March 1: The beginning of the end for analog TV
Analog TV, it was nice knowing you.
(Credit: Predicta.com)Slowly but surely, the February 17, 2009, cutoff date for over-the-air analog TV gets an increasing amount of attention as we get closer to the date (just two years away). But an equally important date is just days away: February 28, 2007. That's the last day that manufacturers can ship or import any product that has only an analog TV tuner. As of March 1, all new TV and video products imported into the U.S. or shipped to retailers that include an analog (NTSC) tuner need to have a digital (ATSC) tuner as well.
The March 1 date is merely one step in an ongoing process. By federal mandate, over-the-air analog TV broadcasts will cease in the U.S. on February 17, 2009. From that day forward, you'll only be able to receive over-the-air TV broadcasts on TVs with digital (ATSC) tuners. To prepare for that inevitability, the FCC has setup a years-long schedule for transitioning the nation from analog to digital TVs. That's one reason why it's become increasingly impossible to buy large-screen analog TVs: Big-screen models were the first to fall under the digital tuner mandate, and it's been applied to smaller and smaller screen sizes as the decade has progressed. March 1 is the final deadline on the product side. At that point, TVs of all screen sizes need to have a digital tuner. Perhaps more importantly, any device with a built-in TV tuner needs to have a digital option as well. That encompasses a huge swath of products--everything from VCRs, DVRs, and DVD recorders to more esoteric PC peripherals such as TV tuner cards.
Of course, there's always a loophole. The FCC rules about the digital TV transition extend only to tuners that can receive over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts--ones you receive via an antenna. That's why the tens of millions of TV viewers who are cable or satellite subscribers should be largely unaffected by the 2009 over-the-air analog cut-off. Manufacturers can bypass the rules by simply omitting an over-the air analog tuner altogether. For instance, HD monitors such as the Panasonic TH-50PH9UK don't include any built-in tuners at all, just plenty of inputs for external video sources--leaving it up to you to connect your own cable or satellite box or even an outboard over-the-air tuner. Likewise, manufacturers may tweak an internal analog tuner to accept only a cable TV signal--rather than one from an antenna--thus skirting the requirements of the rule. The TiVo Series2 DT is one such example: Its tuner decodes signals from analog cable but, unlike the older Series2 models, not from analog antennas. As a result, the DT version is compliant with the post-March 1 mandate, even though it doesn't include a digital tuner.
So how will the deadline affect what you can buy in the store? In the short term, it won't. The March 1 deadline applies to manufacturers, not retailers. Whatever's on the shelf at Circuit City or Best Buy on February 28 will still be there the following day. But once the existing stocks of analog-only products are sold off, they won't be replaced. For TVs, that won't be a big problem. All larger (25 inches and up) HDTVs are already digital-ready, or they're monitor-only and thus exempt. For example, Best Buy already offers a 27-inch tube TV with analog and digital tuners for a scant $209--it just downconverts all the HD programming to standard-definition resolution. Look for digital tuners to appear in even smaller, cheaper TVs as the year progresses.
Perhaps more interesting is how the March 1 deadline will affect other video equipment with TV tuners. At the Consumer Electronics Show 2007, major manufacturers such as Panasonic, Samsung, RCA, and LG were showing off DVD recorders with built-in digital tuners. Fully compliant with the tuner mandate, they're exactly the sort of upgraded products that will be replacing the analog-only DVD recorders from the 2006 model year. Because the digital tuner costs more to implement, entry-level VCR and DVD recorders will likely follow the "monitor model" and go without a tuner, offering only line-in and line-out ports. Once again, if you're attaching them to a satellite or cable box, the lack of a tuner won't be missed.
One final reminder as we enter the home stretch of the digital TV transition: The hundreds of millions of old analog TVs already in use will still work just fine. All existing cable and satellite boxes--even HD ones--can still be connected to old analog TVs. However, viewers who watch over-the-air TV via an antenna will be able to purchase a digital-to-analog conversion box to avoid a loss of TV programming. (The government is even establishing a fund to help subsidize the purchase of such boxes, but details remain vague.) So while there's nothing wrong with upgrading to a nice, big, digital-ready flat-panel TV, there's no need to rush, either.
John P. Falcone covers home theater and network entertainment products. He's been writing for CNET since 2002.
have access to High/er def tv?
Complete info on getting DTV and HDTV via an antenna is available here:
http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108854-1.html
My cable company replaced all analog boxes with digital 2 years ago, and what? Do I get all programming in HD? Of course not. This is the biggest misunderstanding - oh, digital, that means better. Well not true. Now my cable company gives me over 200 channels in bad digital resolution, which is a SD resolution just transmitted digitally. Doesn't make me enjoy my tv better, there still only 15 HD channels, rest is terrible. Congress has to make sure - EVERYTHING IS TRANSMITTED IN HD, not just digital. Please always explain the difference to people, and please someone explain it to congress, they don't get it.
As the analog to digital conversion advances, HD will become more of a universal standard. But until then, the wide-screen HD flat-panels will still be mostly a 4:3 monitor, so why bother. I('m going to wait for broadcasters to catch up to what HD-TV's can handle, and in the meantime, prices will come down even further.
The Dump? I'm sure, just as the threat of PC Monitors is to our Landfills and (..GOD forgive us..) Ozone, discarded tv's are equally as hazardous. I employ the younger generations of BIG Corporations to start thinking beyond the immediate. Before you create, find a way to make it earth=friendly, so that when it's time to toss it, the following gens will still have a world to create for...or from. {:) PEACE
Great job poisoning the environment and endangering the wildlife!
I'm wondering how much squawking will happen when a substantial number of rural people suddenly find themselves without any TV? The ad men and broadcasters can't be happy with loosing viewers!
Geez, grow up.
Today as Professor Dan Shade, past professor at Deleware Universisty said to me (Paraphrase) "In our rush for the new and more technology, we should stop and think of what we should save of the old." Something to that effect.
In other words without planned obsolescence the profit motive of greedy mass contollers, and we are the masses, and the manufacturers are the controllers, they will not be happy with their "take" from us. We are always being manipulated out of our dollars. If there is a downturn in the purchase of products, a long ago shelved improvement is brought out to get people to "credit card spend" to get "the latest"
We could well have had better computers long ago. The dual processor idea is not new, just shelved until it could be used as "the latest". Mother Board architecture was well enough understood a long time ago that Mother Boards board could well have been designed to "accomodate" a singe processor or dual processosrs or even quad processors, all or either. The cry wiil be heard about how the software developement would be impossible for for such machines. Of course not, one would never expect the softwatre manufacturers to even want the old to work along side the new "planned" better software and "improved" yet limiting "better" computers. The computer manufactureres who have deals struck with the software producers, being in concert, long before we are milked of our money.
The computer manufactureres do not want the old to forever be usable as long as a person lives and wants to use certain products. Example. We had in use at one time a software program that we used to contact people in marketing. That software program was very versitile. However it operated on DOS and became too difficult to run and deal with in the new "better?" computers environment. The long and the short of this story is that we have found nothing since that can compare with the simplicity and functional use and ease, of the program we no longer use in contacting people and tracking that information, that we so loved. With all of the touted try our "lateast and improved " malarky that is thrown before our eyes, sparkling as ads on the wonderfully illustrated new boxes that house the new product, touted as better, we have not found it's equal. The computer industry has it's "think tank" of spin doctors too.
As for brand names. We have an analog Panasonic 25" TV. It will not be junked. At least not until it breaks down. Mostly it is used to view videos or DVD material. It might be added here that it has had a longer life than that of several off beat brands that had stood where it now stands. It has remained a solid performer.
What is the push behind the new TV standards that are being forced upon us? The usual detective method of "follow the money" would revel more collusion than the public could stand or we suspect so goes the thinking of those that have power to unveil much that is hidden. Of course the push for "new" means the prying open of our pockets to drain more capital at just the time when the planners and controllers have arranged to open the flood gates of our financial veins as we are not spending heavily enough to please them.
It is not to say that we are against the new. We as many others, dislike intensly, being the "fatted calf". We bought a new computer this year and it sits along with an older computer in our main office which both run on XP. We also have two other computers in another office location which are older yet and run on Windows 98. Here is the upgrade that is planned.
We will install Windows XP, on the Windows 98 Operating System computers. Windows XP crashes much less than Windows 98 and will control much larger hard drives. The hard drives will be upgraded to high capacity and that is all. For general officce service they wil serve well for many years to come. At some point , soon, LCD viewers will be added of lesser brand names as soon as we get a feel from friendly business associates concerning what works in off brand names of LCD viewers for them. The reasons for this is to reduce eye strain and eliminate the radiation now being absorsbed by the humans that sit in front of the cathode ray tube viewers.
This is one of the areas of great interest to us. Viewers of LCD nature and preferrably LED nature. This technoology could have been brought out sooner. Please, save us the "technology lag" rebuttal excuse. We do not buy it. The increase in cancer in the world has us concerned with the electronic caused radiation from cathode ray type viewers. As breat cancer is rising, our thought is with all of the women getting this radiation directly onto the torso at close range, one thing needed is to get away from the cathode ray tube viewer technology radiation at a fast run.
We are involved in sales of new new technology, but not in the electronic field. We do mundane work such as increasing gas mileage, extending engine life, reducing exhaust pollution, obtaining more engine power and much more; with "new" products that work well in the real world. We are involved with "new" areas of technology which are proven to work well in these areas of need, but we are not ready to encourage everyone throw away their present car or over the road truck just because we need cleaner air and better gas mileage. Our philosophy is a little different than that the electronics field as we can make the old perform much better and serve for years to come.
UYMI Agcat11
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It's not compatible with ATSC (of course!) but it is widely deployed already. When I moved here last year, I bought a TV and a Sony DVD/PVR combo both with built-in freeview tuners. I can record in digital from a free digital transmission to the 160GB hard disc or the DVD+-RW, or dub from one to the other. I'm going to miss it when I move home!
- Who cares?
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by jfrykman
November 22, 2007 7:10 AM PST
- You can buy a digital converter for around $50 if you are getting your signal off the air (OTA) and you still own an analog NTSC TV. If you have cable or satellite, you don't use your TV's OTA tuner anyway, so it's a non issue.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (29 Comments)Technology progresses. That's its nature. Digital (ATSC) television offers many advantages over analog (NTSC), the most obvious of which is picture and sound quality.
Time to join the 20th century. If you haven't noticed, it is already the 21st!