Get Ready for ATSC 3.0

[Jeffhs]

I thought ATSC 3.0 was going to affect everything having to do with TV, not just broadcast. I'm glad I'm not watching broadcast anymore (I have a cable connection, but only because it is part of my service package with Time Warner, and because I can't get local TV on my Roku player without it). In other words, if ATSC 3.0 only applies to broadcast TV, the change, if and when it comes, probably will not affect alternative methods of TV viewing such as streaming video, et al.; in fact, I can't imagine how it would, since streaming video, being distributed over the Internet, has nothing to do with OTA or cable TV.

I still have cable connected to my TV, but I probably could disconnect it altogether and my Roku box would still work as it does now. . . . On second thought, I would probably have ghosts and other distortion of my TV picture if I disconnected the cable, since I would then have one open port on the 2-way splitter behind the TV--which would upset impedances, among other things.

I can see how the new standard will affect TV broadcasting, as it will be an upgrade, if you will, of the current ATSC 1.0 platform, but to eventually put the public through another transition is too much. And the advertising the TV stations would put out (again) about the second transition....I hate to think of it. The CBS station in Cleveland made a huge to-do over the first DTV transition in June 2009, referring to it as "The Big Switch", and running those PSAs every chance they got--during commercial breaks, etc. I got tired of them after the first couple of days.

I shudder to think of what the advertising for the second transition might be like. Seeing how aggressive advertising seems to be these days, however, it wouldn't surprise me if the ads for the second DTV transition are at least as dramatic (if not more so) as the ones for the first switch were.