Digital TV may adversely affect Seniors come 2009

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

There may be a matter of folk getting the boxes, setting them up and etc....

I know in my area when comcast coverted thier boxes over earlier this year...the lines at the cable company were long and a lot of people had many boxes to swap out.

So part of this problem is not only may you have ot get a new TV but if you need a new cable box and your cable company doesn't offer an option to come to your home....what would a senior / disabled citizen have to do to get thier equipment upgraded?

If the cable companies are smart, they'll get this started well in advance of the actual changeover. Plus, I've never heard of a cable company that didn't service you at home. Even if such a thing exists...believe me, if these boxes need to be put in, someone will see the need for the service and perform it and make a profit.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by 33girl

If the cable companies are smart, they'll get this started well in advance of the actual changeover. Plus, I've never heard of a cable company that didn't service you at home. Even if such a thing exists...believe me, if these boxes need to be put in, someone will see the need for the service and perform it and make a profit.

well comcast here in MD has days where u just wanna strangle somebody...a few months ago, one of my boxes was on the fritz and they wanted to charge me for DRIVING to come pick the box up from them or wiat 2.5 weeks for them to send a tech out...needless to say...I picked the box up and after a few choice words to the manager about thier customer service, I didn't pay for it either...



aaaahhhhh... verizon FIOS come Friday....hehehhee

[Kevin]

In undergrad and high school, I worked for Radioshack.. We dealt a great deal with the elderly and their technical ineptitude. For many seniors who can't figure out how to change the batteries in their TV remote, this really will be a serious deal. I figure that they'll eventually be able to figure it out themselves or ask someone to help. Every electronics store in the U.S. will be selling these converter boxes at what I'm hoping is a pretty reasonable price.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Kevin

In undergrad and high school, I worked for Radioshack.. We dealt a great deal with the elderly and their technical ineptitude. For many seniors who can't figure out how to change the batteries in their TV remote, this really will be a serious deal. I figure that they'll eventually be able to figure it out themselves or ask someone to help. Every electronics store in the U.S. will be selling these converter boxes at what I'm hoping is a pretty reasonable price.

you realize that one day that WE....will be one of those techologically inept seniors...LOL

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

you realize that one day that WE....will be one of those techologically inept seniors...LOL

I doubt it. I think folks are different now.

[DeltAlum]

The story here is about seniors, but reality is that a whole lot more people are going to have problems. A whole lot of people simply aren't technically adept. It will also be a burden to the poor.

But beside that...

My feeling is, and has been for years, that this transition to digital broadcasting was, a) totally unnecessary and b) handled terribly from top to bottom. It would take way too much time, space and bandwidth to explain it all.

There are two entities that are going to make out on this. The first is the government as they auction off use of the present NTSC spectrum, and the second is the TV set manufacturers.

I think that most broadcasters would agree with me, but at this point there's nothing we can do but comply with turning off the old transmitters at the mandated time.

ETA:

"Why do you need a new box?

From what I know, it's over the air signals that are affected (OTA) and that's a change from NTSC to ATSC."

I believe that if you have a digital cable box, you probably will not need new equipment. If you aren't on cable or DBS though, a standard analog television set (which MANY sets still are) will not be able to translate and show the new digital signal without some kind of additional equipment. Also, the aspect ratio (shape of picture) will change from 4x3 to 16x9 (first number is width of the picture and second is height). That means that older sets will make everything look tall and skinny because the new, wider picture will be "squashed." Newer sets may show the new programs in "letter box" with thick black lines at the top and bottom of the screen. You can already see that happening on some series if you're watching on an old 4x3 set.

[kddani]

I'm sorry, when did television become essential to one's life? No one is going to die or get sick because they don't have television.

[Rudey]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

The story here is about seniors, but reality is that a whole lot more people are going to have problems. A whole lot of people simply aren't technically adept. It will also be a burden to the poor.

But beside that...

My feeling is, and has been for years, that this transition to digital broadcasting was, a) totally unnecessary and b) handled terribly from top to bottom. It would take way too much time, space and bandwidth to explain it all.

There are two entities that are going to make out on this. The first is the government as they auction off use of the present NTSC spectrum, and the second is the TV set manufacturers.

I think that most broadcasters would agree with me, but at this point there's nothing we can do but comply with turning off the old transmitters at the mandated time.

ETA:

"Why do you need a new box?

From what I know, it's over the air signals that are affected (OTA) and that's a change from NTSC to ATSC."

I believe that if you have a digital cable box, you probably will not need new equipment. If you aren't on cable or DBS though, a standard analog television set (which MANY sets still are) will not be able to translate and show the new digital signal without some kind of additional equipment. Also, the aspect ratio (shape of picture) will change from 4x3 to 16x9 (first number is width of the picture and second is height). That means that older sets will make everything look tall and skinny because the new, wider picture will be "squashed." Newer sets may show the new programs in "letter box" with thick black lines at the top and bottom of the screen. You can already see that happening on some series if you're watching on an old 4x3 set.

Most cable runs on QAM so that's why I thought it wouldn't be affected by the digital/analog spectrum. Those signals are pumped through a cable into someone's house and the QAM tuner interprets them. With NTSC and ATSC, the signal is broadcast over the air. Cable customers don't need ATSC tuners on their television or even QAM tuners in the tv set, and can actually link a monitor to any cable box because the cable operates independent of that.

How do those entitites make anything off this? Actually the government is the people. So if the government sells that spectrum, basically you and I as citizens get the added benefit of what the government makes from that as well as the use of the spectrum for something more useful - like wifi. Also a TV manufacturer isn't making more profits by including an ATSC tuner instead of an NTSC tuner - that's why so many manufacturers and broadcasters have been against ATSC. Broadcasters that are moving towards digital are doing so because they don't want people breaking into their systems anymore.

-Rudey