[opendtv] Re: Dueling Statutes?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:48:57 -0400
At 11:08 AM -0700 3/30/08, John Willkie wrote:
Please explain to me how the "millions of people who depend on translators"
will be affected by the Feb, 2009 shutoff. They will continue to have
analog tv sets, and they will continue to have analog translators. Or, do
they also depend on direct viewing of big-city television stations?
Guess it depends on whether they get some or all of their channels
from translators.
And also there may be some translators that will switch to digital
long befire the FCC ever sets a date - many of the translator
facilities in areas like Utah are operated by full power
broadcasters. they may decide to upgrade their translators soon to
give these viewers the same DTV experience as they would get in the
core market.
Of course, if their translator operator hasn't bought and installed a
government cheese stb and installed it at the tx site, there might a
disruption until they do. (Yes, there are no rules that require a
translator to use professional equipment to acquire television signals.)
The NTIA program to equip translators with a digital to analog
convertor began last October. There is money in the program to BUY a
convertor box for every translator. I guess it will be up the the
folks who own the translators to install and test them. The good part
is there is no reason for them to wait until next year to start using
them. They can switch as soon as they have them working and the
quality of the analog service will be improved dramatically.
I DO NOTE that Byron St. Clair and the folks at the National Translator
Association didn't join the CBA petition, even though they had similar
positions before the NTIA.
Don't be confused that because they use similar equipment, that translators
and LPTV stations have similar needs. We tried a joint convention between
NTA and CBA in the early 1990's. It didn't work, and it hasn't been
repeated.
The relevance of translators has been reduced since the advent of
DBS. Many communities that previously only had some poor quality
distant OTA channels (and no cable) , suddenly could get extended
basic cable at competitive prices (with cable).
Many communities have been re-evaluating the need for the translators
that they paid for, and may still pay to maintain. So many of these
translators may just go dark one day. This should not be true for the
LPTV services. The DTV transition for full power broadcasters should
not affect the LPTV business in either a positive nor a negative way
- it should be neutral.
What is happening now - and is far more destructive than the NTIA
cheese snafu - is the DTV Education campaign that is telling everyone
that analog broadcasting is going away in a year. The impression is
that all analog TV broadcasting will end.
Consumers may plug in these boxes, see the much improved pictures,
and never think twice about the old analog channels they were
watching, which may well have included LPTV channels. After all, they
now have DIGITAL TV.
Regards
Craig
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