Saturday, January 10, 2009

 

DTV Transition

While I was in Macon (and more specifically while I was out of Wilmington) I got a view of "TV in the rest of the world." When I say the rest of the world, I am of course talking about all you suckers who haven't gone to DTV yet. You may recall, Wilmington was the world's biggest Guinea Pig for the DTV Transition back in September. You can read my posts about it here.
The bottom line is, in Wilmington we were getting the occasional national ads that the rest of the country saw and ignored saying the transition was in February 2009. We were getting bombarded locally by ads trying to explain that the national ads were lying to us, and the transition would happen in early September.
In addition, all cable companies are required by law to remind all of their customers in monthly statements about the transition. (Which is stupid since Cable customers are not affected.) These cable reminded have to keep going until like 6 months AFTER the national transition. I do my banking online, so I only have to deal with a monthly email (which I now have automatically filtered to the trash). But I found it annoying that the cable company BASED IN WILMINGTON could not determine that they were providing me cable IN WILMINGTON and stop sending me the reminders already. ARGH!
Anyway, the biggest thing I got out of the whole DTV transition is this: your government and the FCC thinks you are an idiot. They want to explain every POSSIBLE problem to you in the most detailed technical terms they can. In other words, the FCC thinks everyone is stupid and they're trying to scared children and the elderly.
Cable companies have of course jumped on board by trying to make you believe that you HAVE to get cable to avoid Armageddon. They're also trying to trick you into thinking that DTV is the same as HDTV. It's not.
Dr. Anderson, one of the smartest people I know, sent along this little clip a few months back and asked if the Transition in Wilmington was anything similar to it. Most folks will laugh at the clip thinking it's a joke. It's not. This is what you are facing in about 5 weeks.

If the link above does not play click here
Watch this clip 5 or 6 times. After you've laughed your butt off, listen to what the announcer is saying. It's real, and it's accurate, and it's the stuff they're going to be shoving down your throat soon.
I've had the ultra easy way to deal with this for a while, by simply counting how many cables are coming out of the back of your TV. Courtney made it even easier. You ask one simple question:
Are you getting a cable TV or satellite TV bill?
If you are, you're fine and disregard this message.
If not you will probably have a problem.
Personally I think they should have had ALL TV stations around the country run a test. Flip of analog and flip on digital. For a long period of time. Personally I think the best time would have been during one or all of the Presidential debates. (Watching the black and white ant riot in TV would probably have been more useful.)
All I can say is, get ready. It's coming. The transition is nothing to worry about. It's your insane government (especially the FCC) along with the cable and satellite TV providers you should worry about. The economy stinks, they all want your money, and if they scare you enough, you'll hand it over to them.
Oh the DTV converter box coupons? Sure, you can get one. But not right now. They've run out of them. You should have heard Tasha's recap of the meeting they had up at Kmart on Friday about how to handle the coupons. If you thought "black Friday" after Thanksgiving was bad, wait til you see "Digital Tuesday."
In closing, I leave you with this question to ponder:
And why is the national transition at midnight while the Wilmington "test" was noon?
Is someone scared?
Krystal Lovers like it steamy.

# posted by JasonJ1052 @ 9:18 AM
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?