Will the conversion to HD TV change the political landscape?

I think it will. Many of you with cable and satellite will never see a difference but the poor will, and they already have.

I bought conversion boxes, my PBS station shut down and only broadcasts analog broadcasts since July, I can't receive them. How many of you with boxes can? I received them the first night of their first full power had broacast, since then the signal is too low.

Will our news be filtered by what we can receive? And who will control what we receive.

 

I just turn the tuner if I want to watch something ntsc.

 

Explain ntsc? Not familiar with the term.

 

ntsc is the analog system, atsc is the digital system.

Don't you mean that they turned off the analog and are now only digital? Why would they shut off the digital when they need to be digital only in Feb?

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. They went digital before the deadline, a lot of the local stations are doing that.

 

Well, it appears millions will be left without reception.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/technology/22digital.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=business

 

No.

What a silly question.

 

If millions of poor are left without tv reception where will they receive news coverage? Studies show these populations don't buy papers. This program has been mishandled from the beginning.

 

If the cut off had been the end of July, instead of next February with the same numbers would Obama had been elected?

 

You act like the news media actually serves to give people the truth, when it serves only to propagandize and mislead. My opinion is that people who have no TV at all are far better off (and less indoctrinated) than people with TV, let alone cable TV. Perhaps if it wasn't for the television people would do their own thinking, instead of letting a bunch of empty suits do all their thinking for them, telling them what and what not to believe. They would depend on books and other sources of information besides the tube, which is probably the biggest influence on society's decline over the past 50-60 years.

 

Yes, because the media was one of the biggest contributors to Obama's win (considering the elections aren't completely rigged). The corporate, CFR-controlled media was Obama's best friend in the months leading up to the November elections. I believe that Obama probably would not have been able to win without the media's unwavering support and incessant praise of him. The endless hype over this corporate shill was not generated on its own, but with the help of an extensive propaganda campaign by the corporate controlled media and Obama's Lehman Bros. sponsors on Wall Street.

 

So without the poor and minority votes he would have been elected?

 

well here is something to consider, with the recession/depression that is upon us,millions will let their cable or satellite service go and many cable companies may very well go under leaving no other alternative except over the air signals for many more folks than now .


Cable TV facing triple whammy as recession hits U.S. economy

 

Exactly my point and I have been using a converter box for a few months now, and reception is interrupted much more than analog signals ever were and at opportune moments.

When you think that evacuation notice was broadcast for Katrina mainly over tv, what would happen during a natural disaster if the poor and minorities are without reception now?

 

And converter boxes aren't the only expense. I've been told that I now need a rooftop antenna if I want to pick up the local PBS station. Sorry can't afford it and don't want one on my property. I thought the days of antennas were over. So I pick up their news on the computer for now. How long that will last..who knows.

 

Yes it is.

Digital signal is rapidly going to be the only way that we receive our television signals. Soon, it will all be digital and there will be a large monopoly on who is going to supply that. The TV cable and satellite companies will be in direct competition with the internet.

In fact, they already are. Most people no longer get their news from the TV. The newspapers are being forced to cut their Sunday papers, and transfer a lot of their news into electronic formats and post them on the net. The media is changing in how it is going to be delivered to us, and HD is a part of that revolution.

 

Eventually there won't be ntsc, it's going to all be digital broadcasts. Sorta like how HAM radio went out of existence.

 

I realize that analog is going the way of the dinosaur but Ham is very much still alive and well. BTW they are going to digital only, not HD only. HD is a subset of digital but there are many forms of digital and it doesn't need to be HD.

 

If you have an antenna now it will still work with digital. There is no such thing as a digital antenna or analog antenna, they are the same thing. The only reason you would need a new antenna is if the channel you want changes to a channel that is out of the range of frequencies that your current antenna can pick up or if it isn't large enough to get enough signal. If your pbs is staying on the same channel and tower that it is on in analog, and you get a clear picture on analog you will just need a converter box.

Are you using rabbit ears now? You must be using something for an antenna.