In just over one year from now, there is a good chance that your television will stop working. Like in that old TV show, The Outer Limits. But for real. And the frustrating thing is that nobody seems to believe it. Like how nobody believed that the earth was being taken over by pod people in that movie about the pod people.
We are speaking, of course, about the coming of Digital Television.
In a telephone survey in November of 1,017 people, only 48 percent said they had heard about the switch to digital television. And only 17 percent correctly identified 2009 as the year that analog television will be cut off. (The survey had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.)
If you use satellite or cable, you do not have to worry, this will not affect you. Also, you may already have a digital ready TV and not know it. But nearly one in five Americans will, one day, turn on their TV to watch their favorite soap or catch the news or whatever, an all they will get is a blurry picture of Donald Sutherland pointing at them. Or whatever they will put up over the traditional analog airwaves to indicate to former viewers that the end has come.
When asked, in a recent poll, "What will you do with your TV that is not connected to a cable or satellite source?" about a third did not know, about 16 percent will chuck the TV, a small percent will hook the TV up somehow to a converter, and so on.
What will I do? (As if you cared.) Well, since you ask, our "good" TV is non-digital ready, and that is hooked to the cheapest possible cable source (so we get broadband, and while we do get MSNBC we do not get Fox ... yea!!!). Our "digital ready TV" (this is from the combination of two households a couple of years ago) is in my daughter's room where it is hooked to a DVD player but is never, ever used. Julia does not prefer to stay in her room and watch DVD's all by herself.
But, just as the digital tide sweeps across us, she will independently transmogrify into a teenager, and that will be the end of that. We may never see that TV, or her, again...
Technology
Comments
It's a good reason why you don't get Fox News because at this time, Ham is going to show off his idiot place tomorrow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on Fox news as a "fair and balanced" way to ruin our holiday.
Posted by: Crazyharp81602 | December 23, 2007 4:36 PM
You're a parochial lot, don't you know your blog can be read across the pond? Now our changeover seems to be going a bit more gradually, but a high percentage of households already uses digital boxes, mainly to get Freeview programmes providing the usual terrestrial channels plus some worthy extras, such as BBC4 and BBC News24. Not HD which I think you're getting, but we have more lines than your current system so there's not such a dramatic improvement, as I've been informed. Anyway, enjoy.
Posted by: dave | December 23, 2007 5:05 PM
Having never owned a tv, or having any intention of ever doing so, I couldn't care less. Tv could turn in a brain-eating hoard of spiders and I couldn't care less. Tv watchers could turn into husks whose brains were eaten by spiders and I couldn't care less.
Well, actually, as a human being, and presuming some tv watchers are also, I guess I'd have a wee bit of sympathy for anyone whose brain is eaten by a ravenous box of electronic spiders ... but not much! What's the difference between such brain-eaten spider meals and, say, IDiots?
Posted by: blf | December 23, 2007 6:11 PM
Here's what I don't understand -- I have a digital-ready HDTV television monitor, and the local broadcasters all broadcast (yes, broadcast, as in beam into space) digital signals, but I cannot find a digital tuner on store shelves anywhere. You can special-order a DTV tuner, or you can pay a ridiculously high price for some high-end videophile package, but good luck walking into your local Best Buy and walking out with a tuner and amplified indoor antenna for a reasonable price.
I use my monitor primarily for DVDs, and rarely watch television, but it's ridiculous that retailers don't support the broadcast digital market, especially at this late date.
Posted by: HP | December 23, 2007 6:39 PM
Get digital TV on your Linux PC:
http://lunapark6.com/pchdtv-hd-5500-hdtv-for-your-linux-desktop.html
Posted by: JL | December 23, 2007 10:11 PM
I'm in an area of Britain that's already digitally switched over. There's a bunch that weren't ready for the cut off date and were stuck with no TV (I presume they got set-top boxes eventually). This despite an information centre/shop on the highstreet (which had friendly staff, TVs, coffee machine, and even a waving cardboard robot thing!); government adverts running regularly on the telly and a massive sod-off bilboard countdown clock marring our tourist attractions.
And there's continuing drama because no-one is receiving all the channels we were promised.
You're all doomed. Or at least TV-less.
Posted by: emptybook | December 24, 2007 5:31 AM
Dave:
You mean you don't get the same channels we do?
But seriously, I usually try to add phrases like "In the US" when speaking of the US, because it is true that this blog is red in something like 98 countries. But I often forget and am glad to be reminded.
G
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 24, 2007 9:07 AM
Sweden has already gone fully digital. It saves a lot of money for the broadcasters, never mind how many millions it has cost consumers to get new equipment. Now they are telling us that the coding system will be changed in another decade so then it's time to get new boxes. Fortunately I have cable so I can keep my old, working TV.
Posted by: Thomas | December 26, 2007 2:49 AM