Digital TV Facts: The Latest

• The FCC proposes [pdf] digital TV consumer information initiatives; television, consumer electronics and retail industries may be affected.

• Capitol Broadcasting launches its own promotional spots for the DTV transition.

• Customers of smaller cable TV companies want more HDTV…and they especially want local channels in HD.

The shutdown of analog television broadcasts in 2009 offers “high potential for a train wreck,” according to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Is the digital TV transition a disaster in the making?

It’s still too early to tell. Alarm bells were rung at today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, where an AARP official raised the prospect of senior citizens losing their television service and taking it out on Congress. That’s exactly what would happen, too, if we switched over tomorrow. Surveys continue to show low levels of awareness about what will happen on February 17, 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters will complete the change to digital TV. Personally, I’m not despairing—not yet.
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At Christie’s auction house in New York, LG Electronics yesterday held a major unveiling of…DTV converter boxes?

Um, no.

Instead, LG’s new premium LBX series of LCD HDTVs took center stage, with 1080p resolution on LG TruMotion 120-Hz flat panels of 42, 47 and 52 inches.

The new line is called “Opus.” It’s Opie Taylor’s Christian name, apparently, and they’re as sick as we are about Viacom’s refusal to release the show in the HD format that Mayberry deserves. Or something like that.

But here’s something LG actually said: Consumers can expect flat-panel TV prices—at least some of them—to drop further this year. Read the rest of this entry »

“What this country needs,” in the words of Thomas Riley Marshall, “is a really good five-cent cigar.” Those words were said in 1917, when Marshall was Woodrow Wilson’s vice president. But America’s longing for bargain-priced consumer products endures. Today we’re waiting for an affordably priced, cigar box-sized device—the digital TV converter.

A DTV converter box hooks up to an antenna-equipped analog TV, allowing it to display digital channels. Several electronics manufacturers have signaled plans to market low-priced converter boxes, which consumers can purchase using $40-off coupons from the U.S. government. The subsidy program begins in January 2008. Thomson announced plans for an RCA converter box, initially priced at $125, in 2005. Anticipated prices for digital TV adapters have now dropped to the $60 range.

The question is, where are they?
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If you want to watch local digital TV stations on your PC, two new products from AMD are worth a look.

The ATI TV Wonder 600 is a “stick tuner” that plugs into a USB socket on your notebook or desktop PC. The tuner can be used for watching local digital (including HDTV) or analog channels over the air, plus analog cable channels. PVR (personal video recorder) functions can be enabled using the ATI Catalyst Media Center software suite.

For desktop computers, AMD offers the ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI Express, a board that goes inside the box. In addition to over-the-air analog/digital/HD television and analog cable, the TV Wonder 650 can tune unscrambled QAM digital cable channels. (Note, however, that most digital cable channels are scrambled. But some cable systems send local stations, especially, “in the clear.”) Catalyst Media Center is also supported.

A “telescopic antenna” is included with the USB tuner stick, but viewers in areas where reception is difficult will probably need a better antenna to receive DTV stations dependably. For the TV Wonder 650, AMD recommends an amplified antenna.

Both tuners should reach stores by September.

Earlier:
• USB ATSC tuner stick from Pinnacle
• Thomson previews USB digital TV tuner

• Link: TV Technology

ABC plans to transform its low-profile broadband news channel into a full-blown cable network, according to TVNewsday. In its latest vision for ABC News Now, the network would partner with affiliates to offer local segments every half-hour. Station owners might love the idea, but it’s a raw deal for the public.

When ABC News Now launched on a test basis in 2004, it was available free over the air for several months on local multicast DTV channels. We won’t see that again, apparently—and it gets worse:

In addition to supplying the local news segments, the ABC affiliates would be expected to integrate the local and national feeds and distribute the package to local cable operators via a fiber or microwave link or by broadcasting it in encrypted form over a digital channel.

Because of the encryption, viewers with digital TVs would not be able to receive the service off the air.

That would be an outrage.
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Local digital TV broadcasts would be available on mobile phones and handhelds, including free and paid services, according to a mobile TV roadmap from the Advanced Television Systems Committee.

Ad-supported television programming, video on demand and datacasting are among the services envisioned for the ATSC M/H standard, the ATSC’s Jerry Whitaker writes in TV Technology.

The standards group wants to ensure that new mobile TV services use spectrum efficiently enough not to crowd out existing HDTV telecasts. DTV receivers in use today probably would not be able to display the mobile DTV services. But any new services must operate on broadcasters’ DTV channels “without adverse impact on existing receiving equipment.”

The ATSC M/H standard is “a major priority in the ATSC strategic plan,” Whitaker writes, which “recognizes a growing consensus that mobile and handheld capability is essential to the future of local broadcasting.” Rather than starting from scratch, the new standard may incorporate mobile TV technologies already in development. The ATSC M/H timeline sounds pretty ambitious: Station owners hope to announce mobile DTV services before the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

• Link: TV Technology

Should you still buy an analog TV? Stores are marking them down and clearing them out, making way for more digital televisions. The DTV transition will wrap up on February 17, 2009, and if you want a “classic-style” TV, this may be your last chance.

Let me say this upfront: I’ll pass on this deal. The value proposition of an obsolete TV set just doesn’t move me.

Granted, an old-technology TV isn’t completely worthless. Read the rest of this entry »

The FCC cited Target last month for violations of analog TV signage requirements, both on the retailer’s web site and at several of its stores. Wouldn’t you expect Target, after such an embarrassment, to be extra careful about how they describe those outmoded television sets to their customers?

Yet if you shop the Target web site today, you might run across a category in its electronics section called “FCC Tuner Compliance.” Now, what would you expect to find in that category?
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As 2009 draws closer, beware of hucksters hawking “HDTV converter boxes.”

We usually talk about DTV converter boxes here at DTV Facts. These are digital-to-analog converter boxes that will allow you to watch over-the-air digital channels on an analog TV. Before analog broadcasts end on February 17, 2009, manufacturers expect to sell millions of them.

If you see something called an HDTV converter box, it’s probably the result of careless or imprecise labeling. But if you are told that such a box will magically provide an HD picture on that dusty old Philco in the laundry room, here’s my advice: Make a run for it.

To get HDTV on an analog television, I’m afraid your best option is to move to Japan of the 1990s. But to watch digital TV channels on your analog TV, or HD shows on an HDTV, several simpler options are available. You’ll find them in our new article.

Read:
• Beware of ‘HDTV Converter’ scams

DTV set-top boxes and other accessories may become easier to set up, thanks to enhanced on-screen controls. Two new digital TV receiver standards, introduced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), will add to the immense joy of the 2009 DTV transition. (Or at least dull some of the pain.)

Discounts on HDTVs will be available to consumers who sign up for HD digital cable packages, under a promotion involving major cable companies and a television manufacturer. (Another option: Pay for your new HDTV without any help from Comcast—but get your HD programming for free, over the air.)

ATSC Mobile DTV: Proposed standards include A-VSB (Samsung/Rohde & Schwarz), MPH (LG/Harris), and submissions from the Mobile DTV Alliance (supporting DVB-H), Thomson, Nokia and Qualcomm, TV Technology reports.

More headlines:

• Cablevision adds 15 Voom channels to HD lineup.

• Bill would alter cable’s rules for importing distant stations.

• Bush nominates Republican Deborah Taylor Tate to full FCC term.