[opendtv] Re: Dueling Statutes?

And "digital" is the point of the transition, not analog.

There have been digital translators for many, many years.

The new supplants the old, and that's the point.  

John Willkie

-----Mensaje original-----
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Craig Birkmaier
Enviado el: Sunday, March 30, 2008 3:49 PM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: Dueling Statutes?

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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