THE "DIGITAL OTA AGE" SO FAR...NOT SO GOOD.

[VeteranPD]

So here we are. June's drop dead date has come and gone and OTA TV viewers have been catapulted into the much hyped new digital age. So why are so many people ready to toss their TV and set top boxes from the fire escape? Could it be that the damn thing doesn't work? At a distance of 15 miles from the Empire State Building, I have to stand on one foot, tilt my body 45 degrees and pray that birds don't fly past the antenna. Then and only then can I catch Channels 7, 11 and 13 in their digital glory. Oh the pain I endure for Jeopardy, Jim Watkins and the Antiques Roadshow.
In fairness, the picture quality, IMHO, exceeds Fios, Cable and Satellite by a mile. Audio is crisp and clean and surrounds me lie a wooly blanket.. I like the idea of TV multicasting, even if the programming has been less than stellar so far. (Sorry, 5 channels of all Korean doesn't work for me and how about that wacky 5.1/9.2 simulcast!) I mean cable started with a single camera focused on a clock and a thermometer is some parts of the country.
Oops, Channel 7 just pixilated out again. Now the FCC tells us that PERHAPS they undercalculated the amount of power needed to give digital near-parity with those lousy old analog signals that you could pick up with a coat hanger! Ya think? Has not the same thing been said of IBOC on the radio side? "Well shucks, folks when we did the work on this we used computer models and receivers that never existed, antennas that never existed in conditions that didn't exist. Well, it looked good on paper??"
Of course, I have written this intentionally over the top just to make a point that the FCC sems to have missed until now. It isn't "plug n' play good" and until it is, DTV, IBOC all of the digital new world will be mated to a cable or fiber optic until you figure out how to make it fly through the ether successfully. Broadcasters paid Comark, Thales, Harris and Acrodyne a lot of money. It's not like when my mother returned the Procter-Silex toaster because it burned the bread. FCC, ya gotta make this work.
Great pictures, great sound granted. But my little 6 transistor Westinghouse pocket radio was a hell of a lot more reliable...even when I wasn't standing on one foot, leaning over.

 

[neo11]

Not the first time the FCC has screwed up, nor will it be the last!

 

[RadioMan203]

It seems one side benefit to the FCC screwup is that it has brought a boom to antenna installation businesses. I know of a couple of contractors whose business has dramatically jumped in recent days since the switch.

Sadly, they have to sound like "used car salesmen" as one friend puts it. With the given technology and the current station power levels it's hard to guarantee any full coverage reception. Some customers have been quite surprised while others needed to either vastly upgrade their antenna choices or settle for what they get (of course, this is more true in the burbs and not NYC proper).

 

[vibe]

Funny but painfully true post. Although I'm not from NYC I went to Poland Spring ME for last 2 yrs. Last year (the room had a 12" B and W TV with 1 rabbit ear and a 99 cent loop. Got 6 stations clearly from 15-25 mi plus 3-4 snowy out of market signals-up to 80-100 mi away.
This year with a digital TV and upgraded indoor antenna got 3 stations, one of which would fade in and out. From 15 miles and with decent elevation. No subchannels:infomercials a good deal of the time on the NBC affiliate.
This is a seasonal resort and not economically feasible to have cable since there is a boatload of stuff to do.
I feel your pain however.

 

[kenglish]

Broadcasters and viewers had nearly ten years to prepare for the Digital Transition, which was often (mistakenly) referred to as the "Digital Switch".
But, no matter what the engineers told people about getting ready, most folks (on both sides of the issue) felt no need to do anything, since "2009 is a long ways away".

Engineers said that there would be a need for MATV systems in big buildings....we were asked, "Who will pay for them?".
Engineers said that many people were going to need to upgrade their receiving antennas....we were told it would "needlessly scare the public" if we said so publicly.
Engineers asked when affordable test equipment would be available...we were told that all you need is the "signal strength" meter on the TV set. Or, the $30K spectrum analyzer we already have. (Not a good answer for a typical, small-town TV technician.)
When engineers asked people "Have you tried your converter yet?", we got "I don't need to, until February 17!"
When engineers asked, "Why don't we publicize our multicast channels?", we were told that people would "find them".
When engineers asked, "Can we help your electronics store set things up to show Digital TV?", we were told that analog Cable or satellite was all they needed. Later, we heard that the stores were not allowed to show OTA, "due to the re-seller contract with the satellite providers".

When THIS engineer is asked, by a CE retailer, "Nice looking HDTV, isn't it? Want to take one home today?", MY answer is, "Not until I see it WORK! I want to see how it scans for channels. I want to see what the EPG looks like. I want to see what shows up on the Info Banner when I tune to a channel. I want to see how the captioning looks. I want to hear how it sounds. I want to see how it handles secondary audio channels. I want to see how much detail I get in the program listings. I don't CARE that it looks nice under a satellite receiver or a cable box."

 

[w9wi]

Broadcasters and viewers had nearly ten years to prepare for the Digital Transition, which was often (mistakenly) referred to as the "Digital Switch".

VERY well put. It is very frustrating that people had SEVEN YEARS to prepare, yet so many didn't bother.

I would add to the list of culprits...

Those making and selling antennas.

Who catered to viewers' desire for the easiest, least-obtrusive antenna solutions possible - by selling antennas that stood little chance of receiving all (/any!) of the popular channels. Pushing tiny 7" loop antennas, and claiming they received VHF frequencies. (or claiming "all digital TV is UHF" though it had been well known for years that it wasn't) Selling indoor antennas in stores 50-70-80 miles from the nearest station.

(yes, I've received phone calls from viewers 75 miles from the tower wondering why they couldn't receive our signal on rabbit ears. )

(I don't know how many viewers have solved their problems with NBC, CBS, and PBS here by replacing their $50 "magic amplified antennas" with a $7 set of discount-store rabbit ears...)

 

[PhoenixPark]

Aside from the manufacturers of antennas and converters that receive TV signals stuttering like Porky Pig, I, for one, would like to know who got rich from this travesty? Was it purely political, a play to make a killing auctioning off the freed-up frequency space -- some kind of sweetheart deal? Was it a gimmick to force more viewers into subscribing to some form of cable? Was it some kind of incentive to sell more and more overseas-built new-tech TV sets?

Much has been said and done to denigrate and ridicule the many viewers who still rely on OTA TV. But no one speaks up for the viewers lost by OTA TV stations when those viewers relied on a 2nd or 3rd set in the house with rabbit ears (e.g. kitchen, bedroom, bathroom -- you name it) to view TV when everybody else had the big set (with cable) otherwise engaged? If I were a "Today" sponsor, I would certainly be unhappy about all those viewers in transit who had been catching up with their spots while running out the door to work -- no more! Those are impressions for the sponsors' messages that will be permanently lost unless the dashing commuter has the wherewithal to install a splitter and cable off the main connection to feed the kitchen/bathroom/bedroom/patio whatever -- a bad deal all 'round, and people should be screaming bloody murder. Remember 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!' from Network? Paddy Chayevsky, where are you now?