same here, I was looking forward to it. one of the points of the test being 3 minutes was to test out equipment to make sure it doesnt lock up or fail at the 2 minute mark.
This was apparently decided on by FEMA. I'm not sure a 30 Sec test is going to work. The anticipated "join up time" was 2 minutes. I guess if all the boxes everywhere playback from their on board storage it'll work. We'll see..
PS if you would like to see what the FCC is telling broadcasters, here is a meeting from Wed where a FCC representative was talking to the NE Florida broadcasters.
Comcast seems really concerned that the test may cause problems with the STB. Note: The message most have been written before the length was changed to 30 seconds.
quote:Dear Comcast Customer:
On Wednesday, November 9 at 2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time), FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct the nation's first ever Emergency Alert System (EAS) test. The purpose of this test is to help determine if the national-level system will work as designed, should officials ever need to send a national alert.
This test will last approximately three minutes and will be seen on all local, cable, and satellite TV stations across the country, as well as radio.
Here's What You Should Know
Your Comcast programming will be temporarily interrupted. However, as soon as the test ends, you will be returned to your regularly scheduled programming. While we do not anticipate an interruption in your service, in some rare cases, you may need to:
Use your remote to channel up and then channel down or power down your box to fully restore programming after the test completes.
Any DVR recordings that are in progress during this test will be interrupted, and in some cases, lost.
If you experience the Emergency Alert System message for more than five minutes, please do the following:
Power-cycle your cable box by unplugging the power cord from the outlet
Wait thirty seconds and then plug it back in
The guide data and Video On Demand content will take a period of time to fully restore. Please wait 20 minutes before choosing Video On Demand as this might result in other errors with your box. To watch a video and learn more on how to Power-cycle, »info.xfinity.com/Portal/ ··· 09&w=479
err um... um I don't know what to say about this. I'm still pissed about the shortened test. I spent a year getting things prepared in various parts of the country specifically because it was going to be 3 minutes long. In regards to using the remote to channel up and then down or power down the box via the power button wont work because the STB equipment is specifically meant to lock so the alert can't be interrupted accidentally. And in my experience sometimes pulling the power on the STB and plugging it back in while an alert is still active will cause the STB to relock after it fully reboots. This locking issue occurs for force tune events, ie when the box displays EAS on the front LED and is forced to tune to a reserved channel which is most commonly QVC, and either a black screen with white text or dark blue screen with white text and red border is displayed stating the emergency alert details, along with audible alert. In my experience if just the ticker is displayed the box isn't locked and you can go about as normal just with a red flashing banner on the top of the screen and audible alert.
This test is a waste of time and is being used to justify a Homeland Security/FEMA office's existence. Not to mention that many cable systems, including mine, still use the antiquated analog 'force the channel to change to C-SPAN' crap instead of the newer digital overlay. It's no wonder why they're concerned about the STBs.
I'm glad they shortened it, because it was a joke to begin with. Any true national emergency will be all over the air long before the EAS gets activated, short of a full-blown nuclear strike. If they didn't activate it for 9/11, what is the point?
My understanding from reading some of the stuff out there was that the test was designed to test 2 things. 1. The EAS gear with a 3 minute event... and 2. They are utilizing the old legacy OTA Relay system to transmit the alert instead of the Sat/Internet based systems some states have migrated to, so they wanted to ensure the legacy gear was still working.
This test is a waste of time and is being used to justify a Homeland Security/FEMA office's existence. Not to mention that many cable systems, including mine, still use the antiquated analog 'force the channel to change to C-SPAN' crap instead of the newer digital overlay. It's no wonder why they're concerned about the STBs.
I'm glad they shortened it, because it was a joke to begin with. Any true national emergency will be all over the air long before the EAS gets activated, short of a full-blown nuclear strike. If they didn't activate it for 9/11, what is the point?
According the info I read from the FCC, The reason they didn't issue an alert during 9/11 was that by the Time the Gov'ment learned of the details in order to issue a properly alert, All the major media was already distributing the information so pretty much everyone was already aware of the emergency. Issuing an actual EAS alert would've been redundant since pretty much anyone listening to the radio or watching TV was already getting the latest information via those channels. ("A national emergency has been declared. please tune to your local news outlet for the latest information." But... I'm already watching it... and your alert just made me miss some info!)
I don't know how accurate the above really is, but it honestly makes sense.
Nov. 9 Test of Emergency Alert System is "Only a Test"
FCC shortened test from three minutes to 30 seconds on Nov. 3
11/4/2011 12:40 PM
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable
The FCC has sent a letter to broadcasters and cable operators asking them to make an extra effort to communicate to the deaf, hard of hearing, intellectually disabled or with limited English proficiency, that the Nov. 9 national test of the Emergency Alert System is, as the saying goes, "only a test."
One of the limitations of the 50-year-old system, says the FCC, is that in some cases, particularly over cable systems, there could be an onscreen emergency alert logo and accompanying audio that: "this is only a test," but nothing onscreen saying it is a test.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association earlier this month asked FEMA and the FCC to delay the date of the test. In a letter to FEMA copied to the FCC, NCTA President Michael Powell pointed out that the FCC had moved the implementation date of FEMA's next-generation Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) from Sept. 30, to June. That standard would have allowed cable operators to add text to the current government-approved on-screen text for the test that many operators can't modify and which says "This is an Emergency Action Notification," but not that it is a test.
Powell said that while some operators were putting in software patches that would allow them to add text, not all would be able to do so.
The FCC did not move the test, but Thursday (Nov. 3) it announced it had shortened the test from 3 minutes to only 30 seconds. That makes it is more in line with the familiar local tests -- that annoying three-note tone -- that have become a familiar part of the broadcast landscape.
The FCC and FEMA have already reached out to target populations, as have cable operators and broadcasters "conscientiously," the FCC points out.
But just in case, and to ensure that everybody knows it is only a test, the FCC asked that its partners in the test press home the points that it is only a test, that it will sound very much like the local tests they are used to, that it will be in all states and territories, that the screen may not say it is a test on every channel, and that regular programming will resume when the test is over.
An FCC official was checking at press time on why a notification that it was a test was not made part of the government-approved on-screen graphic that was being passed through.
According the info I read from the FCC, The reason they didn't issue an alert during 9/11 was that by the Time the Gov'ment learned of the details in order to issue a properly alert, All the major media was already distributing the information so pretty much everyone was already aware of the emergency. Issuing an actual EAS alert would've been redundant since pretty much anyone listening to the radio or watching TV was already getting the latest information via those channels. ("A national emergency has been declared. please tune to your local news outlet for the latest information." But... I'm already watching it... and your alert just made me miss some info!)
Exactly my point, and exactly why in this day and age it is a waste. They are not going to be able to react quick enough to anything to give people warning before someone finds out (or leaks it) and it's plastered all over the news. Or in the case of a nuke strike, it doesn't matter anyway because there's no time to take action. I am talking about a true nationwide activation here.
my dct2000 does shit it's self after 2 minutes, this much I do know. we had a tornado rip though just south of me, eas went off and ran for a little over 5 minutes straight, my dct70 was still showing it but was not locked up (as in having to hard reboot) but that blasted "refurbished" as the sticker says dct2000 had to be hard reset twice and I still got that blasted box, i should go swap it I think.
wow. I'm sorry for the inconvenience dude. If I was you I'd definitely go ahead with that swap out for a different model. »www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pre ··· 226.html
I've heard plenty of ads on local radio with the fcc chairman telling people that a nationwide test of eas was occurring on november 9th and that it will ONLY be a test not an actual alert.
i think the issue is more in regards to television because people with disabilities such as the deaf or people with equipment that cannot transmit the audio portion of the alert such as TiVo and Moxi (when banner text alert is used) (the audio portion saying "this is only a test" ) may panic since visually it will look like a real alert due to the nature of the test using live code i.e. the actual code used during a real emergency. Here's something I dug up from Comcast »www.comcast.com/MediaLib ··· ints.pdf
Actually it was because of other issues from radicals who think there's some conspiracy. »www.theglobalconspiracy. ··· ill.html and unofficially because certain agency officials believed people wouldn't be intelligent enough to know it was a test. Shortening the EAS test was ordered by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. I read it in one of the internal newsletters. I'm still ticked off about the shortening of the test, when one of the reasons why it was 3 minutes long in the first place was to test the hardware to see if it would continue working past the 2 minute mark that weekly and monthly tests are limited to, since national action notification messages have no time limits. I guess well never know now.
I don't know if this is the way the EAS test was supposed to work but on my system at 2:04PM EST, the display on my cable box went to EAS. The video went to a Tylenol commercial and there was no audio. It lasted about ten seconds and then returned to regular programming.
Exactly the same thing happened here in Jupiter, FL (maybe we are on the same system). approx 2:05pm - was watching a recorded show on the DVR, channel/time display changed to "EAS", Tylenol commercial appeared for a few seconds, then (instead of returning to the recorded DVR show) the box tuned to the last channel on which I was watching live TV earlier in the day.
none of the boxes here went to EAS at all, All I received was the local broadcasts and the other box sitting beside it (yeah I dragged a tv downstairs) stayed on discovery and never changed and never went to EAS. This is the Indianapolis MSO that I refer to not changing