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End of Analog specials?

H

HoustonListener

Just wondering.. does anyone know of any TV stations planning to run any special programs to commermorate the end of their analog broadcasting, maybe history of their stations, etc.?

I think the FCC should allow the stations to continue broadcasting on their analog frecuency for a week or two past the cut off date as long as the only programming is information about the switch to digital, for the clueless people who wait to the last minute, so instead of just seeing static they will see the information.. .although I don't see how anyone that watches TV could have missed all of the advertisements and notices that have been running lately.
 
If the FCC allowed something like that, it would have to be only on stations that won't be impacted by the switch. Some stations are moving around and wouldn't be able to leave their analog signals on the air.

It's a good idea though, perhaps the FCC could assign one or two stations in each market to do so. I doubt it's going to happen though. You know how the government is about good ideas. ;)

- Trip
 
I'm curious how stations that are moving their digital to the old analog allocation are going to handle things on 2/18/09.

Say your analog is on a VHF channel, and you've had a UHF for digital...but you plan to switch the digital over to the V. OTA digital receivers have mapped your station to the UHF channel...but when the switchover happens, the set will find nothing on that channel. Those viewers will have to do a fresh scan in order for the set to find the "new" channel for the digital output. Perhaps leave both transmitters on for a few days, with the lame duck signal broadcasting some graphic advising viewers to do a channel scan?
 
A number of stations can't do that, since a lot of them are outside the "core" (2-51) and channels outside the core must be vacated by 02/18/09. No exceptions (LPTV stations are allowed to stay on 52-59 only as a secondary service, and only for a limited time).

Some will likely do crawls and make repeated statements leading up to 02/17/09 that "You will need to rescan your digital receiver on 02/18/09, blah blah blah." They might even do the lame duck graphic the day before, who knows.

I only know of one station off the top of my head that's going to make the kind of phased switchover you suggest, and that's WAKA in Montgomery. They're going to sign on DT-42 at low power in December, and gradually raise power on DT-42 as they cut power on DT-55. Both will be operating at the same time, but they won't be doing the "lame duck" graphic on DT-55 as far as I know. I imagine that would require a separate encoder, which is quite a bit of money for something so temporary.

- Trip
 
I didn't think about the stations that are moving around and have to leave the air. For example, here in Houston, I understand that KTRK-DT is leaving 32 to return to the original 13, and that KPXB-DT is moving from 5 to take over the 32 being vacated by KTRK.

What would happen if someone does not do a re-scan on their TV after the switch for KTRK and KPXB?
I assume that they just would not see KTRK anywhere..but would they see KPXB under the PSIP of 13.1... or would the TV catch that KPXB is now broadcating on 32 with PSIP of 49.1 and display 49.1? or would the TV just not show either KTRK or KPXB -- or does it depend on the TV.

I think the idea of one station in each market analog doing limited broadcasts for a few weeks makes sense.. no need for all of them. IF you see snow on one channel on the TV, most people would flip through the channels to see if it is just that station or the TV, and would find the one station broadcasting the "you stupid idiot, you didn't pay attention when we told you analog broadcasting was ending, did you" message
 
Yeah, it varies with the set. Some would find 13-1 gone, and two 49-1 stations. Some would find both dead. I doubt you'd find a set that shows KPXB as 13-1, but you never know.

I generally agree. It should probably be a low VHF, since most of those aren't going to be used. That and a UHF probably, since some can see UHFs better... in Houston it could be, say, 2 and 20.

- Trip
 
HoustonListener said:
Just wondering.. does anyone know of any TV stations planning to run any special programs to commermorate the end of their analog broadcasting, maybe history of their stations, etc.?
Click to expand...

This is an interesting idea. I think what I'd like to see is a station set up a live shot shortly before midnight at their transmitter.. and also show a TV that's tuned to the analog station. Then at the stroke of midnight when they're supposed to stop analog, show them shut down the analog transmitter and show the analog set go to snow. It would be about the best symbolic way to show what's happening. You could also show other sets tuned to the digital station or hooked in to cable that are still getting the signal just fine.
 
I took my set-top converter box from Houston to Chicago on a recent trip (one of the Zenith clones from Best Buy). When I connected up the rabbit ears, the box found the stations that were on the same physical channel as ones I had programmed in in Houston, but when I changed to the specific channel, it would "change" in the system to the new channel. For example, if I channeled up through 2 (35DT) & 8 (9DT) - both of which are currently analog stations in Chicago - the box found nothing, but when I hit 11 (KHOU-31DT), poof, the channel changed from 11.1 to 32.1 (WFLD-31DT), and was then remembered. Likewise, if I went to 20.1 (KTXH-19DT), it then jumped to 9.1 (WGN-19DT).

I just did a rescan and was able to pick up every station in Chicago - even WWME-LD, but had to adjust the antenna for different stations (I was staying at the Hyatt along the Chicago river. BTW, WBBM-DT (Channel 3) was booming downtown - the receiver picked it up no matter how I had the antenna oriented - but all of the analog signals were horrible - due to ghosting...

Jim
 
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