First off, all types of generalisations are bad :-) So, I argue that in some cases, government regulation is good thing, within bounds, reason, etc, etc.

Where there is a _shared_ resource, it is usually a good idea to defer regulation thereof to a third party to govern access (the Government) which in an ideal world is appointed by, and acts int the best interest of, the collective owners of the resource.

In the Real World, this third party (or their agents) are usually in the pockets of whoever has money, but that's a technicality.

Now, in the case of spectrum, let's compare the US and Canada to The Rest Of The World. One has GSM, the other has CDMA, GSM, and probably still some TDMA here and there. In one, users can generally freely buy whatever device they like as long as it conforms to the Government standard, in the other, you have to use whatever your carrier chooses you can have. Yes, you can freely choose carriers, but this is also the case in the more developed parts of The Rest.

Cars are generally not a shared resource (though the air we breathe and the roads we drive on are) so the argument is less relevant for regulation. If taxation for things that affect the shared resource are increased, the market will encourage individuals to choose differently. If individuals can save on taxes by choosing a lower emission vehicle, the market should find the most efficient way to provide this to consumers - and is not constrained to any particular technology choice by decree. Bring on the plug-ins and high-efficiency diesels!

all of my stations have already switched to digital and it is great ota and cable company also sends the locals down every wire unencrypted too.

i live in the test market and we made the switch in october. i think america is ready, no big effin deal. there are only like 8% getting signal ota so this wont even affect 92 % of the people. the stations though are having more of a hard time getting equipment up.

when you all do switch i highly recommend the hdhomerun from silicondust if you want tv on your network.

Quipper8 - What have people in your area been using as a VCR replacement for OTA timed recording of favorite shows?

i dont know that they have found anyone doing that anymore. just kidding

with a converter box nothing really changes

see here

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts...erbox_vcr.html

Oh, I see what you are after; a vcr that can change the channel on the tuner on the converter box. Not sure if any can or ever will.

I guess that 1% group is going to be pissed Sorry you are in it.

Seriously though, you are on this forum so you probably bought around a $300 internet tablet and are obviously not a luddite; what do you have against buying some type of DVR that has a digital tuner?

OR

You could get some kind of IR thingy setup, some vcrs used to come with those to control cable boxes and maybe you can get it to work

OR

according to some, the echostar tr40 converter box MIGHT have this capability(timed channel changing)

Yeah, but the gov gave the TV stations frequency spectrum for free to switch to digital, and want to get it back. Ending analog and moving the digital channels to the old analog frequencies does that. Unless the TV stations want to pay for that additional spectrum that they are taking up. (Yeah, right. Besides, it is too late, the spectrum has already been auctioned off. The new owners will have to wait four more months to get their hands on it.)

Not quite right, since ASTC (read: digital broadcast) supports a maximum of only 6 standard definition channels, and no HDTV, or some mix of HDTV and SDTV channels not to exceed 19Mbit data rate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_Standards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTV_tra..._United_States

Actually, digital doesn't free up any spectrum, since DTV still consumes the same 6Mhz of bandwidth that the old analog transmissions did. What frees up spectrum is turning off the analog channels (since broadcasters have been broadcasting on a digital channel and analog channel for the past few years in many markets (read: cities). And of course whacking off channels 52 thru 69 (read: the 700 Mhz band) will free up even more spectrum. I am old, and remember when the UHF band went up to channel 83! Over the years, at the behest of commercial interests, the FCC has given away those channels (to things like 800 Mhz cell phones).

DTV looks great if you can get it. But my experience, is that it just doesn't have the range (read: distance) that analog TV does, which is a problem if you don't live near a big city

Craig...

I've made the switch...
I had to wait for Tivo to tell us which converter boxes would work with my series 2.

The biggest downside so far is no longer being able to watch 1 channel while tivo'ng another. Might just have to get a 2nd box.

Actually, that problem is due to be resolved in the near future. The primary reason DTV has such a pathetic signal strength right now is the rule of levels the FCC follows. In other words, when switching spectrums, a transmitting station is given a license for the lowest allowable signal strength in that category. In the case of DTV, (or TV in general), the current strength is 20,000 watts.

Once it's proven that the newly assigned frequency does not create problems with the local wireless communications networks, most especially emergency channels, or other services and equipment in the area, then the station is allowed to raise it's power to the next tier, which is 50,000 watts. Once they complete the trail time at that power, they're allowed to go back up to 100,000 watts, assuming they already had that as their maximum power. If they had a higher output, which is unlikely, they'll stay at 100,000 until they pass testing at that tier, which of course then means the cycle repeats itself again.

It was said that most stations of 50,000 watts or higher would be allowed to move up to 50,000 watts very soon, so you should start seeing some of the harder to get stations suddenly become easier to get.

I didn't ever know what level they were broadcasting at, but I can say that once they turned analog off here all stations came in fine digitally whereas before I was tweaking and pointing antenna and following avs forum threads on antenna types, etc.

I am about 30 miles from most of my stations towers