[opendtv] Re: New Thread: What becomes of Legacy Analog Equipment

John,
I agree that our experiences have been very different. I have never had a VCR connected to an antenna, and in fact I think I've had cable longer than I've even had a VCR.
When I did finally get my first VCR, it was of course a Sony Betamax. That was replaced with a SuperBeta. For both machines, movie rentals was the prime use for the machine, with only time shifting of soap operas for my wife as a secondary use. Another use for it was as a hyperband cable tuner for a television set that had a limited 'cable ready' tuner.
I bought my first VHS machine only when Sony relented and built one. The picture quality was horrible, and I thought something was wrong with the machine. No, it was just VHS.
At all times, my VCR was connected to an Analog Tier cable television service, with premium movie channels HBO and Cinemax on analog channels 2 and 14, trapped at the pole for non-subscribers. Today I still have the expanded basic analog tier channels, but no digital cable, and no premium channels, thus no STB.
If we took your case and my case, I would be shocked if my case weren't closer to the majority of the experiences in the US.
And I agree that the end of analog full power broadcasting will not be painless for every single viewer, and it won't be easy for some to try to relearn new technology such as a DVR instead of a VCR for time shifting..
And Bert's insistence to the contrary, I know very well we could have done better. I at least tried to do my little part to attempt to make a change, but PBS' position on the matter of the Sinclair petition was not the same as my own. I had many email exchanges with Ed Williams, who was (and I presume still is) quite the ATSC cheerleader. Which was quite strange given PBS' investment in data transmission through National Datacast.
However, the transition is still 15 months away, and there are several high profile education campaigns in the works by the public broadcasters, the commercial broadcasters, and the MSOs. The public will be well informed by the time February 17, 2008 rolls around.
There are no coupons yet. There are no coupon eligible STBs on the market yet. Education now will only cause confusion and panic among the more novice viewer. When the coupons and STBs are in place, then you can begin the process of informing the public that you can get these coupons, buy these boxes, but only need to do so for those TVs that are connected to an antenna.
John 



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