DTV over the air Converter Questions

[Conan71]

I have a simple solution for all this, see there's this thing called cable television....

[AMP]

Cable TV is only available in certain areas of Tulsa.  They do not service the entire city.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

I have a simple solution for all this, see there's this thing called cable television....

...and Satellite, if you have a view of the southern sky (over the Equator).  Dish and DirecTV are both comparable, I would go with whoever cuts you the best deal on free equipment, etc.

Come February, all Satellite (and almost all cable) subscribers will see no change, but people who can not afford cable or satellite will be holding the short end of the stick if they havent cashed in their converter coupons on a box.  

Chances are those viewers already have an antenna but the converter may be more demanding of signal strength and not capture a satisfactory picture without either a larger antenna or some sort of amplification.

A snowy analog picture with rabbit ears may end up being an unviewable mess on digital, so a decent VHF-UHF antenna in the attic or on the roof might be the best solution for those who can not afford (or dont want to pay for) cable.

[AMP]

Yes, depending on the placement of your location to trees and buildings satellite is also not available for all.

Typically one gets to watch the same re-runs with Free TV as most cable and satellite stations offer, just a little later.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

Yes, depending on the placement of your location to trees and buildings satellite is also not available for all.

The number of locations that are completely in the shadow of tall buildings or trees is very small compared to the number of locations that will never be wired for cable.  Usually, if any portion of your property has a southern view of the sky it can be made to work -- a dish doesnt have to be on a roof to work (and sometimes lower to the ground is better).

[AMP]

"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote and starred in the movie, "UHF", shot mostly on location in Tulsa in 1988."



http://tulsatvmemories.com/uhf.html
Tulsa TV Trivia on the UHF Movie
From TulsaTVMemories.com

So if what I am hearing is the switch was to move from VHF to UHF to save bandwidth on the VHF wave length.  Why did they see the need to change to digital in the UHF bandwidth?  Most of the handhelds I see used in business today are UHF.

Why not just have them change to UHF analog, most stations in this area broadcasting on UHF came in much clearer with antenna than those broadcasting in VHF to begin with.  I always thought of VHF as AM and UHF as FM.

For those folks wanting to spend upwards of $300 for a simple TV set that can receive and utilize the the fancy smancy Digitized signal, they need to switch to cable/satellite and should be able to afford the fees.  The analog TV sets were around $50-$100 for the standard size at Wal-Mart prior to this panic. A sitiation, which seems to of been created by another lobby group, thus the government provided $40 off cards and the required switch to Digital.  Don't see the folks in Canada or Mexico having to switch over.  

Even in this digitized version of the song UHF, the sound track is not in sync with the video, same as the over the air DTV seems to be.  Prehaps Al did that intentionally.  LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhHi0u7-tr0
UHF - Weird Al Yankovitch    

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

So if what I am hearing is the switch was to move from VHF to UHF to save bandwidth on the VHF wave length.  Why did they see the need to change to digital in the UHF bandwidth?  Most of the handhelds I see used in business today are UHF.

Why not just have them change to UHF analog, most stations in this area broadcasting on UHF came in much clearer with antenna than those broadcasting in VHF to begin with.  I always thought of VHF as AM and UHF as FM.

The bandwidth savings is in the switch from analog to digital, not from VHF to UHF.

The frequency changes were necessary to make room for stations to transmit in both analog and digital at the same time.  When the analog transmissions cease the frequencies will again be changed, and the abandoned ones sold off to the telecom giants.

When analog ends, the assignments will look like this:

NBC 8 KJRH vhf
ABC 10 KTUL vhf
PBS 11 KOED vhf
FOX 22 KOKI uhf
MY 42 KMYT uhf
CBS 45 KOTV uhf
CW 47 uhf

KOED will be the only one to get it's old slot back.  You WILL need a UHF/VHF antenna to get them all.

You shouldnt need to memorize any channel numbers as the newer tuners can identify the new channels by name instead of numbers, and automatically follow any changes made.

[patric]

At last, an easy-to-understand guide just for old people...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/36608/talkshow-with-spike-feresten-cable-psa

[AMP]

Too bad the easy to understand guide just for old people's web site requires some Flash thing to view it.  

Unless one lives in a major city and in close proximity to their Central Office of the phone company, most others rely on dial up for internet connection.  Only other alternative for them is satelitte at around $60+ per month fees plus purchase of $600+ equipment.

There are many people that do not own a computer or have even have internet access in Oklahoma in their area.  Or have the latest viewers such as this Flash add on thingy to even view content on a fancy website.  

What happened to simple text for instructions?

Can someone post what the text is as I cannot see anything due to lack of some missin flash plugin.

[AMP]

I know own two different brands of the digital conversion boxes.  Both suffer from the picture lag syndrome.  Voice happens but the video lags behind way out of sync on many stations.  

Idea of digital may of been a great thing for some, but it seems they may of introduced it a bit too soon before they got all the bugs worked out.  Lots of times the sound and picture go on and off, stop motion and have small boxes that move around the screen.  

I switched back to VHF standard so I can watch TV and have the sound and picture sync again.  May be fuzzy and a bit noisy but you can stand to watch it and have a clue of what is happening.  

Will be interesting to hear the comments of millions of folks in the US regarding TV come D-Day in February.

[patric]

The converters for the Coupon program have been mass-produced to be as cheap as possible, and there have been reports that some are not performing well.  If so, the quality will vary from one converter to the next.

P.S. I wouldnt install a flash player just to watch that video; it isnt really that useful after all...  Asking here might be easier than sitting on hold for an English-speaking customer service rep.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for the 15-20% of viewers using antennas is that those who have been watching a marginal picture with rabbit ears will need a more capable antenna, since digital is less forgiving of marginal reception.

There is no such thing as a "digital antenna" but if your analog signal is weak on your present antenna, you will either need some amplification, a bigger antenna, or an amplified antenna.  If you are tolerating a snowy picture with your present antenna chances are you will need to improve your signal stength or you will be left behind when analog shuts down.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by bugo


I'm waiting for a rash of deaths caused by this phenomenon.  Somebody wakes up to loud thunder/wind/hail/etc and turns the TV on for a weather advisory.  Since all TV will be digital, during a storm the signal will likely be so pixellated that it's unusable.  I know there are sirens and what not, but sirens aren't audible in all areas, and since they blow the sirens in Bixby for a storm that is headed towards Skiatook, they tend to be ignored anyway.

Well if you're concerned with finding out about the weather, and audio only is fine, I think there is another system, much like TV but without picture. They have been secretly installing devices to pick up this "pictureless TV" in every car made for the last 30 years or so.

[brianh]

I don't mean to hijack this topic, but does anyone with a digital antenna have trouble getting channel KTUL(channel ?  I live in Brookside and I have a terrible time with only that station.  I think because it is in VHF and I have always been terrible working rabbit ears.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by brianh

I don't mean to hijack this topic, but does anyone with a digital antenna have trouble getting channel KTUL(channel ?  I live in Brookside and I have a terrible time with only that station.  I think because it is in VHF and I have always been terrible working rabbit ears.

Everyone else went to UHF for the transition except KTUL, so everyone has problems with that one channel because they reduced their power to keep from stomping on another existing VHF station on the same channel.

That will change in February too, when the stations move to their permanent channel assignments and begin broadcasting in full power.  

Here is a website that has been discussing it:
http://www.hdtvok.com/

[patric]

More on the UHF - VHF confusion:

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/MusicalChairs.html