Digital TV Converter Boxes

[Steve]

I received my 2 $40 government coupons about a month ago, and finally went down to Radio Shack today and bought 1 "Digital Stream" DTV converter box for my 4-year old Panasonic 32" TV.

I live in midtown Tulsa, 26th St. South & Yale, and can now pick up all local digital broadcasts.  I use only indoor "rabit ears" antennas.  2,6,8,11,17,19,23,35,41,44,47,53,69, I get them all crystal clear as well as their sub-chanels.  The only station it won't tune is Ch. 25, the Univision affiliate, but they may not be broadcasting a digital signal.

I did notice that the converter box packaging carried the "made in China" label.  Another step by our illustrious Congress in the name of progress, that is funneling multi-million dollars to China.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Steve

The only station it won't tune is Ch. 25, the Univision affiliate, but they may not be broadcasting a digital signal.

Unless it's been changed, Ch 25 in Tulsa is LPTV (Low-power TV) and not required to go digital.

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by patric

quote:Originally posted by Steve

The only station it won't tune is Ch. 25, the Univision affiliate, but they may not be broadcasting a digital signal.

Unless it's been changed, Ch 25 in Tulsa is LPTV (Low-power TV) and not required to go digital.

I suspected that.  Although I am a full fledged Gringo, I often get a kick out of watching Sabado Gigante on Ch. 25.  They say the best way to learn Spanish is to watch Spanish language TV.  The low powered TV exemption is only for 4 years, so after 2012, all TV broadcast will have to be digital.

[TheTed]

I don't understand why it's the government's job to fund people's personal electronics.

Buying the proper equipment is part of the cost you as a consumer must pay in order to watch TV, get on the Internet or listen to the radio.

This thing is a huge waste of money and despite the massive amounts of advertising and news stories I'm sure there will be plenty of morons who wonder why they can't watch TV when the switchover comes.

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

I don't understand why it's the government's job to fund people's personal electronics.

Buying the proper equipment is part of the cost you as a consumer must pay in order to watch TV, get on the Internet or listen to the radio.

This thing is a huge waste of money and despite the massive amounts of advertising and news stories I'm sure there will be plenty of morons who wonder why they can't watch TV when the switchover comes.

That is exactly why there is the current barrage of TV ads and screen scrolls regarding the digital switch.  My old analog TV was just fine for me, but our government decided that the analog TV airwaves were too valuable, and decided to resell them to cell phone and other audio customers. I can't fight this "progress" I suppose, but I think the ultimate economic advantage will be to China and the influx to the U.S. of cheap digital TV sets and converter boxes from China.  Heck, I just bought a Digital Stream converter box from Radio Shack today, "MADE IN CHINA" of course.

[Curmudgeon]

It also frees up space for public safety communications.

http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq2

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by Steve

quote:Originally posted by patric

quote:Originally posted by Steve

The only station it won't tune is Ch. 25, the Univision affiliate, but they may not be broadcasting a digital signal.

Unless it's been changed, Ch 25 in Tulsa is LPTV (Low-power TV) and not required to go digital.

I suspected that.  Although I am a full fledged Gringo, I often get a kick out of watching Sabado Gigante on Ch. 25.  They say the best way to learn Spanish is to watch Spanish language TV.  The low powered TV exemption is only for 4 years, so after 2012, all TV broadcast will have to be digital.

The telenovelas are more fun to watch. The guy in the bee suit on Sabado Gigante scares me.

[Wrinkle]

I use a large UHF antenna and, as a result, have difficulty receiving Channel 8, which still broadcasts its' HD on VHF. Most times, I don't get it at all. Seldom well.

This seems strange to me. I thought the idea was to abandon VHF altogether.

So, guess I'm going to have to co-join my old VHF antenna just for Ch 8.

Anyone know if they have plans to move to UHF?
Hope so.

[patric]

KTUL's website has it bas-ackwards:
http://cfc.ktul.com/external.cfm?p=KTULDT
and some of that info is grossly incorrect.

[Wrinkle]

quote:Originally posted by patric

KTUL's website has it bas-ackwards:
http://cfc.ktul.com/external.cfm?p=KTULDT
and some of that info is grossly incorrect.

That's the site I got my info from. Are you saying they DO broadcast their HD on UHF?

So, why am I having such a hard time getting it?
I will say the old NTSC signal never was very clear either, not like the others.

What is PSIP, btw?
I think it has to do with the channel number swapping (8.1-8.4 is really on 10.1-10.4, which, btw, is still in the VHF range, is it not?).

Doesn't VHF run 2-13?

[nathanm]

quote:Originally posted by Wrinkle
That's the site I got my info from. Are you saying they DO broadcast their HD on UHF?

They are indeed on VHF for both analog and digital. The channels that are being removed from TV allocation are upper UHF.

PSIP is just the data that the receiver needs to tune a particular program. One use of that is to map channel 10 program 1 to 8.1 (or 8-1, depending on your equipment). Other uses include program guide data and time of day information, among others.

[patric]

We talked about this before:
http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8090

And this is still the best place to get info:
http://www.hdtvok.com

As for who's where,
Here's how it looks now:

NBC 56 KJRH uhf
CBS 55 KOTV uhf
FOX 22 KOKI uhf
ABC 10 KTUL vhf
PBS 38 KOED uhf
MY 42 KMYT uhf
CW 55 KWBT uhf


and here's how it will look after February:

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   

Bunch more stations moving back to VHF, only OETA gets to reclaim it's old analog home.
DirecTV already carries local HD channels, I dont think Dish will until they can launch a replacement satellite.

[PonderInc]

During the ice storm, it was important to be able to hear KOTV Channel 6 news via radio on FM 87.7.  I've been told that once everyone goes digital, that will go away.  

So here's my potentially dumb question (which will prove that I'm no Nikola Tesla...):

Will a digital radio be able to recieve the audio from digital TV (similar to picking up 87.7 KOTV today)?

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by PonderInc

Will a digital radio be able to recieve the audio from digital TV (similar to picking up 87.7 KOTV today)?

No.

That was possible because the FM radio assignments had a slight overlap in the VHF low-band (2-6) television assignments.  The audio subcarrier for Ch 6 just happened to fall on a low FM radio frequency.  When KOTV stops broadcasting on Ch 6 the subcarrier will cease, to.

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/tireless-wireless/allochrt_lg.jpg

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

The telenovelas are more fun to watch. The guy in the bee suit on Sabado Gigante scares me.

Agreed, although the dancing girls on Sabado Gigante are a hoot.  And Don Francisco.  His real name is of German origan, probably decended from German immigrants to Central/South America during WWII.  I have watched some of the telenovelas, and with my rudimentary high school Spanish, and just observing the action, I can usually follow the story line pretty well.