http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...isrc=newsletter

Direct TV here, and there's commercials saying DirectTV is 100% digital so you don't need anything. No prob for me.

That article was brief but the last sentence is important for all do-it-yourself TV viewers.
davey

If you have cable or satellite TV, you will not need a converter box or antenna.

If you receive over the air TV signals, you will need a converter box. If you are in a strong signal area, an indoor antenna (rabbit ears) will do.
If you are in a weak signal area, you will need an outside antenna.
If you are in a very weak signal area, you may also need a rotor and/or pre-amp

how about if you get your tv from your phone line.....

That's digital. Shouldn't be a problem.

Actually, DirectTV or any satellite signal is not 100% digital. But, it won't effect anything.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/...ml?nav=rss_blog

Nobody registers their boats in Wilmington NC. They do it in Wilmington DE.

Oh, and TV stinks.

With all the ad's they show every few minutes that can't be more than true, which is why I use my DVD recorder to record the shows I like so I can skip by all the commercials which I'd think people paying for TV would pay for in droves (so why all the commercials). I mostly use my TV for video games now, and very rarely do I watch something as it's being aired.

Years ago some news channel stated the government was supposedly going to put a limit on the amount of commercials shown, still waiting for that though and wish it would become true however I know that's wishful thinking.

One of my million dollar ideas is a small cheap device that automatically detects when a commercial is on and mutes the audio until the show's back on. It could use several methods to do this including detecting rating information which is not usually sent during ads. It would be configurable and have a USB connection to your computer to download 'rules' for detecting ads. The software for it would be written in some cross platform language for compatibility.

I was also the first to think up ice cubes that were gel contained in plastic, so your drink would never be watered down and it would only need to be rinsed and frozen again.

There's already devices from the 1990's that would pause a VCR during commercials, the resume it when the show started. Now there's Tivo which I thought about, but I'll be damned if I pay for some device then have to pay a monthly subscription to use it.

Editing out the commercials to encode to Xvid/DivX isn't difficult at all, I use DVD Shrink to do it, then I encode what I want to keep, then finally merge all the separate AVI's with AVI-Mux GUI - but it is rather time consuming editing out the commercials.

I don't see why some other company won't just create a tivo alternative that just costs a one time fee. Sony or something.

There are tons of DVRs around. I have one that came for "free" from direct tv.
It does most of the same stuff tivo does and it doesn't cost a monthly fee apart from the tv bill(but there is no tacked on fee for it.). I dont watch tv too much anyway though but when I do, I deffinitely don't see commercials.

Ah ok, I never really looked.

DVRs are cool and all, but if I'd use one there'd have to be some sort of support integration with Windows in order for me to keep the programming I want.

When everything goes digital my Sony DVD Recorder just may not work anymore with the signal.

My local TSC (The School Channel) just went digital.

I use Interactive Optimum (IO Digital TV) so no problems for me :›

The only digital "TV" I've got at the moment is encoding stuff on my PC with Xvid, then it's all 0's and 1's.

Wait I do have HD because my analog cable TV connection sure is Horribly Degraded.

Some say "To REALLY foul things up requires a computer" but get lawyers and politicians involved and they can do a better job http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...isrc=newsletter

True. They've had several years though to make the transition as smooth as possible, however when they tested it out in a whole town they had issues. They should've been installing the infrastructure years ago since the law makers made it the law one would think they would've made an attempt at a better much earlier years ago head start.

I got a convertor Labor Day weekend in anticipation of the rush, used my $40 Govt issued coupon card at Walmart. Got a Magnavox pass-through box. After the coupon (which was used just like a gift card), the box cost me $10.

I have a roof mounted antenna with a booster and a directional motor on it.

What a diff the convertor made! My previously poor signal cleaned right up with the 4 primary stations out of Madison Wi (Im about 40 miles sw of there), and I got additional sub channels that Ive never seen before. Looks just like cable!

Im sold. Get some occasional pixelling due to the distance Im from the city, but its far better than what I had before.

To use it, its just like the old cable boxes. I leave my set on channel 3 and change channels on the box using the remote. The install went seamlessly, and the initial power on of the box searched for all channels in the area, just like a TV does when you first power it on.

I got a pass through box (typically an upgrade - read the box to make sure that you have this option) because I still wanted the ability to watch regular channels till they all convert (not all of them in Madison are digital yet). And dont forget: a VCR needs it too if you tape off of reg TV so I connected my VCR after the box in a daisy-chain fashion. It will stay on channel 3 as well, but I cant do channel changing auto-records anymore cause I have to set the box to the channel that Im recording.

So those of you that are waiting, apply for a coupon before they run out of them (dtv.org), and get a convertor asap. Feb is coming and you dont want to be caught without one. I suspect that convertors will be hot items for Christmas....if you can find them. (Walmart said that they get in 20-30 per week and they dissappear as fast as they come in. And i havent seen a big box store that has a web site i.e. Bestbuy, Circuit City, etc. sell them online yet. So if you find them, grab it before someone else does.)

Or get a satellite or cable/phone-digital TV hookup and you wont need a convertor.

And what, pray tell, will they use this old bandwidth for now? Higher FM? Weather manipulation? Martha Stewart?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060913-7730.html

Also some of the analog frequency ranges will be allocated to public safety and service.