BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs:
 ·Cox HSI
| Who cares?
At this point, who cares? You have to be living under a rock or completely oblivious to life at this point NOT to know its coming. If they haven't bothered to be proactive and do anything about it, I'm not going to bother to feel sorry for them, simple as that.
Besides, why does this site act like the few dinosaurs still happy with OTA analog TV are some kind of huge majority and that the world is going to end when the signal goes off the air. When the cut off comes and their TV's go blank, they can either a) get a converter, b) just get used to not watching TV anymore. Either way the sun is still going to come up in the east.
Whats the big deal?
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"Don't steal. The government hates competition." |
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IanR
join:2001-03-22
Madison, NJ
1 edit | We should care
Who cares?
Good neighbors should care.
Of course many seniors, at least those who have not embraced the digital revolution, will be caught by surprise and no amount of ads will help.
What to do?
We should start a neighbor care project.
Those of us with elderly neighbors, whom we know rely upon OTA for TV reception, should make a point of asking them if they have both a converter box AND have got their Coupon to pay for it. If the answer to eitrher is NO the WE should step in and assist our elderly neighbor.
Don't expect anyone to close the gap here, unless it is a caring neighbor. |
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Austinloop
join:2001-08-19
Austin, TX | reply to BillRoland
Re: Who cares?
Really compassionate, aren't you? |
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Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
·Comcast
 ·Embarq
| reply to IanR
Re: We should care
said by IanR  :We should start a neighbor care project. Don't expect anyone to close the gap here, unless it is a caring neighbor. I do not want to sound like an ogre but I attempted to help a neighbor with a computer problem and was identified as the computer expert. Every time they had a problem with their computer they called me even though I am not a computer expert. They were disappointed when I could not solve a very complex problem and had to pay someone to fix their computer.
Anyone one helps with the conversion to DTV must understand that the helper is not the Local Television Engineer or they will be married to that seniors Television. |
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keyboard5684
join:2001-08-01
Youngsville, PA | It is a TV. I think after hooking up the box for them it will be over. Not much goes wrong with TVs. |
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IanR
join:2001-03-22
Madison, NJ
1 edit | reply to Austinloop
Re: Who cares?
Mature (age) people in neighborhoods are often "leaned on" by less able (older) neighbors. Like it, or not, you do become some kind of "go to guy" for a few needy neighbors. I do think it's a community responsibility issue to help out older neighbors when a mini situation develops. Even if the advice is to go to a proper expert.
Re the topic of this thread, I think most of us would consider it no big deal to approach a couple of choice neighbors.
Another idea would be such a campaign spearheaded by a chain such as RatShack. If RS had a National campaign, thru town's Adult community workgroups, they might well get quite a bit of business as well as get more exposure and attention in their communities around their stores. |
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Austinloop
join:2001-08-19
Austin, TX | I am not sure what happened with the post, but my comment was aimed at BillRoland, not you. I agree with every thing that you said, IanR. |
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IanR
join:2001-03-22
Madison, NJ | Austinloop,
My apologises. My error I have PM'ed you. |
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raybrett
join:2001-02-20
Saint Louis, MO
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to keyboard5684
Re: We should care
No, but if the digital stations in the area are using UHF frequencies, an outside antenna with some height may be required depending on their location. Before I moved I was less than 6 miles from the local transmitting antennas and couldn't receive a decent digital signal. Now I am farther away and still can't get a good OTA signal. To be fair, the VHF analog signals weren't anything to write home about either -- which is why I got cable about 25 years ago. |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
 ·PHONE POWER
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | reply to Austinloop
Re: Who cares?
said by Austinloop :Really compassionate, aren't you? I get what you're saying, I'm just not sure how much "compassion" is warranted. We're talking about someone's TV turning to fuzz temporarily until they can get a converter installed. A TV temporarily going blank is not like electricity, gas, or water getting shut down. Worst case, they'll call a TV repairman thinking their TV is broken, who should be able to resolve the issue. Hopefully they have family or friends who will help them when the switchover gets close.
I'm guessing those seniors that AREN'T aware of it, don't even watch that much TV in the first place, which is how they're missing the PSAs.
Our elderly neighbors definitely noticed the commercials and were certainly aware. They asked me about it. They use cable though, so I told them they didn't need to worry about it.
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georgec
join:2008-08-09
Cedar Park, TX
| reply to raybrett
Re: We should care
Couple of things here. An antenna is an antenna, it knows not if the signal is DTV or NTSC (analog). There are good ones and bad ones. SOme VHF analog stations migrated to UHF. Some took the bull by the horns and maximised power levels to replicate their old analog coverage , and then some. Some took the cheap way out. Some of those are big four network outlets. They will have a problem, and there has been a whole lot of head in sand on the part of some marginal broadcasters. Some poured millions into each station. Those signals will be ok.
Now in analog coverage, some people were accustomed to watching a snowy picture. Here's where the problem will have one origin. Marginal signal. No snowy picture in DTV. Those who had marginal reception before may very well have none, unless an outside antenna is installed.
Another factor. Hundreds of VHF Highband (ch 7-13) analog stations who currently may have marginal DTV UHF stations will be switching to their analog channel on Feb 17 for digital. This should be locally announced, and will require all receivers to re-scan. It will still show the same channel number, this is controlled by PSIP information transmit by the station. The user, remember, has no real link to the actual channel, but really sees a "virtual" channel number. In these cases current marginal coverage will improve greatly. But many of these cheap bookshelf antennas (and even the not so cheap ones) are UHF ONLY.
Now to grandma. What you youngsters (I'm 55, I can say that)don't see is that many seniors just don't believe that TV is something you should pay for. In the 50's and 60's, when I grew up, for example, we had an antenna on the roof of the house to watch TV. worked fine, and most homes did the same. This is what grandma remembers. Next, many seniors cannot pay $100/month for TV. But some missed points in this thread are that a good number of the over the air viewers are not grandma, but folks who cannot afford cable at all, making choices between foor and cable, guess what wins. Its the person paying rent and food with an income of $800/month. They still need a lifeline for information. And I'm not talking Brian and Katie every evening, I'm talking about getting local information in times of emergency. You know, from the local version of "Ted Knight", with info on the impending hurricane, flood, etc.
How do I know these things? 33 years in TV Station and corporate level technical management dealing with about 30 tv stations, and for ten years this DTV thing has been what I have worked on. |
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DJMASACRE
join:2008-05-27
Nepean, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Bell Sympatico
| said by georgec :Couple of things here. An antenna is an antenna, it knows not if the signal is DTV or NTSC (analog). There are good ones and bad ones. SOme VHF analog stations migrated to UHF. Some took the bull by the horns and maximised power levels to replicate their old analog coverage , and then some. Some took the cheap way out. Some of those are big four network outlets. They will have a problem, and there has been a whole lot of head in sand on the part of some marginal broadcasters. Some poured millions into each station. Those signals will be ok. Now in analog coverage, some people were accustomed to watching a snowy picture. Here's where the problem will have one origin. Marginal signal. No snowy picture in DTV. Those who had marginal reception before may very well have none, unless an outside antenna is installed. Another factor. Hundreds of VHF Highband (ch 7-13) analog stations who currently may have marginal DTV UHF stations will be switching to their analog channel on Feb 17 for digital. This should be locally announced, and will require all receivers to re-scan. It will still show the same channel number, this is controlled by PSIP information transmit by the station. The user, remember, has no real link to the actual channel, but really sees a "virtual" channel number. In these cases current marginal coverage will improve greatly. But many of these cheap bookshelf antennas (and even the not so cheap ones) are UHF ONLY. Now to grandma. What you youngsters (I'm 55, I can say that)don't see is that many seniors just don't believe that TV is something you should pay for. In the 50's and 60's, when I grew up, for example, we had an antenna on the roof of the house to watch TV. worked fine, and most homes did the same. This is what grandma remembers. Next, many seniors cannot pay $100/month for TV. But some missed points in this thread are that a good number of the over the air viewers are not grandma, but folks who cannot afford cable at all, making choices between foor and cable, guess what wins. Its the person paying rent and food with an income of $800/month. They still need a lifeline for information. And I'm not talking Brian and Katie every evening, I'm talking about getting local information in times of emergency. You know, from the local version of "Ted Knight", with info on the impending hurricane, flood, etc. How do I know these things? 33 years in TV Station and corporate level technical management dealing with about 30 tv stations, and for ten years this DTV thing has been what I have worked on. No you know what im 25 and i dont think we should be paying for any of this crap.
especially if they are FORCING you to switch ...
I think the problem here is not that they cant afford it the switch ..
because it seems there will be "coupons" or a way to just get a digital box ..
so even with all the commercials and the warnings... the elderly will still not know what is happening ?
thats their fault ..... has nothing to do that they cant afford it.
maybe the commercials that say this dont show up on the 3 channels they get on antenna.. but come on .. at this point.. i dont think they need TV.
they'll all be dead in a few years anyway ..
so its over.
lets move on . |
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