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Author Topic: DTV Feb 17 Deadline May Be Delayed Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-13-2009 09:25 AM                        You can't really blame the stations for not doing anything 'special' to mark the end of analog. 1. The majority of people are already watching digital and wouldn't see it. 2. They already had huge expenses keeping the analog signal going longer than originally planned. 3. The people who WOULD see the signoff are probably drunk, or otherwise too busy to be paying close attention anyway, or if they were actually watching, they would wonder why "their program" got interrupted for this dumb tribute thing.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-13-2009 10:40 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag I have two TVs that have automatic channel changers (will switch channels at select times of the day, if you have a set schedule)... My god Steve... I never knew.... do you really watch THAT much television? quote: Mike Blakesley They already had huge expenses keeping the analog signal going longer than originally planned. It cost a lot of money to keep those transmitters going.... as much as 50K a month. I'd want to pull the "off" lever too if I were paying that much. Mark  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-13-2009 10:50 AM                        quote: Mike Blakesley You can't really blame the stations for not doing anything 'special' to mark the end of analog. I suppose you're right, but, even if they don't have an old signoff in the archives, how hard can it really be to find a PD recording of the national anthem and send a cameraman outside for five minutes to videotape a flag flying. This isn't difficult or expensive, but it's much classier than simply cutting to static in the middle of a program.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-13-2009 11:48 AM                     At least some of them bothered to explain what was going on. I wonder how many people were just sitting around brain-dead (from the tv, of course) and then suddenly thought their tv broke.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-13-2009 11:58 AM                     I'm not too surprised WFAA in Dallas would go to some extra effort. I visited WFAA in the early 1990s when I first moved out to this part of the country. I thought it was a pretty impressive TV station especially having worked with the limited resources of a small market TV station -and even there, WALB in Albany, GA outclasses any of the TV stations here in the Wichita Falls/Lawton market. They at least had a big studio, a real lighting rig and a few full time engineers on staff.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 06-13-2009 06:34 PM                        I'll bet our local engineers (who are all buds) were together at the last transmitter to turn down, and had a toast.  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-16-2009 08:34 PM                     The switch was thrown at 12:30PM, in the middle of the noon news. I caught 2 stations here in Atlanta making it the top story on the news. They did live "remotes" from their transmitter sights, and showed the switch being thrown. One of them had someone say "this is W*** signing off analog broadcasting" right before the switch was thrown. Channel 46 has left their analog xmitter on the air, running a loop explaining what is going on, and talking about converters, etc. They were still at it as of a couple of hours ago.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-17-2009 03:27 AM                     quote: Bruce Hansen Channel 46 has left their analog xmitter on the air, running a loop explaining what is going on, and talking about converters, etc. They were still at it as of a couple of hours ago. KSL has kept the night light on here with that same loop running and it's still on right now but at very reduced power, probably 1/4 power as the picture is quite noisy. Mark  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-17-2009 12:10 PM                        In Boston, WHDH (channel 7) was supposed to switch its digital broadcast from UHF to VHF after the changeover, but they have apparently had some serious reception issues in some areas. At last check, they were back on their UHF digital channel. WBZ (channel 4) and WCVB (channel 5) are nightlighting on their analog channels. Picture quality on all of the digital channels is excellent, even for stations that were marginal in analog. There are more signoffs posted on Youtube. Judging by the videos that have been posted, most stations just cut to static. The second most popular approach was to have the station's engineer or a retired engineer or station personality power down the transmitter on the air. Only a handful of stations did something that resembled a standard signoff (national anthem, etc.). Fewer still ran any type of test pattern (current or vintage). Such a waste of a great opportunity.  |  IP: Logged Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-20-2009 05:54 PM                     So in an effort to economize I gave up satellite TV for over the air TV. I went out and bought a nice antenna that attaches to the side of my house. I got 27 digital channels and they were very good and rock steady. I did this in February. Then they finally turn off the analogue channels and promise to up the power on the digital channels. What happens? Now I get spotty coverage and my channels freeze up and sometimes I get no signal. They only thing different from February is that there are leaves on the trees. Can leaves disrupt digital TV signals? The good news I have rediscovered the library and reading.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 06-20-2009 07:37 PM                        Ian, I hear ya! Same issue here. In fact when channels 7 and 9 turned off their analog, the very next day my reception quality of both of those channels DECREASED when I rescanned! Now all of them have shut off and nothing has improved. I don't know why they are afraid of full power. If this is full power, then that is just sad. DTV is quite pathetic. I guess they don't want us watching.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-20-2009 08:58 PM                     Here in Phoenix, the Fox and NBC affiliates moved to VHF during the switchover. Those were the two stations that came in crystal clear before the switch and now I get nothing on my interior antenna. I guess no one thought ahead that 90% of the buildings here are wrapped in stucco and chicken wire. Dumbasses.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-20-2009 09:44 PM                        Weird. I had the exact opposite experience--I never could get a watchable picture with analog in my apartment and didn't have any interest in TV for years (or a set). With digital, I can get an excellent picture from all of the local stations, including the subchannels. DTV was definitely a win for me. There are some weird motion and/or scaling artifacts and sync issues to be sure, but the digital signal is usable here where the analog signal was not. I'm using a standard indoor antenna. Now if only the programming were a bit better. I can listen to NPR news on the radio for half an hour and get more useful information than I can from watching local TV news for a full hour.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-20-2009 09:54 PM                     I meant to say that those two stations moved their digital signal from UHF to VHF and went from great reception to my-tv-doesn't-even-see-the-carrier. All of the other stations were the opposite. Not that I watch tv anyway, but local news is occasionally of interest.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 06-21-2009 01:06 AM                        I thought that ALL digital TV was required to be in the UHF band and that the VHF frequencies were reserved for "emergency services" or some such nonsense.  |  IP: Logged

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