Only 4 days left until June 12, 2009 - the new "drop dead" date for all Americans to be ready for Digital Television.
As a common lay person not involved directly with television broadcasting or the television industry, this has been the longest 2 years of my life. When I started writing, investigating, and talking to as many people as I could over 2 years ago, I had no idea what I was in for.
It was a long, arduous journey up to February 17, 2009 when we THOUGHT that analog signals for high powered, over-the-air Television Stations would end. Then, the FCC and the Obama Administration "extended" the drop dead date to June 12, 2009, to give those involved (since 1996) a few more months to get it right.
Even Michael Copps, Acting FCC Chairman, said that the FCC was NOT able to accomplish much and was not able to make much of a difference during the 4 month extension. Why? Well, in my opinion it was "over exposure". The American public was sick to death of hearing about the transition. Those that were going to do something about it already did and those that procrastinated continued to do so.
The FCC and the National Association of Broadcasters have already admitted that there is not much they can do now but wait and clean up the mess (reference Broadcasting & Cable Magazine, June 2009). After June 12 they will start dealing with reception problems. Do you know what that means?
For those who rely on antenna TV it means that the number of stations they received under analog TV will be reduced, in many cases significantly, to one or two if they are lucky. And there is not a single person or agency they can call who will care. I know that because people who visit this site have reported to me on numerous occasions that they have DTV reception problems with the DTV converter boxes. And in calling the TV stations involved, have received little, if any, help at all.
The local TV stations point fingers at the FCC, who point fingers back at the TV stations, who point fingers back at the Association of Broadcasters in their area, who blame the government, who blame the TV stations who blame the public. It is as vicious a circle as I have ever seen.
For those of us in Maine, a large portion (about 14%) of the population rely ONLY on over-the-air reception for television. And it just so happens that a great deal of these people seem to live on the "cusp" between where the analog signal used to reach and where the digital signal will reach.
FCC Commissioner Copps himself has admitted that his own DTV converter box worked fine over this past winter; but when spring came and the leaves came, so did the DTV signal interference. So if we're going to have problems with leaves being in the way, I don't think the State of Maine is where you're going to be most happy with over-the-air Digital TV.
To bring one more layer of confusion, some TV stations will change the channel number from which they broadcast their digital signal on June 12, 2009. I am having a tough time nailing down which channels in Maine will and which one's won't change. From what I can gather at this point here is the run down of the stations I know about in Southern Maine.
(The channel number that is displayed on your screen when you channel surf is called the PSIP; which can be different from the actual UHF broadcast channel)
WCSH (NBC) Channel 6 will remain UHF 44
WMTW (ABC) Channel 8 will change to VHF 8
WGME (CBS) Channel 13 will remain UHF 38
WPFO (Fox) Channel 23 will remain UHF 23
WPME (MYN) Channel 35 will remain UHF 35
WPXT (CW) Channel 51 will remain UHF 43
Maine PBS - depends on where you are. Check http://www.mpbn.net/About/DTV/tabid/251/Default.aspx for details.
For me, the only one of these I need to worry about is WMTW because that's the only channel in Southern Maine that I receive that is changing. So instead of doing an entire rescan (which can cause more problems that it's worth) I will simply manually change my DTV to look for channel 8 on Channel 8.1 instead of 46.1. I would suggest you do the same unless don't know how to do this in which case you better stick with the full re-scan of channels on your DTV device.
Good luck to you all. I have heard there are some things going on at the State and Federal level to help improve signal strength of digital TV but I doubt you will see the benefits of that for many months.
13 comments:
Typos?:
> "WPME (MYN) Channel 35 will remain UHF 28"
WPME has been broadcasting on UHF 35 since last fall and will remain on UHF 35.
>"channel 8 on Channel 8.1 instead of 44.1"
Channel 8 is moving from UHF 46.1 not 44.1
>"I would suggest you do the same...."
The steps needed for adding or scanning for digital channels vary so much from one DTV or HDTV manufacturer to another it is hard to give anyone advice. Especially when many people still don't know the difference between digital and analog stations.....
Example:
I got a frantic call from a neighbor when WMUR ran their transition test. She said, "They told us at the store that this TV was digital ready!" "Why did we fail the test!" I went over and she had been watching analog WMUR (in snowy, ghosting wide screen stretch-o-vision) No clue that she actually had to tune to a digital station.
Thanks, John, for the corrections. That's what I get for typing fast and not reading my handwritten notes properly. I actually meant to go back and proof everything but got side-tracked (a little A.D.D.).
As for the do-it-yourself channel tuning scenario versus auto-scanning, I will restate more strongly that while it is a time saver, the do-it-yourself channel tuning is for experienced users only.
I wonder how many will complain about not receiving any channels on the old sets when they have broadcasted the info about the change for over three months to all consumers.
The needless pile of complaining is a waste of bandwidth.
Wheelie207: I'm a bit confused about the point you are trying to make. Are you saying that this blog is a needless pile of complaining?
WMTW HD seems to be on 8.3, at least in Portland area. FYI. No longer on 8.1.
RSCME, I'm talking more towards those that will be calling or emailing the FCC and complaining either about not receiving any of the channels because they don't have a digital box or complaing to the stations or FCC they can't pick up the station over the air. It has been in newspapers and on the news and web sites about how the affects will be with digital channels.
I alreay have been hearing from others complaining they can't get any channel at all. I told them to buy a converter box and the response I got from one was "what converter box" and so I told him about it.
Then there are these two women that complained about not getting 2 channels, and one was they didn't rescan for change in channels and the other was because there is a very big hill in the way which is blocking the signal.
Now how long has this info been out everywhere and these people didn't know or heard anything about the changes or what to do to get the channels and such.
Those are they type of complaints I'm talking about that are a waste of time or bandwidth. I can understand people having some problems and needs a little help and I'm willing to help.
I think this is a great web site and I wish more people used it and they could find out what would help them out..
Thanks Wheelie: I guess after two long years of creating and maintaining this site, I got a little defensive and I apologize. I don't think there is any other site like this one, at least not one that I have found. And I put so much time and energy into it only because I think the information here needs to be available. I get nothing from it at all. I had one company (which sells flat screen wall mounting equipment among other things) offer me money to advertise on my site and I said no. I wasn't going to sell out and lose control over the content for a few bucks. I have always been looking for people to contribute to this site but haven't found any takers yet. If you are interested, please let me know. I'd like to keep this site going and need to take it in new directions now that the transition is done. You seem to be quite knowledgeable. I've tried to keep the site relevant to Maine as much as possible. I think there will be a lot going on with local affiliates in Maine producing their own broadcasts in HD (like just the news to start). The other day I saw a WCSH promo. It was one of those "watch Lee Nelson on WCSH at 5 AM" kind of promos. But it was in full HD for those 3 to 5 seconds. I have a DVR so I paused and replayed it several times to make sure my eyes did not deceive me. But there it was. I don't have a good relationship with WCSH because I have pointed out way too many of their flaws and they don't like it so I doubt I would get more info about it by contacting them. They know my name from me calling their control room at all hours asking them to "flip the HD switch" so that a particular prime time program that should be in HD actually is in HD. It happens all the time, less so lately, and it literally is a flip of the switch. I know because I had a relationship with WGME for a time and got a tour of their studios.
So if you are interested in contributing let me know. Thanks for visiting this site and for your support. I really do appreciate it.
I don't think there is any other site like this one
I presume you're aware of the AVS Forums long-running thread?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=123548
You know what, Jumal? Don't visit this site if you don't like it. It's so typical that people stop by an Internet site to try and express their superiority or try to "get" someone, rather than provide any positive feedback. I have worked very hard on this site for a long time. I have established relationships with many industry professionals, including contacts at the FCC, the Maine Association of Broadcasters, Maine Public Broasting, WPME, WPXT, the ION Network, New Hampshire Public Television, and Metrocast Cable, to name a few. I do that to make sure I get my facts right and I am more than willing to admit when I get something wrong. This isn't a drive-by blog, it started as a site for people who didn't now much about DTV and HDTV to learn some of the basics as opposed to just spouting off opinions. I get many emails (not through comments but regular email from my posted email address) from people who have asked for assistance, advice, and someone to bounce problems off of to get a second opinion and I'm happy to do it.
A typeical Internet "forum" is a lot different than a blog. I refer to my site as a forum because I always hope that people will exchange ideas and hopefully contribute articles to the site. By articles I mean well-written posts that have been researched and have quotes from people in the industry as opposed to forum members who are all trying to sound smarter than the last poster.
So if you are not here to help, and if all have to offer is a link in an effort to bring me down a peg, do us all a favor and stay over on your "forum". There's plenty of people who will play that game with you out there.
Whoa. In no way did I intend my post to offend you.
Sorry I raised your ire. I won't be back.
Sorry about that. I didn't know how else to take it. I was talking about the fact that I was proud of my accomplishments (which in hindsight sounds a bit egocentric which was not my intention) and that I didn't think there were other sites around the country dedicated to a specific DRA (demographic market area - in this case Portland/Lewiston, ME) the affilates of that DMA, and my tenuous relationships with them. I do feel that a web site is unique when compared to a forum. I even tried to put together training materials for beginners and a petition for more HD programming. You don't get that in a forum. That's all I was trying to say. But what I got from you was one line with a link to prove to me that I wasn't unique, different, or special in any way. Nothing positive, not even constuctive criticism, just a link to another site. So again, I didn't know how else to take it.
If you are interested in writing some articles for the site, I would be more than interested to hear your opinions, predictions, inside info, or whatever you would like to share.
RSCME, I can type lots of info on DTV in Maine if you like so that it would be informative to others that visit the site.
I think that would be awesome. I would appreciate any input. I'd like to post some articles for
average consumers.
In my opinion the transition isn't over because the economy will lead
consumers, some for the first time, to cancel their cable subscription and rely only on antenna, at least for some period of tim, and may not know where to start or how it works because they didn't have to pay attention to
all of this before. That's just one angle I was thinking about.
Second, from a programming perspective it seems that ALL broadcast networks will be cutting down on the number of hours per week that they the will be providing network programming to their affiliates. Which means fewer HD programs overall from Maine affiliates. Here's why: there's not one Maine broadcaster who can produce and broadcast its own HD programming. They can't even record and playback HD
programs off the network feeds because they don't have the equipment. All HD programs (for Maine affiliates) are passthroughs from the network. So what will fill those empty network hours (SD reruns of Law and Order?). I think it might be a good time for consumers to speak up with their viewing habit and demand more HD. We need to push our affiliates to invest in the right equipment
Third. Maine has a high household percentage of OTA only viewers. I'd
like to see this group kept in the loop.
These are just some ideas. What is your background? Are you part of
of the industry or just an interested TV viewer like me? Any
intersest in tackling any of these issues or other ideas of your own?
It's probably best to contact me directly at "mainehdtv@gmail.com". Thanks again.
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