DTV Readiness Test

[stick47]

To clarify, NOAA radio will continue to operate on your present device. TV Band radios will not work after the switch.
With NOAA the problem is they don't track tornados like the 3 major television stations do and the only things available to replace the old style portable TVs are the Radio Shack / Best Buy models with rechargeable batteries. Sure you can get by for an hour or two but not when the power is off for a longer period.

[bluedogok]

In fact, here's a really good article on this very subject: DTV: It's the antenna, stupid - The Red Tape Chronicles - MSNBC.com

Actually, that is an opinion piece with a bunch of half truths in it.

Yes, old fashioned "rabbit ears" are going to be worthless, but most are anyway unless you live within a few miles of the tower. I have a 12 year old cheap Radio Shack roof antenna, it picks up the DTV signals fine even though it had broken tabs and a tree has grown into it breaking all the rods off on one side, it still works. I do have a new one in the garage for when I relocate the Directv dish and antenna when the house is re-roofed. I use it for the sub-channels and until about 6 months ago the NBC affiliate here still didn't have their HD signal on Directv (they pulled it from Time-Warner Cable for a few months here) and my HD-DVR can record off the OTA.

If you do not have cable or satellite, you should have something better than a rabbit ear level antenna and they aren't that expensive. If you can pick up UHF channels with what you have, you shouldn't need to change. All but Fox and the PBS channel here in Austin are all UHF, so you needed a decent one anyway.

[jsibelius]

Actually, that is an opinion piece with a bunch of half truths in it.

I'm sorry...thanks for helping me out. I couldn't tell the difference between a news article and an opinion piece. Thanks for setting me straight.

[MadMonk]

I normally use DirecTV, so I only switch to an over-the-air antenna when the sat goes out (usually for weather updates during heavy storms). The rabbit ears work just fine on my TV with a digital converter box and I'm at least 12 miles away from the nearest tower. I'm at the top of a hill though and the antennas are nearly line-of-sight.

BTW, I have a spare converter box if anyone needs one...for a nice profit of course.

[blangtang]

i dont have cable or sat, just regular bunny rabbit old school tv. i got the converter box about a month ago and i get most channels fine, but i can't get channel 5 (ABC station), the tuner doesn't pick it up when it does a search.

i live in norman, not sure if that has anything to do with a broadcast range or not. the digital works fine, sometimes it does that scramble and studder thing. the signal seems to be affected by cloudy days.

anyone able to get channel 5 that has one of these new boxes?

[Midtowner]

I live downtown and also can't pick up channel 5 on rabbit ears. You shouldn't have a problem if you run an outside antenna. You should be able to get one of those at your local Radioshack. It's a weekend project, but well worth it.

If your HOA doesn't allow aerials, you can just stick it up in your attic. The nails and such do block some signal, but it's better than nothing. Also, if you're in Norman, point the thing North.

[blangtang]

well thats interesting. I could pick up channel 5 fine with out the converter box, with just rabbit ears. but i was curious if anyone picked channel 5 up with the converter box.

[bluedogok]

That can happen, the digital signal (which the converter box picks up) may not travel as far as the analog signal (which the TV picks up), much of that is how much power the station is putting to the signal. The fall off is greater with the digital signal, you either get it or you don't. Although, you shouldn't have that much trouble since all the transmitters are all out in the antenna farm area east of Broadway Extension between Wilshire and the Kilpatrick Turnpike. I wonder if KOCO is running the DTV signal at full power, I know my parents have trouble getting their DTV signal with their newer TV's and they live three miles east of Lake Overholser, the rest come in fine.

You can try Antenna Web to figure out what antenna would be best.

[traxx]

Channel 5 broadcast it's digital signal on the same channel as Lawton's ABC station broadcasts it's analog station. So channel 5's signal is limited to the South and West (Norman, Mustang etc).

After Feb. 17 this issue should be resolved as the Lawton station will no longer be broadcasting on that channel.

[woodyrr]

If I'm interpreting this table correctly,

List of television stations in Oklahoma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

after the transition, in the Oklahoma City viewing area, channels 9 and 13 will be abandoning the frequency that they are currently using for digital broadcasting and will begin digital broadcasting on their legacy analog channel.

If this is the case, does anyone know when that is supposed to happen?

If this happens, the people that I have helped become digital ready (like the woman in mmm's YouTube video) are going to suddenly lose channels 9 and 13 and will need help rescanning the spectrum and finding the channels again.

[Thunder]

The switch may be delayed to June 22nd. That is only 4 months.

http://www.koco.com/digital-tv/18552316/detail.html

Really great article. Now, take a look at the side effects of Obama's push to delay...

[woodyrr]

KWTV just answered my question below.

There was just now an announcement that KWTV 9 plans to cease analog broadcasting at 1:00 PM on February 17. After reminding antenna viewers of the requirement of a converter box, they added that those OTA viewers with converter boxes <or> digital TVs would need to rescan to find the digital channels. I hope that KETA 13 transitions frequencies on February 17 as well.

If I'm interpreting this table correctly,

List of television stations in Oklahoma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

after the transition, in the Oklahoma City viewing area, channels 9 and 13 will be abandoning the frequency that they are currently using for digital broadcasting and will begin digital broadcasting on their legacy analog channel.

If this is the case, does anyone know when that is supposed to happen?

If this happens, the people that I have helped become digital ready (like the woman in mmm's YouTube video) are going to suddenly lose channels 9 and 13 and will need help rescanning the spectrum and finding the channels again.

[Thunder]

Any update on Congress approving the delay or same date?

[OKCDrummer77]

Any update on Congress approving the delay or same date?

It passed the Senate. It's up to the House now.

I hope it doesn't change. I'm ready. I've been ready. I'm sick of seeing the PSAs for it. As someone else pointed out, if you don't know about the change, you don't watch enough TV to be affected by it, anyway.

[Luke]

Another great example of government efficiency.

"Television airwaves" is another category we could save billions of tax dollars if the government left it alone.

I'm sure we the people could figure it out.

[woodyrr]

KTOK Radio 1000 is reporting that the United States House of Representatives has defeated a bill to extend the deadline for the DTV transition.

Unless something else changes, the transition will happen as scheduled.

[traxx]

I wouldn't expect the house's defeat of the delay to be the last we've heard of it.

The thing is, is that in June there are still going to be plenty of people not ready. There have been reports that bunches of converter coupons that were sent to citizens have gone unused. We're never going to have 100% readiness. The best way to get people ready is to switch and when their TV goes blank they'll realize the transition was for real. This thing has been postponed a handful of times in the past decade anyway.

[TaoMaas]

We're never going to have 100% readiness. The best way to get people ready is to switch and when their TV goes blank they'll realize the transition was for real.

That could be very dangerous to a congressman's hopes of maintaining his office. Never underestimate the power of old folks who have all day long to phone their congressmen and to write letters to the editor.

[woodyrr]

If I were a politician, I’d recognize that grandpa Simpson is going to find something to be unhappy about and he might as well be pitching a fit about his TV next month instead of closer to the next election.

On the other hand, a delay is likely to increase apathy just as the “boy who cried wolf!”, Those who are convinced that it will never happen will become more convinced, possibly with good reason.

Of necessity, stations have been abandoning their analog signals nationwide as a result of transmitter or transmission line failures in their analog equipment, as these expensive components are not economical to repair or replace for the short time before the transition. These analog cut-offs have been accomplished without major issues. I read where television stations in the entire state of Hawaii, have made the transition and have ended analog broadcasts without a great deal of anguish amongst the populace.

The reality is that the February 17th date was set as a grace period for everyone to make final preparations. Television stations nationwide are consuming vast amounts of energy and paying the resulting astronomically high electric bills to keep two very high power transmitters running until the analog transmitter can be powered down. The analog transmitters, transmission lines and antennas in many cases, are old and have suffered from deferred maintenance while priority has been given to installing the digital counterparts. Scarce and tightly booked tower crews have been scheduled to make any necessary adjustments to the antennas and feed lines. Canceling them and then rescheduling them will be a scheduling and financial nightmare. All made worse by the problems presented as a result of Station A not being able to broadcast digital or full power digital until Station B vacates the frequency that they are using.

People have ordered coupons, gone from store to store, in some cases for weeks to find a stock of converter boxes, connected them - or purchased digital high definition televisions in preparation and have been watching digital television for months. All because the powers that be have been adamant that. "this is it folks".

I regret that there will be a few, and I believe on balance, a very few people who are so detached from Society that they have no one in their lives that can help them install a converter box and scan for the channels who will not understand what has happened. I have a couple of retired friends who are involved in “meals on wheels” that prepare food and deliver it to the elderly and infirm daily. There is no reason why concerned retirees cannot do the same for those truly in need of help with DTV.

I have a couple of relatives and neighbors who are DTV ready – or at least as DTV ready as one can be until the change actually occurs, but they will need a little help rescanning their tuners after KWTV 9, KETA 13 and 46 (Daystar) complete their flash-cuts back to their old analog frequencies. Right now, according to the table I looked at today, all three plan to cease analog broadcasts and flash-cut their frequencies on February 17. I’d like to be able to plan so that I’m in town when it happens.

I say let's pull the plug, start working the resulting issues, and get this behind us.

[windowphobe]

I still think they should have scheduled the cutover for the 31st of January. You know people would have gotten off their duffs if they thought the Super Bowl was at risk.

[TaoMaas]

If I were a politician, I’d recognize that grandpa Simpson is going to find something to be unhappy about and he might as well be pitching a fit about his TV next month instead of closer to the next election.

That's true for some of these folks, but the reason I brought that up earlier is because I belong to an organization that has a lot of retired folks in it. Many were business owners or executives when they were working, so they know how to organize, they know how to get things done, and they have plenty of time to devote to those purposes.
Just out of curiosity, what do you expect will change once we do the digital changeover? How will your life be better? I understand the costs to the local stations regarding operating two transmitters. That's not what I'm talking about. Are you looking forward to having all the subchannels available? Are you hoping for more HD content? Or are you just tired of hearing about it and are ready to get on with it?

[drumsncode]

I wouldn't expect the house's defeat of the delay to be the last we've heard of it.

The thing is, is that in June there are still going to be plenty of people not ready. There have been reports that bunches of converter coupons that were sent to citizens have gone unused. We're never going to have 100% readiness. The best way to get people ready is to switch and when their TV goes blank they'll realize the transition was for real. This thing has been postponed a handful of times in the past decade anyway.

The "unused coupon" thing touches a nerve with me. I'm quite sure lots of people tried to use their coupons, but by the time the government mailed them they often had far less than the normal amount of time to do so. The fact that they had something like a 90-day expiration is ridiculous in the first place.

The problem was really compounded by the fact that the stores could not keep the converter boxes stocked. WalMart told me they were selling easily a hundred a day from one store, so they'd only be on the shelf about a day or two, then they were gone.

My mother ran into this problem. Her coupons expired and I had to get a friend to order some for her.

And how many people think that the manufacturers of these converters hiked the prices up knowing that we'd be getting a forty dollar discount? The RCA box was the only one that was remotely affordable at 50 dollars.

Anyway, this is just your typical government stupidity in action.

[traxx]

The "unused coupon" thing touches a nerve with me. I'm quite sure lots of people tried to use their coupons, but by the time the government mailed them they often had far less than the normal amount of time to do so. The fact that they had something like a 90-day expiration is ridiculous in the first place.

The problem was really compounded by the fact that the stores could not keep the converter boxes stocked. WalMart told me they were selling easily a hundred a day from one store, so they'd only be on the shelf about a day or two, then they were gone.

My mother ran into this problem. Her coupons expired and I had to get a friend to order some for her.

And how many people think that the manufacturers of these converters hiked the prices up knowing that we'd be getting a forty dollar discount? The RCA box was the only one that was remotely affordable at 50 dollars.

Anyway, this is just your typical government stupidity in action.

You're laying blame at the feet of the wrong people.

1. Most all coupons have an expiration date.

2. I just looked up BB and found two for $50 and one for $60.

3. Not being able to keep them in stock is a fault of the manufacturers and the retailers. Not government.

[drumsncode]

You're laying blame at the feet of the wrong people.

1. Most all coupons have an expiration date.

2. I just looked up BB and found two for $50 and one for $60.

3. Not being able to keep them in stock is a fault of the manufacturers and the retailers. Not government.

True on #3, there's plenty of blame to go around.

The whole thing stinks though. The expiration was too short. Now they have to spend thousands more to add computer programming to their system to keep track of and re-issue expired, unused coupons and all that stuff.

It's just typical government, just like everything else we hear about lately. They try and put together a "stimulus package" for our economy; we've got people starving to death and losing their houses and their life savings, and some idiot in Congress is putting pork into the bill pertaining to condoms. News flash: We've already been screwed, I think it's a little late for condoms.

Gee, maybe they'll issue coupons for those too, with an expiration date and only two allowed per household. I can hardly wait!

[bluedogok]

I went to the Going out of business sale" at Circuit City a couple of weekends ago and they had a stack of about 50 converter boxes. That was just at one store, this "transition" has been going on for a few years, if people were really that interested they could have done it well before the deadline got close.

I do think the short time the coupons are valid is a bit stupid, they should have expired until the middle of this year. If there were two allocated per household, then someone got mine. I never tried to get them but I have satellite so I didn't "need" them but if they did I can buy one on my own.