Cable analog after 2008?

"Eric" wrote in message
...
On 2 Jun 2006 02:40:25 +0200, whosbest54 wrote:

Congress and/or the FCC should require the cable systems to continue to
carry a
lifeline tier at a regulated cost of at least the few local channels and
public
service channels in analog for many years. This will help mimimize the
need to
buy millions of TVs or STBs in 2009. There are cost and environmental
considerations when you look at replacing millions of analog sets that are
perfectly good for many more years. The subsidy for STBs for OTA only TVs
will
also be woefully inadequate and limited per household. Some of these
people
might be willing to continue to use older sets with lifeline cable.

Why should congress be requiring cable companies to do anything? For
that matter, why should congress/the FCC be requiring broadcast
stations to switch to digital modulation?

Because they want to free up that bandwidth. The newest mind control
devices use ALOT of bandwidth.

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:37:32 -0600, Eric
wrote:

On 2 Jun 2006 02:40:25 +0200, whosbest54 wrote:

Congress and/or the FCC should require the cable systems to continue to carry a
lifeline tier at a regulated cost of at least the few local channels and public
service channels in analog for many years. This will help mimimize the need to
buy millions of TVs or STBs in 2009. There are cost and environmental
considerations when you look at replacing millions of analog sets that are
perfectly good for many more years. The subsidy for STBs for OTA only TVs will
also be woefully inadequate and limited per household. Some of these people
might be willing to continue to use older sets with lifeline cable.

Why should congress be requiring cable companies to do anything? For
that matter, why should congress/the FCC be requiring broadcast
stations to switch to digital modulation? I understand that there
isn't perfect competition at this time, but if congress (which should
be doing better things with their time) decides to mandate an analog
tier, they should also mandate an analog tier for DirectTV and Dish,
as well as the phone companies who are starting to run fiber to the
home (but only in the affluent neighborhoods, and without franchise
agreements). How about free set top boxes? Free HBO?

....

DirecTV and Dish Network send everything in digital format.
The satellite box converts the digital signal to NTSC for your TV
receiver.

I thought it was supposed to happen in 2007?

Has this changed?


"trs80" wrote in message
...
I understand that broadcast TV will be going all digital by law in 2008 or
2009. But what about cable channels? My cable is analog on channels 1-100
and pretty poor pictures. The digital standard definition above 100 is
really nice.

Im a bit worred about getting a nice new HDTV bigsreen that looks even
worse then my old TV on channels 1-100. My wife will have a field day.

Gonzo wrote:

I thought it was supposed to happen in 2007?

Has this changed?

The 2007 date was always provisional on a certain percentage of TVs in
a market being able to receive digital signals. But it was a muddled
situation as there was no consensus on how to come up with the
percentage, given that most people now get their TV via cable or satellite.

The crux of the stated purpose for the switch to digital TV
broadcasting is to take away UHF channels 52 to 69. The frequency space
for four of the UHF channels - 24 MHz of bandwidth in all - will be
reserved for new emergency, rescue, and police communication systems. In
the wake of Katrina, the pressure to re-assign these frequencies sooner
rather than later grew. And the TV broadcasters wanted a firm cutoff
date for everybody as they are spending money to maintain 2 broadcast
channels - the analog and the digital.

So after a LOT of political maneuvering and compromise (House
initially voted for Jan. 1, 2009; Senate April, 2009), they probably
flipped a coin and picked Tuesday, February 17, 2009 as the analog
shutdown date. Not a bad date to pick as putting in February means that
people getting ATSC receivers/converters at the last minute won't be
going up against the Xmas rush or the holiday period or rushing to buy
one just before the Superbowl.

Alan F

In article ,
"Gonzo" wrote:

I thought it was supposed to happen in 2007?

I think 2007 is when 100% of new television sets have to have ATSC
tuners, not the analog broadcast cutoff date.

Bruce Tomlin wrote:
In article ,
"Gonzo" wrote:

I thought it was supposed to happen in 2007?

I think 2007 is when 100% of new television sets have to have ATSC
tuners, not the analog broadcast cutoff date.

2009 is the planned date for analog cutoff.

Chip

--
-------------------- http://NewsReader.Com/ --------------------
Usenet Newsgroup Service $9.95/Month 30GB

A Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:37:32 -0600, Eric
escribió:
why should congress/the FCC be requiring broadcast
stations to switch to digital modulation?

There isn't enough bandwidth (including buffers on each side
of it for harmonics) for an analog signal on the frequency
that the broadcast stations will have available to them past
February 2009. So, in essence, the government isn't
mandating broadcasters "switch to digital modulation" -- the
government is taking away the broadcast stations' license to
use the analog broadcast frequency, something which they're
well within their rights, as our trustees, to do. If the
broadcasters want to continue broadcasting, their option is
limited to what is being offered, just like we, as
customers, are limited when we go to buy something, by the
options presented to us by the marketplace.


--
bicker®

On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 07:54:02 -0400, *bicker*
wrote:

A Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:37:32 -0600, Eric
escribió:
why should congress/the FCC be requiring broadcast
stations to switch to digital modulation?

There isn't enough bandwidth (including buffers on each side
of it for harmonics) for an analog signal on the frequency
that the broadcast stations will have available to them past
February 2009. So, in essence, the government isn't
mandating broadcasters "switch to digital modulation" -- the
government is taking away the broadcast stations' license to
use the analog broadcast frequency, something which they're
well within their rights, as our trustees, to do. If the
broadcasters want to continue broadcasting, their option is
limited to what is being offered, just like we, as
customers, are limited when we go to buy something, by the
options presented to us by the marketplace.

Channel allocations will remain at 6Mhz. The frequencies
are not changing. Some TV broadcast channel frequencies
will be used for other services.

Harmonics don't propagate into adjacent channels.
There are no buffers in TV frequency allocations.