Digital TV Facts: The Latest

…well, sort of. You can buy a DTV converter box alternative for your old analog TV today—as long as you don’t mind paying for (and perhaps even enjoying) extra features like DVD recording.

A DVD recorder, equipped with a built-in digital tuner, can solve the “2009 problem” faced by analog TV owners who watch over-the-air broadcasts using an antenna. When analog broadcasts meet their demise on February 17, 2009, many of those viewers will switch on brand-new, government-subsidized DTV converter boxes. But new DVD recorders, starting at about $145, can also tune in digital TV broadcasts.

Some models, according to user reports, are not without problems. For a look at the benefits and drawbacks, see our story on DTV converter box alternatives.

Read more:
• DTV Converter Box Alternatives
• DTV Converter Boxes
• DTV Converter Box Coupons

DTV converter box coupons could be made of paper, not plastic—despite their recent description, on America’s top newspaper web site, as “$40 gift cards.”

The coupons offer a government-sponsored price break on digital TV adapters, which will permit ancient analog televisions to live on unnaturally through artificial means into the era of all-digital TV broadcasts commencing on February 18, 2009.

Federal rules specify that DTV coupons must be electronically trackable. For retailers, a plastic card might be easiest and most familiar. But paper coupons, like subway tickets, can also be made to store encoded data. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will await a recommendation on the paper-or-plastic issue from the contractor that will administer its DTV coupon program, according to Anthony Wilhelm, an NTIA official.

You can find out more about the DTV coupon program right here—including information you won’t find in the Q&A sections of promotional DTV sites produced by government or industry lobbies. Now aren’t you glad you read the “unofficial” DTV site?

Read more:
• DTV Converter Box Coupons
• Why choose an ‘unofficial’ DTV site?

The broadcast lobby will spend millions on TV commercials promoting the DTV conversion. The ads, in several languages, will hit the air by year-end.

(Factoid: In Mandarin, a common mispronunciation of the word for “converter box” can lead to a life of shame and ostracism.)

NTIA, preparing its $5 million consumer information campaign for DTV adapters, plans outreach to “the elderly, the poor, minorities, and those with special needs.”

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress want to know what the FCC will do to alert the public to the digital TV transition. They await a response from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

• Links: Broadcasting & Cable: NAB and NTIA; FCC

Consumers who own analog TVs equipped with stereo sound may, after attaching a DTV converter box, suffer a downgrade to mono. The problem: While the spec for converters eligible for the federal government’s DTV coupon program allows the boxes to include stereo capability, the feature is not required, according to a report in Broadcasting & Cable. The report suggests that at least some converter box manufacturers are not including stereo support.

“For about the cost of a postage stamp, stereo sound can be incorporated into the box to ensure a consistent viewing experience while meeting the current implementation deadlines. We need to ensure that millions of Americans will not lose their stereo sound as a result of the self-imposed deadlines,” said Les Tyler.

The converter boxes will allow conventional televisions to survive the shift to digital-only broadcasts after February 17, 2009.

Having your TV-listening demoted to mono sounds like a bummer to me. But it’s probably not a show-stopper for most consumers. Many of these TVs probably don’t have stereo sound in the first place. If you asked analog TV owners, many would struggle to say whether they have the feature or not. (An astounding number of HDTV owners think they’re watching shows in HD, yet have no source of HD programming.)

As I see it, the people who are likely to actually get steamed about this fall into two distinct groups:

1. Folks who care…uh…somewhat…about how their TV sounds. But not so much about the picture. And not enough about either to buy an HDTV.

2. People who sell stereo technologies developed for analog TVs.

Mr. Tyler, as you may have guessed, happens to fall into that second category. He is the CEO of That Corp., an analog integrated circuits company that licenses audio technologies. He was also involved in developing the analog TV stereo standard during the 1980s, according to B&C. For that, we owe him a debt of gratitude.

But Les Tyler doesn’t want our thanks, it seems. What he wants are Congressional hearings.

If people can compare DTV converters side by side, and the price for a stereo-capable one isn’t much higher, the mono models will lose out on some sales. Presumably, that is a calculation that converter-box manufacturers have already made.

• Links: B&C, press release

A novel alternative to the converter-box coupon subsidy, from Nolan Bowie at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government:

A better solution would be for Congress to provide subsidies in the form of means-tested “digital TV credits” to enable low-income families to purchase basic digital TV-video offerings from a multi-channel video service provider, whether that be a phone company or cable TV or satellite TV service. Congress could then make better and more efficient uses of the public airwaves by reallocating much of the television broadcasting spectrum for unlicensed broadband. This would help ensure universal access to high-speed broadband connectivity to the Internet and alternative forms of information, news, and entertainment.

Pay TV subsidies? I don’t think so. At $80, two digital TV adapter coupons enable a viewing household to receive several more years of broadcast programming. The same amount buys perhaps a month or two of cable or DirecTV (assuming you can wangle a free-installation deal).

He muffs the coupon program’s details and the distinctions between HDTV and SDTV. Nonetheless, Bowie’s proposal, while tardy and, let’s face it, dead on arrival, raises relevant issues. A drive to assure fast, cheap, network-neutral broadband access for all Americans would benefit the nation more than outdated federal policies (including mandated cable carriage) that indirectly subsidize TV broadcasters.

Bowie frets that DTV multicasting will exacerbate media-ownership concentration:

Once the transition into digital is completed, a single firm like Clear Channel or General Electric could, by maximizing the number of radio and TV channels ultimately have as many as 58-100 broadcast voices in the same community by compressing their digital frequencies.

Media concentration remains a huge problem, but multicasting doesn’t necessarily make it any worse (especially if it merely subdivides an already concentrated audience—which would amount to a small improvement, actually). But if Kevin Martin succeeds in greasing the wheels for multicast must-carry, smaller stations with fewer resources could lose audience share to stronger competitors who can program multicast channels more efficiently.

In the unlikely event that broadcasters find a way to offer multicast fare compelling enough to capture a meaningful audience, they might even win back some of the pay-TV audience. The way things are going now, however, I don’t think we’re heading into a new era of broadcast dominance. The more likely scenario is an acceleration of audience splintering, continued erosion of broadcast audiences, and eventual pleas from station owners for fresh forms of government help as smaller stations struggle for survival in an overchanneled era. The amount of spectrum dedicated to over-the-air television in the U.S. may actually be excessive, as Bowie contends.

Rather than concocting new schemes for bolstering broadcast hegemony, the FCC must come to terms with the changing communications landscape. Martin should put broadcasters on notice: they face a reinvent-or-die scenario, and now is the time—if it is not, in fact, already too late—to reimagine their future.

More on the future of TV:
• The system is broken
• What’s wrong with the FCC?
• Will TV’s new rules serve big players or public?

• Link: Boston Globe

The FCC issued citations to four more large retailers Thursday, saying they failed to display appropriate “consumer alert” notices near analog-only TVs offered for sale on their web sites earlier this month.

Amazon.com, Sears, J&R and Fry’s received the latest warnings. According to Broadcasting & Cable’s John Eggerton, “hundreds of citations” may be on the way for these and other stores. Since May 31, FCC citations have also been issued to Kmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and CompUSA.

The required consumer alerts warn purchasers that conventional TVs not equipped with digital tuners will need a DTV converter box to receive over-the-air broadcasts after February 17, 2009.

Here’s what struck me: One of the seven models listed in the citation letter to Amazon was a Syntax Olevia 32-inch LCD flat panel, model LT32HVE. Amazingly, the same model number appeared in a list of TVs manufactured by Syntax-Brillian that the FCC says were imported and shipped in violation of the digital tuner mandate. So what we have, apparently, is a chain of rule-breaking extending from manufacturer to retailer. In the end, consumers who don’t know about the DTV transition are being harmed. It’s heartening to see the FCC take action.

The commission warned retailers to expect fines of up to $11,000 a day, limited to $97,500 per violation, for any future breach of its analog TV labeling rules.

Critics portray the digital TV adapter coupon program as “TV welfare” and a drain on the federal treasury. But if the FCC uncovers enough violations, who knows—the digital transition could turn into a profit center. They clearly need one, too, now that Cher can say the F word for free. Anyway, the enforcement bureau found a consumer-friendly way to usher in this new era, closing out the uniquely memorable week in which Chairman Kevin Martin managed to put the F back in FCC.

• Link: B&C

Speaking of converter boxes and unveilings, I’ll mention our new Converter Box section that went up this week. I hope it will have everything you want to know about those little boxes that will give your old analog TV a new lease on life after February 17, 2009.

Today’s New York Times article on converter boxes was a good piece, by the way. Blogger Chris’s take:

It’s the first article I’ve seen in a major publication that actually gets the details of the transition right.

Coverage of the DTV conversion by most newspapers has improved, I believe. Jaques Steinberg deserves bonus points for his nuanced, if brief, mention of satellite and cable customers: they are, he wrote, “not expected to have much disruption.” That’s essentially true. For the rest of the story, see these articles:

• Digital TV Facts for cable subscribers

• Digital TV Facts for satellite subscribers

So, all praise for The New York Times. (I frankly don’t know what we would do without it, and I don’t ever want to find out.) But allow me, if you will, to make one tiny observation about that article, a thoroughly objective one.

It didn’t mention this site.

Well, it’s no surprise that he sends people to the DTV sites put up by the FCC and the broadcasters who lobby them. Those sites are worth looking at, certainly. (What’s more, people know they exist.) They each give you part of the story of the digital TV conversion, from the point of view of a government bureaucracy and the industry it regulates. They will help you through the digital transition.

DTV Facts isn’t as pretty as the broadcasters’ site or as noisy as the FCC’s (which actually scares me every time I go there, even after I switched to the green tea). We’re your unofficial digital TV site, by no means the only one, and I hope we touch on all relevant sides of the story. The move to digital TV has fascinated me from the beginning, so I decided to write about it. That’s my television background. (Well, that and a brief stint as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 intern.) So I am connected neither to the industry nor to what passes for our government, and, you know, my heart is pretty pure for our times.

Finally, I believe you’ll find more about digital-to-analog converter boxes here than at those other two sites. I’ll be adding to the new section as we go. If it doesn’t give you everything you want to know, please get in touch and tell me what’s missing.

Related:
• Our Converter Box section

A preview of converter boxes yesterday suggests, to me anyway, that manufacturers are confident the boxes will perform.

To explain my reasoning (i.e., my wild speculations), let me just observe that the demonstration, sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), took place in New York. If you can make it there—well, let’s just leave Frank and Liza out of this, shall we? But my point is, Manhattan is known as a difficult signal-reception environment for digital TV. Unveiling your digital TV adapter there is a confident gesture. Then again, you might not get a New York Times reporter to show up in the flatlands of Kansas. A DTV converter demo in a farm field would have been an ominous sign for the future of over-the-air broadcasting.

For LG, which (along with Thomson) built NAB and MSTV-commissioned prototypes, this was a successful audition:

On one side was a television receiving a traditional over-the-air signal from a local Fox affiliate, its picture grainy and chattering with static. Next to it was a television tuned to the same station, this one with its antennas connected to the converter prototype made by LG, which was not much bigger than a cigar box.

The image on its screen was as clear as if being sourced from a DVD player.

Two caveats:

1) A prototype is not a retail product.

2) If you’re like me, you really want to know how it did on every channel. Heaven help any digital-to-analog converter box maker who can’t tune in a single channel.

But from what we’ve heard thus far, I would say it’s an auspicious beginning.

Earlier:
• Converter boxes? We’re still waiting…
• RCA converter box announced at CES
• LG digital converter box due in 2008

• Link: New York Times

The campaign to inform consumers about the digital TV transition remains under fire, with new signals of minimal buy-in from retailers and congressional tut-tutting about stingy budgets.

Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and Edward Markey (Mass.) lament that

the FCC has requested “a mere $1.5 million to inform 300 million American consumers about the digital television transition.” By contrast, they noted, Berlin spent more than $980,000 to educate 3.4 million citizens about its transition.

A proposal to require stores that participate in the federal digital TV adapter coupon program to detail their employee training and consumer education plans is receiving a chilly response from Marc Pearl, the leader of a trade group representing Best Buy, Circuit City, Target and Sears:

He said retailers were waiting for the NTIA to choose a contractor in August before deciding if they would get involved, and to what extent.

But we must cut the megaretailers some slack here. They’re busy. Best Buy is too busy, apparently, to stock converter boxes. Circuit City is busy firing people. Sears is still busy plastering its tired but venerable name on rebranded Kmart stores (because people hate Sears slightly less than Kmart). And Target is perpetually busy, trying to persuade hipsters they need new sorts of candles (they don’t).

Meanwhile, across the pond, the Brits—yes, again with the Brits—have devised what is, from all indications, a jolly fine campaign for their DTV switcheroo. Pensioners, as they call them, and folks with disabilities can even get special installation assistance. What’s more, the British don’t just have a campaign. No, no. It’s much more than that. They have an actual mascot, you see. And it’s not just a mascot, it’s a robot mascot:

A DIGITAL roadshow will be visiting thousands of households in the ITV Border region ahead of the national television switchover.

Starting next week, the three-month tour will see Digit Al, the switchover robot mascot, driving a 10-metre trailer across Cumbria, south-west Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Please allow me to underline this point: Not only are they sending a robot all about the UK to promote digital TV, but they actually TAUGHT IT TO DRIVE!

Now that’s a good $5 million right there, especially at today’s exchange rates.

• Links: Broadcast Engineering, News & Star

These posts are now available by email. So why miss a single moment of the digital TV transition?

• Digital TV Facts free email subscriptions

When it comes to the digital TV transition, over-the-air TV viewers are acting like couch potatoes.

The rabbit-ears set is apparently in no hurry to buy digital TV sets or subscribe to cable or satellite TV, according to a study from the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS):

In the past three years over-the- air households purchased new TV sets at about a 12 percent to 13 percent rate each year. In comparison, cable and satellite homes bought new TVs at an 18 percent rate per year. For example, the number of cable/satellite households that owned a digital television grew from 4.49 percent in the first quarter of 2005 to 23.45 percent in the first quarter of 2007. However, the percentage of over-the-air households that owned a digital television only grew from 1.96 percent to 7.12 percent over that same period.

Of the 22 million U.S. households that get their television exclusively free and over-the-air, only 7 percent own a digital television, compared to 23 percent of those who subscribe to cable or satellite.

The study is the latest alarm bell from APTS, which revealed in January that 61 percent of over-the-air households were entirely unaware of the DTV transition, according to a survey it commissioned.

“Our study confirms that the government grossly under-funded consumer education when it mandated the end of television as most people know it by February 2009,” said APTS President and CEO John Lawson. “We need a Y2K-level effort to ensure that people are aware that their older TV sets will go dark in 21 months if they don’t acquire a digital converter, buy a new set or incur the monthly cost of a cable or satellite bill.”

• A digital TV patent holder sues broadcast networks, cable operators

• LG licenses an ARM processor (the ARM926EJ-S) for digital set-top boxes

• A public broadcasting official remains hopeful—mostly—about the analog TV shutdown

• John Edwards calls for DTV spectrum auction rules “that ensure that the airwaves benefit everyone, not just big companies”