End of and era....

[wilkes85]

I doubt they'll do anything special for analogue TV. They'll probabally mention how they just axed "that crappy old [because as we all know, old = bad] analogue signal in favour of glorious godly digital. until the picure scrambles and fucks up whenever someone sneezes.

And I will bet all my money that there will be a tonne of people who are still clueless (how they can be clueless at this point is beyond me, but in general, the masses are idiots) as to why their TV won't work.

and even more people actually think that even if they have cable/satelite/etc, they still need a new TV or a converter box. morons.

Luckily, Canada isn't raping us of free TV until 2011, but after that I doubt the government will be giving us coupons for converter boxes.
I did however find out that the new digital channels will be on UHF, which is shitty since there are NO UHF analogue stations here, which means no one has a UHF antenna. VHF antennas will be useless, including the big ass areal we have on the roof. it will be a shrine to the days when TV signal was reliable.

We have digital cable, and it's ALWAYS fucking up. When that happens, i just go to my room where I still got analogue TV set up and watch in there.

even with digital cable though, you can plainly see pixels and hear digital compression and distortion. They're especially obvious on my 25" 1981 RCA XL-100 console. It's so fuckin irritating. AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE PROGRESS?! That TV has an excellent tuner too. i can pick up stations with a watchable picture, without an antenna at all. I'll bet this new digital transformation will give me nothing but CBC and the french channel, knowing the shitty TV reception in this area. (and CBC to me is totally unwatchable for reasons I can't mention here)

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by bgadow

The online schedule shows their analog station continuing right on into the next day. .

Well, it looks as if the schedule does go "right on into the next day." I obatained my second converter (a Zenith) and came home and hooked it to the living rooms 1949 RCA. In the spare room I just turned on the 1955 Philco with rabbit ears and waited for midinght. I even had a friend on the phone who was curious, so I heard Conan in surround. Well, midnight was nearly fifty minutes ago as I write and nothing had changed. I retired the real oldie experiment for the night and flipped on the 1970 or so Sears Medalist color set behind me right now to see how things progress.

By the way, I think the cheap Zenith converter recieves better than the more popular Digital Stream. I have only had two for one day so I will do a little experimenting this weekend. Also, UHF loop works better than VHF for me.

[Hemingray]

Down to the final hours now...

[Hemingray]

KAIT 8 Has terminated their analog signal just a few seconds ago from this post.

[wilkes85]

What happened when they did that? did it just cut off, or did they display a warning?

[David Roper]

One of the stations here switched to a static message, the other two just went to snow.

[classicradios]

Here In Detroit WXYZ went to snow, WJBK-2 & WDIV-4 switched to a "How to connect to a convertor box" program loop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MRroVXuRgU

[ihmeyers]

The West Palm Beach Fox affiliate is the last of our locals to switch. The crawl says the signal will go to snow at 12 Noon. I can't believe that Judge Karen will be the last show I watch on my sets...

I will watch it until it goes dark.

[Hemingray]

As of this post, All analog in this area has gone the way of ol' Yeller, with the exception of a very weak Christian LP broadcast from Batesville on UHF 15.

[mattdavala]

Oh the humanity!!! All analog is snow now in portland oregon.

It is quite sad.
Matt Davala

[Arkay]

Reading this thread --especially the last few posts-- reminds me of one of those sci-fi movie scenes where aliens (or nuclear disaster if you go back far enough) are wiping out the Earth's communications, and all the channels go to 'snow'... it sounds like some apocalyptic "beginning of the end"...

It will be very interesting to see what happens in reaction to this, and how the media covers it. Even if there are riots, you might not hear about it. There have been several major protest marches in major cities involving thousands of people in America in the past year that never made it onto any mainstream media. It depends on whether they deem the issue "worth covering", and that may be a political decision. Since it is television stations doing most of the news reporting, they may be reluctant to cover protests which are likely to be (at least partly) directed at them (by people who don't know any better). But some radio stations and newspapers should cover any difficulties; word should get around, as this shouldn't be deemed too political.

My guess is there will be some grumblings, but nothing too major. Most people have cable now anyway, and many of the others either have a set-top box or will quickly get one. Relatively few will actually protest, beyond grumbling with their neighbors or friends, although I would HOPE that MANY would/will. I'd smile and laugh with great joy to see tens of thousands of protesters in every major city, forcing them to rescind this decision. But I don't believe it will happen.

[M3-SRT8]

Originally Posted by Arkay

Reading this thread --especially the last few posts-- reminds me of one of those sci-fi movie scenes where aliens (or nuclear disaster if you go back far enough) are wiping out the Earth's communications, and all the channels go to 'snow'... it sounds like some apocalyptic "beginning of the end"...

It will be very interesting to see what happens in reaction to this, and how the media covers it. Even if there are riots, you might not hear about it. There have been several major protest marches in major cities involving thousands of people in America in the past year that never made it onto any mainstream media. It depends on whether they deem the issue "worth covering", and that may be a political decision. Since it is television stations doing most of the news reporting, they may be reluctant to cover protests which are likely to be (at least partly) directed at them (by people who don't know any better). But some radio stations and newspapers should cover any difficulties; word should get around, as this shouldn't be deemed too political.

Riots? Are you kidding? This country, collectively, has stood still for overtaxation, overspending, and the Red Chinese, of all people, financing us.

You think they'll riot over their TV's turning to snow?

...come to think of it, that's probably the ONLY thing that will get them off their collective, lazy a$$es.

LJB

[Hemingray]

Well, on the lighter side, with a clear path I'm somehow receiving WUND-2 from Edenton, NC (Analog).

[analog]

If i remember right the first of the stations to switch over here in Los Angeles will be noon PST and the last will switch at midnight. So far all are still running analog as of 10:00AM. I hooked up my converter box to our kitchen TV this morning and half the stations are gone! The antenna worked great for Analog but looks like I am going to have to work with it now but am going to wait as some of the stations are not on their final channel #. Hopefully some of this will correct itself but I am not counting on it.

[Ampzilla]

So my portable 'TV sound' radio is now useless too? Will they start broadcasting the emergency/ fire signals on that bandwidth?