Great news, maybe if people would forgo the boob tube for a few days maybe they will be better off for it. Why do we support a dying technology in this instance but no other. When we switched from black and white to color did the government send out a check so every one could rush out by a new one, how about when cell phones went from analog to digital, I guess it is a better economic stimulus package then contraceptives.

wow house pulls through for now.

Damn, and I was going to fire off a nasty letter to Radio Shack for having the "mandatory" switch mentioned in commercials.

Yay

Very glad to see the House stood up to this stuff.

This is encouraging, but I still have faith that the gubmint will fail us before the switchover date.

If people still haven't gotten the message after 18 months of STRAIGHT ADVERTISING AND PSA EVERY SINGLE DAY, I don't think an extra few months will help.

@Collie: Uhm, when we switched from black and white to color the black and white TVs still worked fine. The color standard was deliberately and carefully designed to work with black and white sets.

Wow. Government did something (sorta) right... Go figure!

They say it is because too many people are confused about the switch. Here's a thought, put some more money into education so there are fewer idiots around here. Of course, if their tv's do go dark, they might start wandering around the streets with a glazed look in their eyes, Night of the Living Dead style!

Good news! Not that this transition hasn't been horribly mis-managed, but at some point we're just going to have to pull the band-aid off.

I never understood the hooplah surrounding this. I haven't had rabbit ears in over ten years, and everyone I know is on cable/satellite/FiOS, etc. Sure, maybe the small kitchen TV has antennae, but the living room/main TV is big and cable-y.

Given the amount of coverage and ads and nonsense about this, you'd think we were all living 30 years ago, with Zenith televisions that barely pick up UHF stations. It's 2009 -- it's the future! Where are all these old-time-y TVs?

@JayCor: I have a rooftop antenna that pulls in, free of charge, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, PBS, and a holy-rolling Christian station that I never watch. Rotate it a bit to the north, and an independent station from Mansfield, Ohio, comes in. It's all digital and available in HDTV, too. No wires, no satellites, and certainly no Zeniths and rabbit ears.

Oh, and I installed the antenna in August. Instant savings!

Thank God lets move forward people. Trust me companies are bracing for the onslaught of calls on this. Postponing may cost short term employees jobs.

@kiltman: Umm, put some more money into education? I think that the year-long barrage of PSA's and the widespread subsidizing have probably cost enough tax money, thanks.

I've been wondering if this will be the death knell for Nielsen. When it turns out that all of those people they are whining about that will lose TV don't speak up at all, and prove that the Nielsen numbers are largely made up.

Good, lets finally pull the plug on analog TV. I learned about the digital switch in 2002 during my first month in broadcasting school.

The switch has been pushed back a dozen times (usually in years). The fact that people don't know at this point is a combination of waiting waaaaay to long to actual spread the word, and horrible coupon management on the part of the government.

Still, I seriously doubt that delaying it even another year would help people who haven't switched over. My 80 year old grandmother switched over, and didn't even need my help!

Awesome. Now those stations that screwed up and can't be ready by the 17th can be fined for failing. All a 4 month optional delay does is protect the unprepared stations from being fined. It does nothing for consumers since most stations will still switch.

@William C Bonner: Good point. Not many metrics have as high a ratio of perceived importance to accuracy of results as the Nielsen ratings do.

Cool. This has taken entirely too long already. Because it takes these processes so long, we're now stuck with an inferior format. MPEG2? Seriously? 1995 called -- they want their video compression codec back.

If standardization, approval and implementation didn't take so long (I'm looking at you, US gov't) we could have waited to start the process until a more mature standard could have been used (eg. MPEG4). TV shows would look better with less bandwidth and power consumption.

This whole process should have taken three years -- tops... instead of the 10 or more it has taken. (I know some will say it began in 2005, but ATSC has been a standard LONG before that. And long before long before that is when the actual planning began.)

And for those who gripe about the coupons having run out -- TV IS NOT AN ENtitleMENT. Tax dollars should not be funding Joe Schmoe's converter box.

@Collie: I guess I am entitled to a little bit of the money the government is making off the sale of the public airwaves. You know, as part owner and all.

Wait everybody--what they were trying to correct was that the coupon program got screwed up so that they ran out of money for coupons, on top of their 4-6 week backlog.

This despite the moneys from the auction being more than ample to cover coupons. Reminds me of the handling passport fiasco.

@Rhayader: It isn't your tax money, btw. It is your money in that your government earned money from the auction of spectrum that will be freed up by the conversion, but not your direct tax money.

The other day I saw PBS say that slightly less than 10% of Americans would even be affected, assuming they did NOTHING.

But it was like 30% of PBS viewers. I found that kind of funny, as my mind envisioned a combination of backwoods senior citizens and minimalist urban academics who all relied on analog antennae to receive PBS.

@JayCor: One is in my apartment. I'm digging the converter box and the amazing reception. I don't plan on shelling out for a new TV anytime soon. The one I have works very well, and I'm not that much of a couch potato. Also the reason I don't have cable.

@Jeangenie: "This month the Commerce Department hit a $1.34 billion funding limit for $40 coupons that help consumers pay for digital TV converter boxes, which cost between $50 and $80. Consumers who need coupons are now being placed on a waiting list until already-issued coupons reach their 90-day expiration date, making money available for additional coupons. About 3 million consumers are on the waiting list."

@Rhayader: I think the point was that if we had a stronger educational system, people might develop the admittedly complex critical thinking skills needed to comprehend the year-long barrage of PSAs.

Not sure that more money is the solution, but I certainly agree with the education system fail sentiment. People are idiots.

An extension of the cutover actually creates some messy complications. Quite a number of them fall into the budget category for local broadcasters. Transmission tower leases, transmitter power requirements, maintenance agreements for equipment, staffing issues, retirement/disposal of old equipment. If any company did any planning ahead whatsoever based on the cutover, an extension could throw things off (admittedly, to various degress for various broadcasters).

And for the companies who paid for the newly released spectrum? You're potentially pushing back the new technologies another three months. (Which again, goes into budget issues.)

Rip off the band-aid and be done with it. People are going to be mad when legacy broadcast TV goes dark. The effort to ease the transition isn't 100%. Padding on a few extra months isn't going to do much for that.

@SunnyLea:

You're getting it - otherwise, your share of the national debt would be even higher.

@Corporate_guy:

There were extremely few stations that weren't ready to switch. The industry is well-prepared for this. Anyway, it's not like they're really "switching," since the vast bulk of stations are already transmitting in digital as well as analog. They're turning _off_ the analog feed.

@mantari:

In fairness, the bill for a delay (that was defeated) would have allowed any station that wanted to to switch anytime after 2/17. It would have only removed the mandatory analog switchoff back.

I feel bad for the technologically challenged who have no geek in their lives to help them with this transition. What is their alternative - Geek Squad? That's a potentially expensive solution to an easy problem. These are the folks that are going to see their TVs go dark, but really, would another delay really make that big of a difference? Sometimes you just have to make the jump then sort out the aftermath. Microsoft does it all the time.

@JustThatGuy3: Precisely, so all of the commercial broadcasters screaming "poor us" could have turned analog off on 2-17 with no penalty whatsoever.

I can see the pubcasters screaming, but the corporately owned commerical stations had no excuse. They couldn't have run a few more infomercials at night?

@jokono:

I do honestly mean it when I say "pooh-pooh" to those morons who rushed to get a coupon, then sat on it forever and had the nerve to complain when it expired. Um..DERRR.

@JayCor:

Go to the flea markets; you'll see hundreds of them.

It's about time we stop pandering to the lowest common denominator of ignorance in this switch-over. People are not going to drop dead if they're unprepared by the cut-off date.

@biggeek:

Ignorance? If ignorance is the only thing stopping people, can you please buy us all converters?

@kiltman: DTV Education classes will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 at the Y. Mandatory attendance until you can demonstrate competence in re-scanning your converter box to find new channels and explaining the difference between 25.1 and 25. Refreshments served.

Kiltman, your night to go is Tuesdays.

@BlazerUnit: And that's why I don't understand the logic behind requesting the extension. If broadcasters were still allowed to turn their analog off on 2-17, I think most of them are ready to do so and would have done it in a heartbeat anyway. This whole extension fiasco is really all about the coupon system, nothing to do with people "not being ready" or educated enough.

My personal beef with the whole process was leading people to believe that you had to start using a converter box on 2-18, rather than doing it now or sooner. The Fox station in my area, to their credit, has been running ads urging people to get their boxes up and running now in advance of the shutdown and not to wait.

Old people everywhere just went, "Are you my grandson? Where are my pills!?"

@JustThatGuy3: No argument here, I just resent the idea that the coupon program is the result of some sort of "gimme" attitude on the part of the consumers.

They're my airwaves and I guess I have a right to be able to use them.

I'm glad the House killed this delay. Consumer's Union is pushing for the delay, but they are failing to consider the needs of the emergency responders who will have access to superior bandwidth for communications requirements during crises. The numbers of people affected by first responders being denied this bandwidth is far greater than those who receive over the air broadcasts. The House finally considered which constituency has the greater need.

@Collie: The only legitimate concern with the transition that I can think of is reception of EAS warnings. In some households this may be the only outlet, and I'd be willing to wager that applies to more than a few in tornado alley.

@BlazerUnit:

The broadcasters supported this bill, because it gave them the option to switch off analog.