Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Giving Credit Where [Partial] Credit Is Due Dept.: Best Buy announced Wednesday that it will carry DTV converter boxes and participate in the U.S. government $40-off coupon program next year (as we predicted in August). If you watch local stations over the air on an analog TV, finding a life-extending digital-to-analog converter for it in 2008 should not be the chore that it is today.

But if you don’t already own an obsolescent TV (or five), turns out you can’t buy one at Best Buy. The consumer electronics behemoth announced—again!—that its days of selling old-technology television sets are over. Read the rest of this entry »

Cable customers may miss out on some HD programming from local stations, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). Rules approved by the FCC last week require cable companies to provide local “must-carry” stations in both analog and digital form after the shutdown of analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009, unless the cable system is entirely digital. The FCC, announcing its rules on Tuesday, also said it “reaffirmed the requirement that cable systems must carry high definition (HD) broadcast signals in HD format.”

But Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the cable lobby, told Multichannel News that

a broadcast TV station will have to decide whether to offer an SD or HD feed as the “primary” [digital] signal to a cable operator. “In the event that some must-carry broadcasters do introduce HD, they probably will still declare SD as their ‘primary’ signal to guarantee carriage of that and reach the widest possible audience,” he said.

If the NCTA’s interpretation is correct, the FCC’s HD “requirement” isn’t worth much to viewers who have paid for HDTV sets and cable service only to miss out on high-def programming from certain local stations.

Must-carry stations are typically independent or public TV channels that elect mandatory carriage under federal regulations. (More-popular network-affiliated stations are in a position to negotiate with cable operators for carriage under “retransmission consent” rules.) Unaffiliated stations tend to show less HD programming—and if cable viewers won’t be able to watch it anyway, the stations will have a disincentive to invest in costly HD equipment.

Earlier:
• FCC: Cable may degrade local HD signals (a little)

• Link: Multichannel News

Cable TV subscribers who watch local channels’ HD broadcasts may be short-changed on signal quality, under an FCC action adopted Tuesday. While the ruling “provides cable operators with flexibility,” according to the commission, consumers who have splurged on home theater systems won’t be cheering a decision that can lead to diminished picture quality.

Cable operators will be required to carry local stations’ high-definition telecasts in HD after the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009. But the FCC will not require cable systems to pass through the entire HDTV signal as broadcast over the air. Instead, according to an FCC statement, “cable operators must carry broadcast signals so that the picture quality is at least as good as the quality of any other programming carried on the system.” In other words, cable companies can downgrade quality on local stations, but they aren’t allowed to make the locals look worse than the cable networks they carry.

The decision can be seen as a compromise between demands from broadcasters, who want cable companies to provide “all content bits” to their subscribers, and cable companies, who face capacity constraints on their systems because of the huge amounts of data that must be transmitted to provide HD programming.

Some cable companies will probably provide the full HD signal if system capacity is sufficient. But if you have an HDTV and want the best picture quality possible from your local stations (and you live in an area with reliable reception), your best bet is to watch over-the-air using an antenna.

• Link: FCC [pdf]

After tomorrow, subscribers to plain-old cable service may finally be assured of continued access to local stations. Cable carriage of local channels after completion of the digital TV transition will be addressed at the FCC’s public meeting on Tuesday, and commissioners might just approve a proposal from Chairman Kevin Martin to require cable operators to set aside enough channel slots to provide stations in both digital and analog form. If such a measure moves forward, customers without digital cable service would still be able to watch local stations on conventional television sets without needing to add a digital cable box.

After the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009, cable customers are likely to continue receiving most or all of the local stations they receive today, one way or another. The details remain uncertain, however, despite a reported $200 million advertising campaign launched by the cable TV industry last week intended to assure cable subscribers that everything will be fine.

I would not like to see cable customers saddled with digital cable set-top boxes that they would not otherwise need—a senseless waste of energy that would probably also stick consumers with additional monthly fees.

But a solution imposed by the FCC may also harm consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

Cable customers’ access to local stations after the digital TV transition is an agenda item for the FCC’s public meeting on September 11. A plan circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reportedly envisions dual carriage of local channels in analog and digital form following the shutdown of analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

Dish Network’s parent company, meanwhile, is telling the FCC that it will be unable to provide all “must-carry” local stations in high-definition for its satellite TV customers in time for the 2009 deadline. EchoStar is also saying that it cannot make an overnight switch from analog to digital stations on February 17, 2009; the transition of 1,500 local signals nationwide could take months, the company contends.

• DTV converter boxes will be a “hot topic” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. But HDTV will remain the star of the show.

• U.S. consumers are still waiting for a low-priced digital-to-analog converter box. In Britain, meanwhile, a supermarket chain is offering a box for about $20.

• Philips tells the FCC the company’s prototype white-space device (WSD) works even better than initially thought. Big deal, say broadcasters, who remain alarmed about potential WSD interference blanking out digital TV reception.

Degradation of local HD broadcasts by cable companies would be prohibited, under a behind-the-scenes proposal from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reported in Multichannel News.

Cable (and satellite) TV companies that put the squeeze on high-definition quality have aroused the ire of subscribers who have purchased HD packages and costly home-theater equipment. The problem is channel capacity—and systems that don’t have enough of it know that they can squeeze in more channels by skimping on signal quality.
Read the rest of this entry »

• The digital TV transition poses problems for people with disabilities, coalition tells FCC. Concerns include closed captioning and video description services.

• DirecTV must stop airing ads claiming consumers prefer its picture quality over cable; court’s preliminary injunction cites “unfairly designed” survey that compared digital satellite TV with analog cable.

• The public owns the airwaves, yet FCC digital TV rules fail to address broadcasters’ obligations to local communities, public advocacy groups complain. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps agrees [so do I! –Ed.], says the commission has been “asleep at the switch.”

• FCC comment deadlines: Comments on the FCC’s Digital Television Consumer Education Initiative are due September 17. Reply comments must be filed by October 1.

Reader Dan writes:

Where the HECK can I BUY one of these converter boxes? I’ve been trying to get one for several years…Tweeter, Best Buy, Circuit City, seem to have no idea what I’m talking about. I can’t find anything for sale on any website….

I see products for sale with stickers on them warning that converter boxes will be needed, but as nearly as I can tell those boxes are figments of somebody’s imagination.

Dan’s question is shared by other antenna-based viewers who are actually paying attention to the impending digital TV transition—and those five or six people want answers!
Read the rest of this entry »

• The U.S. government has “grossly underestimated” the number of DTV converter boxes Americans will need, says PBS President Paula Kerger.

• Microsoft defends “white space” broadband prototype devices against charges of interfering with digital TV broadcasts. The company cites defects in a previously tested device…and submits a new one to the FCC.

• DirecTV and Time Warner Cable settle dispute over HDTV quality claims.

• ATSC wants the FCC to update its digital TV standard, following the standards body’s six-part framework.

Shocking news today for suburban Detroit readers: HDTV broadcasts can be received with an antenna! For free!

Cable TV companies have allegedly conspired to hide this fact, along with the existence of free DTV multicast channels—but The Oakland Press is now setting the record straight.

The newspaper headline is Onionesque: “High-definition TV available over the air, attorney says.”

Nonetheless, it’s true. Sadly, to many readers, it is no doubt news.

Here’s another fact The Press should stress: If you want to watch high-definition shows in actual HD, you will need an HDTV.

• Link: The Oakland Press

Switching to digital TV broadcasts will be a chore for some Americans, including many seniors. Hooking up a DTV converter box, scanning for channels, possibly getting up on the roof to fiddle with an antenna…let’s face it, the set-up will be daunting for some folks.

Age isn’t the issue. At 84, Sumner Redstone is still in charge at CBS, after all. I know of seniors who will make the transition from over-the-air analog TV to digital, no problem. But for anyone who is mobility-impaired or in frail health, the road to DTV is an uphill climb.

Here is how one television station manager approaches the issue:

I’m willing to bet that charitable organizations will help the elderly and homebound locate and install set-top converters.

Uh-oh.

If that’s the solution the TV industry is counting on, I’m afraid we’re in trouble. Read the rest of this entry »