that's correct. I read about reception problems in articles written before the transition date. I don't recall seeing anything later. I'll send another message on the subject of reception later when I have more time. I have one or two questions and observations that bear on what we've been discussing.
Gene----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Granados" <gsgranados@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:55 PM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Fw: Digital Ready TV Radio Alternatives
Gene, you have some great points here.Our local public station KQED has been broadcasting several digital programs for more than 5 years now. You get all sorts of cool programming that doesn't appear on the main broadcast channel.One point on the outlying areas. Remember that many of the reports you read about online came pre June 17. That's important because the broadcasters were running their analog and digital signals in parallel with the digital signal being at a lower power. After June 17 the analog signal is turned off and the digital signal is turned up to full power. This did clear a lot of the issues. KGO ran some coverage of the changes that was quite good. There may be areas impacted like you say but I think that problem is less critial post transition. For folks living in the outlying areas they should just switch over to a dish or cable connection. I know that some don't want to pay the money but it is a good working solution. I personally use a mix and grab off air signals as well as Dish Network.I'm with you though, we stand to gain so much from the switch. My cable internet bandwidth already went up because the analog signals on our cable system went away leaving more bandwidth for new applications. Verizon and other carriers are repurposing the old spectrum for new wireless internet and phone services. The change is all good! Besides, like you said if you can't pick up a signal and the dish ior cable is out of the question get Internet. www.hulu.com has most of your content available over the public Internet.Good points Gene Scott----- Original Message ----- From: "Gene" <gsasner@xxxxxxxxx>To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:27 PM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Fw: Digital Ready TV Radio AlternativesI don't have a strong feeling about the loss of over air radio reception of television. Yes, some people did listen to news and other programs using TV radios. But let's balance things. The digital transition has made it possible for stations to broadcast far more programming. My local Public Television station now has four over air transmissions instead of one and I am immensely better served than previously. there are lots more Spanish stations available now over air because there is so much more capacity. When I listen to a SAP broadcast, I get much better reception with the digital signal than I did using the analog SAP channel. Having said all that, I am not convinced the digital transition should have been allowed until certain problems were solved. Many fringe areas now cannot receive much, if any over air programming. this sort of problem should have been solved and there is no reason it couldn't have been. I don't have the technical knowledge to state how it should have been. Perhaps repeater stations. Perhaps a better digital system with more range. Whatever the case, the digital transition should not have been allowed to result in fewer people being able to receive over air frequencies.But if you balance the benefits even with the currently flawed implementation, you are going to have a hard time saying that less democracy is the result. It's far more democratic that I can now receive more news programs from Public television over air than previously. It's far more beneficial that the number of separate transmissions has been greatly increased because each licensed station can broadcast many substations. It is far more democratic that many more Spanish language services are available.And while I agree that some people will miss being able to receive television using a radio, the growth of the Internet and podcasts and other means of accessing programs makes this increasingly trivial. Indeed, it may be the case that if digital radio becomes more popular, that with so much capacity, some smart radio station or company will decide to use some of the capacity to transmit the audio of some television programs. I don't know if that will be the case but I wouldn't rule it out.Gene----- Original Message ----- From: "Reginald George" <adapt@xxxxxxxxx>To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 1:45 PM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Fw: Digital Ready TV Radio AlternativesHello Gene, I love your rants. But please allow me to gently point out that itcertainly isn't just blind folks that are upset about losing the ability to get audio of TV signals. There's conversations all over the net about it from people who listened to public television on their way home from work,or the nightly news in markets where channel 6 could come through on FM.There's a huge market for this as witnessed by the number of old pocket TV radios floating around. And why did we adopt a mode of transmition that is so much less robust than the old way? Seems like as soon as technology getscheap and low power and available to the masses we raise the bar and setourselves back fifty years. It reminds me of when everything took so much power and radios had tubes and had to be plugged in. So why offer over theair television at all by that logic? I read that the pictures getinterrupted by cars going by and air distervences much more than with theold analog system. HD radio has some of the same issues as far as it requiring a processor to decode, therefore more power, and the signals dropping out completely. But there are plenty of those being made formoving vehicles. And the next portable Zoon from Microsoft is supposed to be HD Radio capable, so to say this isn't possible is a stretch. I hope youare wrong. I'm certainly no expert.It is my understanding that the band requirements aren't that different for the digital channels. I've seen articles that said most people's existing rabbit ears should be sufficient for picking up the digital signals. Allthat being said you have some good points. I'm the last person to be aluddite. It is sure a lot easier to watch TV on a smart phone or over the net. But over the air unencrypted radio and TV was very democratic. And itis a shame that we have given that up. So rant on that one. Reg----- Original Message ----- From: "Gene" <gsasner@xxxxxxxxx>To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 3:22 PM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Fw: Digital Ready TV Radio Alternatives I have no idea if anyone is going to make a portable digital TV radio.Supposedly, C. Crane (spelling) is going to do so but I am neither holding my breath nor expecting it to be very useful as a portable receiver. First,we are dealing with digital signals. If the signal degrades beyond acertain point, it simply stops. You don't hear interference or more staticalong with an understandable audio signal. It just completely stops. Imagine trying to listen to a portable TV radio in a moving vehicle. Ihaven't seen this discussed but I am very skeptical that the results will be remotely satisfactory. Anyone who uses a converter box and who has boughtone of the recommended antennas knows that they are not convenient tiny antennas. They are not portable antennas. How can you build a trulyportable receiver with an adequate antenna when the antennas are as large as they appear to require to be? With all the programming on the Internet andwith all the ways to record audio these days, why not simply record theoutput of a television or converter box and take the recordings when you gosomewhere away from home. You cannot impose past practices on currenttechnology where current technology does not support it. I may be wrong.Perhaps there are ways to make portable radios for receiving digitaltelevision audio that will not require bulky antennas. Perhaps acceptablereception when the radio is in motion, ranging from being in a moving vehicle to being carried by someone taking a walk or jogging, etc. isposssible but I really doubt it. And how much market is there likely to befor a portable TV radio in the future? Increasingly, not actual station streams but programs are being offered for downloading on smart phones.Blind people need to stop trying to impose yesterdays practices on currenttechnology and evolution of services which make old services obsolete orwhich make them appeal to such tiny niches as to make no sense to develop.Gene----- Original Message ----- From: "Reginald George" <adapt@xxxxxxxxx>To: "Adaptive technology information and support." <ati@xxxxxxxxxxx>; <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 12:41 PM Subject: [accesscomp] Fw: Digital Ready TV Radio AlternativesI named this thread very carefully in hopes that as new products come out we can hold on to it. In researching this for the five hundredth time I foundthe following post in an Amazon digital transition discussion. I can'tbelieve I didn't think of it myself. Only bad part is it still requires electricity and a fixed installation so it really doesn't solve the problemof picking up the audio of current over the air TV signals on somethingsmall and portable. The 7 inch TVs that are out cost almost $200 and eat batteries. Hopefully someone will find a way to make an affordable TV radio that will pick up the new digital channels. Till then, there's the USB TVtuners, and this. R. Allen says:Hey there's a solution to this that really works. I have done it. I listened to TV audio at work and was in desperate shape when the transition happened.Here's the solution and it's not too badYou get one of those digital converter boxes paid for with the government issued coupon. Make sure it is a model with the two audio OUT plugs on theback. (Most have this I believe.) Then hook up an antenna.Then you hook up your headphones to the audio out plugs on the back of the digital converter box using special adapters from Radio Shack. (The radioshack people might help you find them..they're not that common.) Then you connect up a TV (one time only.) Navigate to the auto scan and scan in all your stations.Then get rid of the TV and just use the converter box remote control to tunein stations and adjust the volume. The sound is great. And all you need is a converter box, the headphones, antenna and those audio cable adapters,(about $10 at Radio Shack). ITworks!!! Instead of headphones you could also connect the audio out on the converter box to a stereo system with speakers. Also, one drawback, you have to flip through the channels blindly with no indicator to see what channel you are on. But you get used to that. Someday the Digital TV converter boxesmight have a channel display. This really does work fine, the stereo TV audio signal is quite good. -Rick Allen, Loudonville, NYHere's a website I made with diagram and guide on using a converter box to listen to Digital TV. You don't need a radio or TV set. The converter box isyour "radio" http://www.lustronconnection.org/digitaltvonradio/
