HDTV ALERT: House Vote Will Further Delay Availability of HDTV

[dallas_axelrod]

I'm a registered user of www.iwantmyhdtv.com, and I received the following e-mail from them yesterday. The DTC says that we should be contacting our Senators at this time. I visited the website again and noticed that the state maps were updated. The contours are the same, but new statistics are included.

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Alert: House Vote Will Further Delay Availability of HDTV

Last week the House of Representatives voted in favor of reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement act without including a provision that would permit satellite television providers to deliver ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX in HD to households that currently cannot receive a digital signal from their local broadcaster.

Recent data collected by the Digital Transition Coalition reveals that consumers in more than 39 million U.S. households across America, especially those in rural areas of the country, still aren’t receiving the network digital TV service they have been promised.

Are digital signals available in your state? Is your state is being left behind in the digital transition? Visit www.iwantmyhdtv.com to view the first-ever state-by-state maps that show strong evidence that tens of millions of households are doing without digital television. The maps illustrate the real story. When it comes to the transition to digital television, broadcasters are dragging their feet and are not delivering what consumers want: HDTV.

Take Action!

The House vote is not the end of this fight. The focus is now on the Senate, where there is a bill that includes the “digital white area” provision that will speed the availability of HDTV. Visit www.iwantmyhdtv.com and send a letter to your Senators urging them to support the Senate bill that would allow you to receive network programming in HDTV from your satellite TV provider.

[Msguy]

In the area where I live. It will be 2020 before they will ever be able to force such a law for broadcast stations to broadcast in high definition. Reason being not many people have high definition sets yet. Not many people can afford them yet. The price of these TV's are going to have to start coming way down in price. It is as simple as that. If i am not mistaking unless atleast 85 percent of households in a local tv market has high definition tv's, broadcast stations are NOT required to make the transition to high definition signals. I Can guarantee you in my area we are nowhere near 85%

[kenglish]

By the time Congress and the FCC get done changing the rules in the middle of the game, your clock radio or wristwatch will be considered the same as a digital tv, for their ("85%") purposes.

[scooper]

Msguy - Who says it has to be HDTV ? All the FCC is mandating is that all stations change to ATSC (more commonly known as Digital TV) AND that 85% of the TV households served by those stations are "served" such that they can receive the equivalent of today's NTSC (analog) programming. This can be by direct reception of the ATSC signals, DBS, cable, or some other means of subscription TV service not yet mentioned.

The other side of the coin - the consumer's - the FCC has mandated that TV's (and eventually, everything with a TV tuner (VCR / DVD recorder, etc.) will ALSO have to have ATSC tuners, starting with the bug. expensive sets first, and working down to smaller 13" sets / non-TV devices by the end of 2007. By this point, people will either have replaced their sets (to get said ATSC), or I expect that external STB's to provide same will be significantly cheaper than they are today. These STB's do not necessarily have to output HDTV - down-converts to NTSC will be the norm for quite a while yet.

And that is one man's opinion...

[Paul Secic]

Msguy - Who says it has to be HDTV ? All the FCC is mandating is that all stations change to ATSC (more commonly known as Digital TV) AND that 85% of the TV households served by those stations are "served" such that they can receive the equivalent of today's NTSC (analog) programming. This can be by direct reception of the ATSC signals, DBS, cable, or some other means of subscription TV service not yet mentioned.

The other side of the coin - the consumer's - the FCC has mandated that TV's (and eventually, everything with a TV tuner (VCR / DVD recorder, etc.) will ALSO have to have ATSC tuners, starting with the bug. expensive sets first, and working down to smaller 13" sets / non-TV devices by the end of 2007. By this point, people will either have replaced their sets (to get said ATSC), or I expect that external STB's to provide same will be significantly cheaper than they are today. These STB's do not necessarily have to output HDTV - down-converts to NTSC will be the norm for quite a while yet.

And that is one man's opinion...
Umm why are stores still selling analog. TVs? People either don't know or care about HDTV! Most are living paycheck to check. I'd love a HDTV set but can't afford it!

[kenglish]

Amen! My 19" RCA XL-100 has to last me for the rest of MY life.

[scooper]

Ken - you ought to know better than that - I'll bet you end up replacing that set within 10 years on the outside - more likely within 5 years.

[kenglish]

I've had the set since 1981, and it STILL has a better picture than any of the new digital sets (on analog, anyway). :)

[ADent]

Those contours at IWantHDTV are interesting but seem to be wrong.

ABC is shown with almost the same area as the Fox station, but ABC is broadcasting at 3kW and Fox at 223kW.

NBC and CBS are on the same building with the same power (12kW) and shown with vastly different contours.

[bryan92]

Its showing ABC covering most of my DMA ( savannah) and they havent even made the transition.

[Foxbat]

In my DMA, our local ABC affiliate is an -LP, so I doubt they will ever have ABC-HD. According to the IWantMyHDTV website, I'm getting "sprayed" by digital ABC signals from the Chicago and Grand Rapids DMAs. Therefore, my hopes of getting ABC-HD from DBS or OTA is NFW.