Digital TV transition here tomorrow

Robert Hallock 11 Jun, 2009 at 10:51am ET Article published in Tech

While sites like CNet offer thorough insight into the implications and politics of the June 12 analog TV shutdown, Icrontic is just going to sit here laughing while a million old people cry “WTF” in unison.

Does your TV look like this? You are SCREWED.

We’ll see you cats on the digital side. Keep it real.

Comments

1. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 10:53am Snarkasm Back again! Now with better "hey where'd muh picture go?"
2. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:02am MiracleManS The fact that people make this out to be some horribly complicated transition makes me cry...
   
   This is easier to prep for than programming the time on a VCR for gods sake.
3. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:05am Cliff_Forster Join me in saying, its about freaking time!!
4. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:09am primesuspect

   MiracleManS wrote:

   The fact that people make this out to be some horribly complicated transition makes me cry...
   
   This is easier to prep for than programming the time on a VCR for gods sake.

   
   /me looks at his parents' blinking 12:00 on their VCR....
5. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:41am yagga No, mine has the volume/power knob above the vhf and uhf dials, and my dials have skinnier handles, oh, and I may have about 24 trazillion knobs hidden behind a door to control picture quality. Ah... the picture quality, so much better than a general 90s television.
   
   Honestly, I don't really care about the transition, all the stations have been multicasting in both for a long long time, except for the worthless HSN, and a spanish channel, and a half dozen religious channels that nobody cares about. But I do like the over the air quality I get in HD, and most of the secondary, thirdinary, fourhinary, and fifthinary channels that come along with some stations!
6. 
   11 Jun 2009 ~ 1:26pm DrLiam The end of an era.
   
   Can't wait to see how everyone takes on these new changes either.
7. 
   12 Jun 2009 ~ 1:28pm UPSLynx My station (and all other stations in the South Bend area) made the switch on the original date in Feb.
   
   The government QQ'ed that not everyone was ready yet, which is absolute bollocks, but we went ahead and switched anyways.
   
   To say the switch was a cluster- of epic proportions is an understatement. We had a phone bank set up, and they had all of the production crew answering calls between broadcasts because we didn't have enough people to take all the calls. It was unbelievable how many people are clueless.... not about the actual DTV transition, but people that didn't understand how to set up and operate their newfangled DTV converter box!
   
   So fortunately for us, we crossed this bride months ago.
8. 
   12 Jun 2009 ~ 2:46pm Garg I watched the NBA finals game yesterday over the analog airwaves for old times' sake.
   
   Actually, it was because my roommate is moving out and already disconnected her converter box. The one thing I'll miss about the analog signal is that I can get used to a fuzzy picture, but I can't get used to a picture that's fine one second, and gets blocky and cuts the audio the next second.
9. 
   12 Jun 2009 ~ 4:19pm CB

   UPSLynx wrote:

   My station (and all other stations in the South Bend area) made the switch on the original date in Feb.
   
   The government QQ'ed that not everyone was ready yet, which is absolute bollocks, but we went ahead and switched anyways.
   
   To say the switch was a cluster- of epic proportions is an understatement. We had a phone bank set up, and they had all of the production crew answering calls between broadcasts because we didn't have enough people to take all the calls. It was unbelievable how many people are clueless.... not about the actual DTV transition, but people that didn't understand how to set up and operate their newfangled DTV converter box!
   
   So fortunately for us, we crossed this bride months ago.

   
   Should have had a recording that said, "It's not your TV station's job to help you hook up your TV."
10. 
    18 Jun 2009 ~ 3:17am Tim They've been talking about the transition for so long that if someone didn't have things in place for the changeover, then it's their own fault.
11. 
    18 Jun 2009 ~ 9:52am Snarkasm Tim? Approving of a technology update? My mind...