Analog shut off test darkens New York TV stations for 2 minutes

New York City over-the-air analog TV stations went dark for two minutes today. The prescheduled test gave a temporary taste of what's planned when the stations permanently pull the analog plug on February 17, 2009.

The two minute test occurred between 5:58 and 6:00 p.m. ET, and--in the case of WCBS, at least--was accompanied by a countdown timer and an explanation narrated by the onscreen newscaster. (The test was in the middle of the local news.)

We monitored the over-the-air digital (HD) and analog feeds, and the analog one cut-off right on schedule, dumping to a "this is a test" warning crawl, while the digital feed continued unabated. (See the video above, with color commentary provided by CNET TV guru David Katzmaier.)

Simultaneously, we were monitoring the local DirecTV and Time-Warner Cable feeds as well. In both cases, the WCBS feed was also uninterrupted (even though it was the standard-definition transmission).

In other words--for our sister CBS station, anyway--the test seemed to go as planned, with only analog antenna viewers seeing the warning screen. Anyone watching on cable, satellite, or over-the-air digital--including those using DTV converter boxes to watch programming on their old sets--should have been blissfully unaware of the test pattern.

Now that the broadcasters have demonstrated that they can do this--target only the antenna-viewing audience that will actually be affected by this change--I think they should amp up these sort of tests. Reports indicate that a huge swath of the antenna-viewing public is still woefully unprepared for the DTV switchover, but if they start getting increasingly invasive test patterns during their favorite shows, I think the message will start to hit home.

If you still get your TV programming from an antenna and you're confused about the forthcoming changes, be sure to check out our Quick Guide to the DTV Transition.

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

So...what was the affected public's reaction to this test?

[AnthonyNYC]

This is what I was saying should be done all along, this way only people affected are bombared and confused by the warning doomsday commercials we all have to watch on tv.
Target just those affected, excellent!
And as we get closer to Febuary, they should do it every hour and not only that but also transmit an instructional video showing exactly what the new devices look like and how to easily hook them up.

The only problem I forsee is the older people whi already bought converters which also tune into analog stations (some converters do both), they will continue to see the warnings when viewing the analog stations thru their new converter boxes, LOL
There is always a glitch to every plan, but overall this should work very well to inform people.

[fdunn3]

One Station in San Antonio did this about a month or so back for 1 minute during the 5:00PM, 6:00PM, and 10:00PM news. Just as was done in NYC it was preceeded by an explantion of what they were doing followed by a countdown and then an announcement that the test was over (for those not affected by the outage).
Since then they have had a ribbon Marquee at the bottom of the screen every so often on all the channels indicating the cut-off date, DTV telephone numbers and websites.

Now they are concentrating on the DTV antenna annnouncements.

I guess they waited in NYC because it has a much larger audience but I agree with the poster above that this should have already been occuring to "wake-up" those that are still blissfully unaware.

[xraydude]

I'd bet they'd get 100% conversion overnight if they ran the tests during Wheel of Fortune for 5 minutes at a time. Maybe even a short test during the final puzzle.