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

["Tim Kridel" <tkridel@xxxxxxxxx>]

In cable, roughly 10 SD digital channels can fit in the space occupied by
one analog channel. MSOs already are running into capacity problems due to
the popularity of HD, so it's only a matter of time before analog cable is
phased out. On some systems, that could happen before 2009. If it does, then
analog cable-ready TVs would require a set-top box to accommodate the
migration to digital.


-----Original Message-----
From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Scott Fybush
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:30 AM
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Dump AM IBOC, Move the AM Band, re:HDTV comment

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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