Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

It's kind of long to read, and might be a little hard to understand. Here's a summary.

If you don't have cable or satellite, then after Feb. 17 2009, your TV will be blank when you turn it on. That's right. Congress mandated a nation-wide conversion from analog TV to digital TV. All television broadcasting stations are going to stop broadcasting analog programming.
Most of the analog airwaves are being given to public emergency alert systems, like police, fire, and rescue. The rest will be auctioned off to wireless phone companies, and apparently Google.

People without cable or satellite will either have to subscribe to a service, buy a DTV enable TV, or buy a digital-to-analog converter.

What do you guys think? Do you have an opinion on any aspect of this? It is kind of old news, but a LOT of people don't know about it.

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Oh yeah, I heard about this. It doesn't matter, I have cable.

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Yeah, we all have Digital Cable. If you have internet, you probably have cable.

Unless you use AOL. Then you should just kill yourself right now.

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No need to fret over this. The converters are going to be cheap. They'll range from $50-$80, so it's not that bad.

I've got DSL, it's actually more reliable than a cable modem. The cable internet provider in my area likes to crash at least once a month, twice during the winter.

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I have regular cable, but I don't see why we really HAVE to switch.

Right. But when I was first reading this, I was like:
"Wha? NOO!"

All I have are local channels.

EDIT: Simulpost w/ Ian.

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For me, this is an "I know this can't a good thing, but it doesn't matter to me personally because I already have cable" situation.

Then again, analog airwaves being given to public emergency alert systems sounds like a good thing to me, so it looks like good is coming out of this.

Because if we stay Analog, all the Robots and Hover cars that will come out the day after won't work.

So tell me, do you really want to screw up our chances at freaking Robots, Hover cars, and God Dang Lazor Beams?

I thought so.

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Meh, I can wait.

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No, no, regular cable will still work, just not analog stuff.

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Yeah, I didn't know about this. I've got cable anyway so it doesn't really bother me. Strange that they'd make everyone get it, though.

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We've allready done that here in Sweden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television_in_Sweden

We allready had a digital tuner in our house, so there was no problem, really. But it can be a bit annoying if you go on vacation to the mountains or somewhere, and you have to bring your own digital tuner since the house you're going to live in only has a TV. I think they might as well start putting those inside the TV's since you're going to have to get one anyway otherwise. But on the other hand, that might complicate the license and channels and stuff... bah, I hate when people try to put a price on information, it just doesn't work in the modern world.

There not forcing people to get cable. People who still don't have/want cable can just buy a converter box.

Sweden switched to digital? Looks like we're a little behind the times.

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Well, that's still forcing people to buy something (a converter box).

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Right. I just thought he was talking about just cable. And yes, it is a little annoying that now people have to go out and buy something new for TV that's been free since TV was invented.

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Oh crap. I just realized that I'm gonna have to get a box for the TV in my room.

Dang it.

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By the time this kicks in I will either be living in a dorm with cable TV or in an apartment with dish so I'm not really going to have to worry about it.

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