Digital Television Transition Information and Assistance

Technology

Summary. Below is a funny video about the transition to digital television. Here are some websites for more detailed information about the transition.

• DTV.gov – “On February 17, 2009 all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. Digital broadcasting will allow stations to offer improved picture and sound quality and additional channels. Find out more about whether or not you will be impacted by the digital TV (DTV) transition.”
• DTV2009.gov – “Congress created the TV Converter Box Coupon Program for households wishing to keep using their analog TV sets after February 17, 2009. The Program allows U.S. households to obtain up to two coupons, each worth $40, that can be applied toward the cost of eligible converter boxes.”
• FCC – “Congress mandated the conversion to all-digital television broadcasting, also known as the digital television (DTV) transition, because all-digital broadcasting will free up frequencies for public safety communications (such as police, fire, and emergency rescue). Also, digital is a more efficient transmission technology that allows broadcast stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, as well as offer more programming options for consumers through multiple broadcast streams (multicasting). In addition, some of the freed up frequencies will be used for advanced commercial wireless services for consumers.”
• PBS – “I’m Robert X. Cringely, host of PBS’s introduction to the future of television, ‘Digital TV: A Cringely Crash Course.’ If you haven’t heard, television is going digital, and how we watch television is going to change forever. Some people think it’s a revolution, but it really isn’t. It’s an evolution. The history of television is short, but compared to the telephone and the computer, it hasn’t kept up with the advance of technology. HDTV is going to update television and take it into the next century. Let me show you where TV came from and where it’s headed.
• Wikipedia – “Digital television (DTV) is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by discrete (digital) signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV. Introduced in the late 1990s , this technology appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries because it offers new financial opportunities.”