RSS'Beta test' of DTV transition an apparent success
By Tim Conneally | Published September 10, 2008, 5:54 PM
The Wilmington, North Carolina area has become the first all-digital TV broadcast market in the United States, despite tropical storms, and despite what some media outlets called an unprepared populace.
BetaNews spoke to Wilmington local television stations last week about the potential for Tropical Storm Hannah to interfere with the official "switch throwing," and the consensus among station managers was that the whole affair was under control and they were ready.
Two days after Wilmington's mayor Bill Saffo and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin threw a novelty oversized switch, from "analog" to "digital," progress reports are consistent with broadcasters' expectations. The Wilmington broadcast area serves an estimated 14,000 households, and support calls to local stations and the FCC's hotline are only now numbering in the low hundreds.
Gary McNair, Vice President and General Manager of WECT NBC 6 told us today that they've received around 40 calls a day. "We are dealing with them," he said this afternoon, "Once we explain how to peak their signals by adjusting their antenna, they are fine."
The antenna adjustment is practically the only technical aspect of the digital converter on the customer end.
WWAY ABC 3 General Manager Andy Combs said, "At WWAY we only had 53 calls on Monday, four calls on Tuesday, and no calls today. Out of the 226 total calls that came into the four stations only one person wasn't aware of the switch." Though some reports claim the transition was unexpectedly rough, Wilmington's TV stations and the FCC have worked together to accommodate everyone...even the 0.01% of the population that's still unaware. As a litmus test for the rest of the US, the "First in Flight" DTV switch bodes well for the upcoming February switchover.
Out of the 226 total calls that came into the four stations only one person wasn't aware of the switch."
dumba$$…
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|One surprise - especially on the PBS channels who claim other stations are running the audio modulation illegally 'hot' on their signals...they are going to have to do something to get the audio gain up.
Maxing out the volume just to reach what has heretofore been an average gain level sucks.
Digital is necessarily better? Yeah, and the glitches, pixelation and simply no signal in poor signal strength instances is sure 'better' than analog...
Many areas have effectively been digital for quite some time, broadcasting both analog and digital, so this is a bit misleading.
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|No problems with either PBS digital broadcast station here where I live (WTTW-11-Chicago,WNIT-34-South Bend/Elkhart), which would lead me to believe your problem to be, most likely, local.
The only station I have noticed low gain on is FOX News (analog) via Comcast Cable. I have to prop the gain up about 25% for normal volume, then when local commercial spots are broadcast it really cranks up...
Note: Yes, I watch digital cable AND open air broadcast.
My father watches both satellite AND digital cable next door.
I guess we are anal.
/snicker
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|A similar test in the UK went without a hitch, just a few lessons to learn.
http://www.ukfree.tv/ful....php?storyid=1107051315
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|They fully shut off analog.
Now, let's see the town crash and need to be rebooted. Doors shouldn't open. Cars run out of gas with a full tank... cmon.... just like software betas :D
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|I am at MSU in bozeman and they currently offer like 3 actual HDTV channels. With 7-8 in digital but virtually none of the local stations are digital, some even with plans of shutting down cause they can't afford to make the switch.
I know the gov is making attempts to help cover the consumer but what about the service providers.
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|So... they're actually switching off analog? Or have they just enabled digital as well?
I know Australia keeps setting back our analog cutoff... year after year after year. Pretty sure it's something stupid like 2012 now. :p
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|I live centrally located between Grand Rapids MI, South Bend IN, and Chicago IL -- three major broadcast cities. All three are currently broadcasting all stations in both digital as well as analog except a few of the low power stations that are still playing catch-up.
Once analog is shut off in February they will all be turning up the juice on the digital broadcasts for even better signal reception.
I am EXTREMELY pleased with how much better digital makes the broadcast experience here, with many more station choices and immensely improved clarity. I still have digital cable as well, but I happily use both since some of the local stations are NOT carried on cable.
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|Yeah in Australia it was originally 01 Jan 2008 for the capital cities! The signal problems people experience in the US is understandable, its got to do with the digital system being used. Most countries are using the DVB-T system, however the US is using the ATSC system. ATSC is supposedly better for distance reception, however it is more susceptible to multipath and other interference. Radio signals (meaning radio, television signals including digital) bounce off structures including buildings, hills, and even aeroplanes! Since the distance of the signal is different they reach the receiver at fractionally different times causing multipath interfence. The result of this is a reduced signal quality and a higher potential for dropped or corrupted reception. In homes the other problem is the cabling used, digital tv requires higher quality cabling than analogue tv, and quad-shield is the recommended cabling (this applies for DVB and ATSC)! This reduces interference caused by in home interefence such as light switches etc. Its not essential, it just depends on your area and the length of the cable run.
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