this time around, there is no political build up for another delay, so I just don't see it happening.

There will not be another delay. Most of the issues that caused the delay appear to the be fixed or there is a plan to fix them shortly after the transition date.

If there were another delay...then the problem of the laggard would be much worse. Laggards would believe that the transition will never occur...only to turn on the TV the day after and find out the hard way. There are a few people that believe that the analog signals will never go away for one reason or another, and they will be finding out the hard way come June 13th.

June 12th.

Most stations where I live are doing it during the day. They're all choosing different times.

 

[willcail]

WGCT-CA have an application to broadcast in digital at a whopping 0.3KW (300 watts) from their analog signal of 83 watts. I'm guessing analog TV would go away.

 

[TheRover]

When is the "DTV to full power" broadcasts allowed by the FCC?

12:01am on Friday, the 12th of June or Saturday, the 13th of June ? ?

I'm not going to invest in any antenna beyond the Indoor amplified one, until after all of the Digital stations have moved to their final resting place, and switched to full power.

 

[willcail]

It supposed to be 11:59PM June 12th all five US time zones. 6TH if you want to count Indiana time as a separate time zone.

 

[mescutia]

11:59pm? Why not have it be something like 2:00am, as is done with the switch to and from DST? Or 5:00am, even?

 

[vchimpanzee]

As I previously stated, each station here is running a scroll like a weather bulletin, and each one has its own switchover time planned.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Indiana time doesn't exist any more. Approx. 80 of Indiana's 92 counties follow New York time; the other 12 follow Chicago

 

[willcail]

I still consider Indiana have their own time zone.

 

[fybush]

I still consider Indiana have their own time zone.

You can consider it anything you want...but it's no different now from any other state that observes DST and is split between time zones; e.g.: Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, South Dakota, Oregon, Texas, etc. Do they each "have their own time zone," too?

The only remaining state that truly still is as unusual as Indiana used to be is Arizona, which observes MST year-round except in the Navajo Nation, which observes MST/MDT (and which surrounds the Hopi Nation, which is on MST year-round.)

 

[mleach]

I still consider Indiana have their own time zone.

You can consider it anything you want...but it's no different now from any other state that observes DST and is split between time zones; e.g.: Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, South Dakota, Oregon, Texas, etc. Do they each "have their own time zone," too?

The only remaining state that truly still is as unusual as Indiana used to be is Arizona, which observes MST year-round except in the Navajo Nation, which observes MST/MDT (and which surrounds the Hopi Nation, which is on MST year-round.)

Just last year I was reading in our local paper about some counties in western Kansas who are in the central time zone but they wanted to be in Mountain Time instead. The reason I remember was more/less those places had wanted to be in the same time zone as their closest big city..that being Denver and the move would help their local economy ( I have to admit I dont get that part ). But is it really possible for a county/city to actually "move" to another time zone? I don't see how.

 

[fybush]

Just last year I was reading in our local paper about some counties in western Kansas who are in the central time zone but they wanted to be in Mountain Time instead. The reason I remember was more/less those places had wanted to be in the same time zone as their closest big city..that being Denver and the move would help their local economy ( I have to admit I dont get that part ). But is it really possible for a county/city to actually "move" to another time zone? I don't see how.

It happens all the time. Some of the Indiana counties that initially went into CST/CDT switched to EST/EDT a year later, and vice versa, I think.

Time zones are artificial constructs, after all. In the US, they're changed legislatively - IIRC, it's a combination of state-level legislation and approval from the US Department of Transportation, which oversees time zones at the federal level.

As recently as forty years ago, the lines were quite different from the ones we recognize today: places such as Detroit, Louisville and even parts of western Ohio were on central time, for instance.

 

[BRNout]

As recently as forty years ago, the lines were quite different from the ones we recognize today: places such as Detroit, Louisville and even parts of western Ohio were on central time, for instance.

You're right and, in many ways, having those places on central time makes sense. Get this: I have an old map of Virginia from the 1940s which shows two or three of the westernmost counties in the SW corner of the state as being in CENTRAL time. Interesting. Frankly, if time zones were purely aligned along the appropriate meridians and did not have the political implications that they do, New England would (and should) be on Atlantic time.

The strangest one I've heard of comes courtesy of a former colleague who immigrated here from China. She told me that the entire PRC is on one time zone and that time zone is centered on Beijing. So, people in the west of the country have sunrise as late as 10:30 or 11 am and sunset as late as 11:30 pm or midnight! Remember that China is at least as big as the lower 48 states. Imagine if all of us had to adopt the same time as Rochester or Syracuse! That's roughly the arrangement that they have over there.

I know it has nothing to do with the subject of the thread - but it's fun to speculate anyway!

 

[oldiesfan6479]

As recently as forty years ago, the lines were quite different from the ones we recognize today: places such as Detroit, Louisville and even parts of western Ohio were on central time, for instance.

There have been minor changes in the past 40+ years--Indiana of course, also the
PT/MT line may not have "officially" been moved to the Utah/Nevada border until
the late 1960s, and more recently some tweaking in South Dakota. (Others?)

Then there is the 1983 Alaska change which I'd call major rather than minor--
due to both the size of the state and that it was shrunk from four time zones
to two.

One benchmark which cleaned up a lot, perhaps more in terms of DST observance,
was the Uniform Time Act which took effect in spring 1967. Speaking of DST and
Alaska, there is a movement there to exempt AK from daylight time. A similar one
in Montana earlier this year fizzled.

We've had a number of classic TV listings from Louisville (thanks to bpatrick and
others) showing that shift from CT to ET in 1961.

Further on Scott's mention of Ohio and Detroit, those areas go way back:

All of OH was placed in the Eastern time zone by 1936.

The Detroit area shifted from CT to ET as early as 1915.

Frankly, if time zones were purely aligned along the appropriate meridians and did not have the political implications that they do, New England would (and should) be on Atlantic time.

Au contrare. Perhaps you were listening to those independently-minded "Maineiacs"
who tried a few years ago to move their state to the Atlantic time zone, and stay on
AST year-round.

There is only a small piece of Maine (across from the bottom of New Brunswick) that
is east of 67.5 west longitude, which is the theoretical dividing line between the
Atlantic and Eastern time zones. Every other New England state lies completely west
of 67.5 and more or less east of 74 (75 deg. W is the theoretical center of the Eastern
time zone).

 

[ixnay]

Scott, oldiesfan and BRNout, I never understood the logic of placing the option of observance of DST in state/local hands.

The law taking effect in 2007 moving the start of DST to the second Sun. in Mar. should have abolished state/local option on DST entirely. It's too confusing, even with the internet. Especially for folks who don't have internet access.
ixnay

 

[willcail]

Well since I "derailed" this topic. I'm getting this back on track. Now I can do more bad train puns, like I must focus my train of thought on the topic on hand.

Since the new switch off date on a Friday, it would be interesting on how many people who doesn't pat attention will complain.

Remember there will be one final DTV test at 12:30 and 7:30pm today. Adjust for time zone.