From Northwest engineering maestro, Clay Frienwald:
http://www.broadcast.net/~sbe16/wg/2005/wg0805.htm#clay
"The big question is – Can we believe it this time? From the way it looks….2009 could be the end of Analog TV. This is going to come as a shock to a great number of set owners who, regardless of how many times you tell them, will ignore the info. There are those that are calling for the Government to pick up the tab for D to A converters for those that don’t upgrade their trusty old Sylvania. Already the Public Safety folks are chomping at the bit to get the 700mhz spectrum for their uses and Congress, who is involved in all of this, sees nothing but dollar signs in the hope that an auction for the analog spectrum will bring big-bucks. TV stations are in the process of choosing which channels they want to keep and give up; this process alone will further confuse the TV set owner!. Then there is radio that is eyeing spectrum that would permit a new all-digital band to replace the present AM. The next few years are going to be rather exciting to witness...."
Don't believe it.
Analog sets will be around for at least another 10-20 years. As long as manufacturers keep making them and Wal-Mart keeps selling them, the conversion is going to be SLOW. The Digital-Analog converters will help, but how is the government going to pay for them when so much money is dumped into the Iraq occupation? (And the wealthy should pay as few taxes as possible according to this administration's twisted ideology. The privledged should always have their rewards, don'tcha know...) It's also hard for the average person to bother when analog sets are still in such wide use.
However, freeing up the AM band for another digital medium should (ideally) bring more independent small local broadcasters on the airwaves-even if it is trusty old analog AM. But as Clay said, it's $$$ as always with Congress, so don't hold your breath....
<P ID="signature">______________
Seattle Hempfest, August 20-21, Myrtle Edwards Park, http://www.hempfest.org/
[email protected]
</P>
http://www.broadcast.net/~sbe16/wg/2005/wg0805.htm#clay
"The big question is – Can we believe it this time? From the way it looks….2009 could be the end of Analog TV. This is going to come as a shock to a great number of set owners who, regardless of how many times you tell them, will ignore the info. There are those that are calling for the Government to pick up the tab for D to A converters for those that don’t upgrade their trusty old Sylvania. Already the Public Safety folks are chomping at the bit to get the 700mhz spectrum for their uses and Congress, who is involved in all of this, sees nothing but dollar signs in the hope that an auction for the analog spectrum will bring big-bucks. TV stations are in the process of choosing which channels they want to keep and give up; this process alone will further confuse the TV set owner!. Then there is radio that is eyeing spectrum that would permit a new all-digital band to replace the present AM. The next few years are going to be rather exciting to witness...."
Don't believe it.
Analog sets will be around for at least another 10-20 years. As long as manufacturers keep making them and Wal-Mart keeps selling them, the conversion is going to be SLOW. The Digital-Analog converters will help, but how is the government going to pay for them when so much money is dumped into the Iraq occupation? (And the wealthy should pay as few taxes as possible according to this administration's twisted ideology. The privledged should always have their rewards, don'tcha know...) It's also hard for the average person to bother when analog sets are still in such wide use.
However, freeing up the AM band for another digital medium should (ideally) bring more independent small local broadcasters on the airwaves-even if it is trusty old analog AM. But as Clay said, it's $$$ as always with Congress, so don't hold your breath....
<P ID="signature">______________
Seattle Hempfest, August 20-21, Myrtle Edwards Park, http://www.hempfest.org/
[email protected]
</P>