Though more computers have been landing in living rooms, digital TVs are adding new features to help them hang onto their role as the family's entertainment center, says a report released Tuesday by In-Stat.
As DTVs replace old analog sets throughout the world, manufacturers are beefing them up with new network features, including Internet access, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi, noted an In-Stat report called "DTV 2009: Declining Costs, Increasing Shipments, and Network Capability." In-Stat predicts that 36 percent of digital sets sold in 2013 will be network-enabled.
(Credit:
In-Stat)
Technologies for wireless high-definition, such as the competing 60GHz WirelessHD and WHDI standards, will also bring wireless HD streaming into households, forecasts the report.
"DTVs are competing with computers to be the entertainment hub of the home," said In-Stat analyst Brian O'Rourke in a statement. "Sets with Internet connectivity are already commercially available in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Models from Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony can connect directly to the Internet without a home computer."
With the conversion from analog to digital broadcasts in progress among major countries, DTVs are now the only TVs available in most of North America, Western Europe, and Japan, noted In-Stat. However, DTVs are still competing with cheaper analog sets in markets that have yet to make the switch.
Channel 7's analog feed went off the air after the noon news broadcast.
(Credit: John P. Falcone/CNET)Updated Monday, June 15, at 9 a.m. PDT with post-weekend channel status.
When we last checked in with the local analog TV band, it was the afternoon of Friday, June 12 (scroll down for the original post). Some analog channels had dropped off the grid, while others were flagging their imminent demise. About 72 hours later, with the DTV transition deadline firmly behind us, we rescanned the spectrum to see what we could pull in. Only a handful of analog channels are still standing:
Channel 2 (WCBS): Running a public service announcement in English and Spanish on how to obtain and set up a DTV converter box. (This programming is only on the analog station; the digital one is running the standard CBS feed.)
Channel 4 (WNBC): Running the same public service announcement as WCBS. (This programming is only on the analog station; the digital one is running the standard NBC feed.)
Channel 17 (WEBR): This affiliate of religious broadcaster Global Christian Network is up and running. (It may be a low-power broadcaster, meaning it's exempt from the shutdown for the time being.)
Channel 46 (WMBQ): This affiliate of religious broadcaster Cornerstone TV is a low-power broadcaster, and thus currently exempt from the shutdown.
Channel 60 (W60AI): This Home Shopping Network affiliate is a low-power broadcaster, and thus currently exempt from the shutdown.
It's also worth noting that some of the digital stations have moved. For instance, the WABC digital stations are now broadcasting on RF channel 7 (where the analog station used to be located) instead of channel 45. Likewise, many stations seem to have boosted their digital signal strength, now that they don't have to worry about interfering with their analog counterparts.
Both cases reinforce the importance of rescanning your available channels, so those changes can be detected by the digital tuner. Also, as some stations move from UHF to VHF locations, you may need to reorient your antenna--or you may need to get a new one that pulls in both frequencies. (Indeed, while DTV converter boxes seem to be in plentiful supply, antenna issues and shortages have been one of the notable problems of the transition.)
The original post--which includes links to resources for anyone who remains confused about the transition--follows:
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Congratulations! You've successfully made the switch from analog to digital TV. So is it good-bye to rabbit ears? Not quite!
Retro TV antennas may not bring in a perfect picture, but they can bring back some great memories.
(Credit: CBS)Whatever your view of television, be it couch potato casual or flat-screen fanatic, Friday was a special occasion. And even if you didn't give it the kind of warm reception some Chicago students did on Friday night, complete with champagne toasts, you knew it was the end of an era, if for no other reason than all those incessant reminders we've been giving you, like "The Big Switch From Analog To Digital TV" or "Flipping The Switch To Digital TV".
In these days of cable and satellite, you probably thought it was time for a requiem for the old rabbit ears. Not so fast.
"The antenna is alive and well," said Michael Godar, who runs one of the nation's few handmade antenna companies out of a TV repair shop in Gilbert, Ariz.
And he says that, even at the dawn of the Digital Age, there's plenty of life in that old antenna.
"There was almost a sport (in) adjusting your antenna on your TV," Sieberg said.
"Oh yeah, battling it--you know, especially when you had a remote control," Godar laughed. "You'd change the channel and then get up, adjust the antenna!"
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Fewer households than ever will get snow on June 12.
With under 40 days remaining until the June 12 switch-off of analog TV stations across the United States, Nielsen Media Research reports that 3.1 percent of TV homes in the U.S. are still not prepared for the DTV transition.
That number amounts to 3.5 million households being caught by surprise when their analog-only over-the-air TV broadcasts go to snow next month. That's an improvement of about 1.5 million homes since a February 18 Nielsen survey, which is significant because the original switchover date was scheduled for February 17 before being delayed.
There's no sign of a delay for the June 12 deadline, which could indicate that the 3.5 million estimate is acceptable to lawmakers. In a recent interview, Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet Chairman Rick Boucher said the transition is on "a very good path. I do not anticipate any further problems." He also cited improvements in the DTV coupon program owing to infusions of new cash as a result of the stimulus program.
Nielsen's report (PDF) names the Albuquerque/Santa Fe market as the least-ready for the transition, at 8.77 percent unpreparedness, while somehow the Providence/New Bedford market achieved 100 percent preparedness. The least prepared ethnic group is African-American (5.9 percent), followed by Hispanic (5 percent), Asian (4.1 percent) and finally white (2.4 percent). Despite the stereotype that the elderly are less aware of DTV than the young, just 1.7 percent of households headed by people above the age of 55 are unprepared, compared with 5.7 percent of households headed by people under 35.
(Via EngadgetHD)
You supply the government coupon; Meritline serves up the converter box and a free HDMI cable to boot.
(Credit: Airlink101)Still haven't picked up a converter box for your old non-digital TV? Meritline has a deal that's hard to beat: if you've got your coupon from Uncle Sam, you can get an AirLink ATVC102 digital-to-analog converter box for free. Really!
Also free: shipping. Also also free: a 6-foot HDMI cable. And if all that's not good enough, you can double up on this deal: two boxes, two cables, and still free shipping.
I haven't found any reviews of this particular box, which is one of the few that's actually priced under $40 (which is the redeemable value of each coupon--how else did you think Meritline was swinging this deal?).
But it looks like it has everything you need to bring an analog TV into the Digital Age: an electronic program guide, an analog pass-through, a remote, and a one-year warranty.
To get the deal, you simply need to enter the 16-digit DTV coupon number(s) and supply your credit card info. I'm not sure when the deal expires, but I have a sneaking suspicion Meritline will sell out quickly. So if you've been sitting on your coupon(s), now's the time to act!
(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)
The Dish Network DTVPal DVR ($250) tries to fill the niche penny-pinching home theater enthusiasts have been looking for--an HD DVR that records free over-the-air HDTV, but without the costly monthly fees of the TiVo HD.
The DTVPal works more like an HD VCR than a modern DVR.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)The DTVPal gets around the monthly fee problems by relying on the program data provided with standard DTV signals and also tapping into TV Guide On Screen data if it's available in your area. However, in this case you get what you pay for, as the program data just isn't as reliable as the info you'd get from TiVo or your cable/satellite provider. We were also disappointed to see the DTVPal uses timer-based recordings rather than name-based recordings. Most DVRs offer name-based recordings, so you can tell it to record all the new episodes of "30 Rock," and the DVR will adjust its recording schedule accordingly. With the DTVPal DVR, all you can tell it is to record every Thursday at 9:30 on NBC.
Even if you're willing to put up with those limitations, Dish's skimpy return/warranty policy (all sales are final, only a 90-day warranty) will have you second-guessing. Add in all the troubling online reports of crashes and reboots, and the DTVPal DVR starts to look like a risky buy. We really wanted to like the DTVPal DVR's cheapskate style, but Dish's stingy return/warranty policy makes it really hard to recommend.
(Credit:
Dish Network)
After a delay of several months, Dish Network will be releasing the DTVPal DVR in mid-December. The antenna-friendly HD DVR will retail for $250 (after a $50 instant rebate).
You may remember the DTV Pal DVR as the EchoStar TR-50. That's the name under which it was launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where it garnered CNET's Best of CES award for the home video category.
The latest iteration of the DTVPal DVR is pictured above. While the name and look of the product have changed a bit, it appears that it retains its core feature set: the ability to record digital TV programming to its internal hard drive (30 hours of HD video or 150 hours of standard-def), a 7-day electronic programming guide, and--the big one--no additional subscription fee or contract. That last point is a big distinction from TiVo DVRs, which require a subscription fee above and beyond the cost of the hardware. Dish is also reaffirming that the device supports closed captioning, program search, and analog passthrough.
The DTVPal DVR will be available for pre-order starting November 19 at dtvpal.com. (It's not eligible for the $40 government DTV coupon, which is why Dish is throwing in the instant rebate.)
I know from my e-mail that there have been quite a few consumers looking for just such a device--an HD DVR for over-the-air programming that doesn't require a monthly fee. The question now is whether or not the DTVPal DVR will live up to its impressive specs, as well as to its excellent satellite-only predecessors such as the ViP722. Dish has promised us a review sample by the end of the month, so we should be able to share a full review soon.
News.com Poll
D(TV) Day™ is fast approaching, and according to a new survey, 3 million Americans who rely on analog over-the-air reception will let their sets go "dark" after the transition on February 17, 2009. (Don't worry about them; they'll just sit alone in the dark not watching digital TV.)
But maybe you're not ready to let your 1986 rabbit-eared beauty hop off onto the junk pile. If you're among those still inhabiting analog broadcast TV land, how do you plan to handle the shift to the 21st century? Take our poll, and if none of our answer choices fit, be sure to suggest your own in the Talkback section below. As for the video, it may just make your day.
The Consumer Electronics Association has teamed up with Google's YouTube to sponsor a contest encouraging homemade public-education videos on the DTV transition.
The contest, entitled "Digital TV: Convert Now!", will award a tricked-out home entertainment center to the producer of the best video that "educates the public on how to prepare friends and family for the digital television (DTV) transition," according to the Web site. To get the ball rolling, the Association enlisted the country act Whiskey Falls, whose call-out video is available on the site now.
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According to a new survey by ABI Research, 20 percent of TV viewers--3 million Americans--who rely on analog over-the-air reception will let their sets go "dark" after the DTV transition on February 17, 2009.
Will 3 million TVs look like this in February?
(Credit: CNET)The firm's Web-based survey of 1002 U.S. consumers found that 70 percent will purchase a DTV converter box, 10 percent will switch to cable, and 20 percent will do nothing, causing their old analog TVs, which are incapable of receiving the new broadcasts without additional equipment, to go dark or display only snow. Currently, 15 percent of Americans get their TV from over-the-air broadcasts, while the remainder subscribe to cable or satellite services.
The survey also found that non-traditional TV content delivery methods, such as DVD rentals and video options available via broadband Internet, might help fill the gap for customers deciding to ditch broadcast TV.
"Our survey data suggest that the net result of consumers' choices after analog switch-off will be a drop in overall terrestrial viewing," said ABI analyst Steve Wilson. "Terrestrial viewers tend to be more likely to use alternative video entertainment forms such as DVD rentals and broadband video and the transition may push them further in that direction."
Government officials have called for more consumer education leading up to the transition date but nonetheless predict that a change of this magnitude could be "messy" and a potential "communications crisis."
What's your take? Does the decision by so many Americans to stop watching broadcast TV altogether spell doom for an outmoded delivery system? Or is the transition no big deal after all? Let us know in the comments section.
(Via TVPredictions.com)
