Re: [IRCA] Dump AM IBOC, Move the AM Band, re:HDTV comment

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

kevin redding wrote:
>> Also no one has to buy a
>> HDTV set, if they don't want to. It
> 
> This is incorrect Pat. February 17, 2009 you will have to have a HDTV  
> to see TV. Its a drop dead date for analog as mandated by Congress  
> through statute law. It is HD RADIO that is not mandated and no one  
> has to buy a digital radio. I am sure as soon as congress notices  
> their oversight, they will mandate it and hose DXers.

Bullpuckey, on two accounts.

First off, nobody has to have an "HDTV" set to see TV. "HDTV" is one of 
(actually, several of) the display options in the DTV standard. I 
already have a DTV tuner here, but I don't have an HDTV display and 
probably won't until next year at the earliest. They are not the same 
thing, and we only add to the confusion by conflating them.

Second, I fully expect that on February 18, 2009, I'll still be using 
all but one of the (analog, standard-def) TV sets in my house. They're 
all hooked up to cable, and analog cable won't be going away on 2/17/09, 
nor will the analog outputs of DirecTV and Dish Network receivers.

Long before that, the 1978-vintage 12" B/W TV in the kitchen, which is 
the only set that's still strictly off-air, will have been replaced, 
probably by a similar-sized LCD set. By the end of this year, all such 
sets will be required to include an ATSC (DTV) tuner, so even if I don't 
hook it up to cable (which I probably will end up doing, at my wife's 
behest), it will fly through the deadline with no issues.

As for Russ' assertion that HDTV sets are still overpriced, I've been 
pricing them out, and if I wanted to, I could replace the 27" analog 
Sony in my family room with a 26" 16:9 HD LCD, ATSC tuner and all, for 
as little as $699 right now. Adjusting for inflation, that's barely more 
than I paid for the analog set in 1998.

s
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