Digital Technology Headaches

As the DTV day approaches, I'm sure many people out there are thinking why the government is mandating the switch to a digital signal since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the old analog signal.  Although I cannot speak for the government, I am guessing the switch has to do with how everything else in this world seems to be going digital.  This includes pictures, movies, music and anything else having to do with computers.  Although we may not like the idea that our world is going digital, we have to deal with it and all the headaches that go along with it.

I for one am a personal advocate for digital technology.  I consider myself a very techie person and enjoy the quality digital media provides.  However, I also dislike when digital technology gets the best of me.  This happened to me earlier tonight in fact.  I was taking an online midterm exam for my web design class when something happened causing me to be booted from my exam when I was about halfway done.  Needless to say I was feeling pretty frustrated with digital technology at that point.  I just kept thinking this would never have happened if I would have been taking an exam in class the old fashioned way.  Then I realized that if the technology didn't exist to take an online test or to do anything else online, then there probably wouldn't be a need for a web design class either and I would have to look for something else to minor in.  This helped to ease the pain slightly, but I'm still hoping my teacher will have a heart and let me take it again.  

I'm sure there will be some people out there feeling the same frustrations when they make the switch to digital television.  The signal may not come in the greatest and the screen will freeze up at the most inopportune time.  When that happens, just keep in mind that technology advances may be frustrating at times, but sometimes you have to take the bad if you want the good that goes along with it.  Often times, too, I've found the good outweighs the bad when it comes to digital media.  Just remember to keep that in mind when you are watching your favorite football team attempt a game winning touchdown during the next Superbowl only to have the digital picture freeze up as the ball is flying into the end zone.  

Digital Versus Analog Television

With all the hype of the impending DTV transition, many people are left wondering, "How do I know what kind of TV I have?"  This blog post will attempt to answer that question.  I must give you fair warning though; I am not an electrician or a television repair person so I will try to explain the difference to the best of my ability.  To help me make sense of the difference between the two types, I consulted www.howstuffworks.com and did a search for television. 

I'll start with what I found on analog television first.  Aside from the type of signal the television can receive, an analog television set usually looks a lot like the one below.  

As you can see from this picture I got from www.howstuffworks.com, the inside of a television is quite complex.  Someplace among the wires above is an analog processor, which converts the frequency waves into usable information.  Once the analog signal is received and processed, the cathode ray tube (located at the back of the set) a beam of electrons onto the screen.  Right in the middle of the picture above, there is a big bundle of copper wires.  These wires create a magnetic field that moves the electron light beam all over the screen.  Once the electrons hit the screen, which is made of phosphor, the screen begins to glow and broadcast the picture to the viewer.  Although this is an older type of television and most analog televisions look like this, there may be some cathode ray tube televisions on the market today that actually have digital processors in them.    

In a digital television, the signal is received as a small packet of information rather than in a frequency wave.  Because of the type of signal being received, a different type of processor is needed to broadcast the information on the screen.  Nearly all of the televisions being sold today already have those processors in them, but for some of the older models, which may have only be boughten a year or so ago, still only have the analog processor in them.  Most of the digital televisions today come with a LCD or plasma screen because they produce a better quality picture to broadcast the digital signal.  These televisions are normally lighter and flatter because they don't have to include tube and copper wire design as shown above in the cathode ray tube picture.  If you are going out to buy one of these types of televisions, I would do some homework first to the different types and what they offer before making a purchase to ensure you are getting the best television for your money.      

For those of you not in the market for a new television, a good test to know if you have a digital or an analog processor in your current television is to find out when one of the local stations will be shutting off their analog signal for testing purposes.  When they do, hook up the antenna and see if your television still picks up the signal.  You could also check the instruction manual (if you still have it) to see if it says anything about a digital processor in it.  If you don't have the manual, I would also recommend running a channel scan to see if your television gives you the option for a digital scan.  

I hope I haven't lost anyone in this sea of television technology.  Television is a complicated process and doesn't really need to be understood to enjoy.  However, if you would like to find out more about the LCD and plasma televisions or to get a better understanding on how television works, I would recommend checking out www.howstuffworks.com. 

Helping with the DTV Transition

In preparation for what to write in this week's upcoming blogs, I discovered the "Digital TV: Convert Now" contest on YouTube.  It is a contest being sponsored by Google and the Consumer Electronics Association where you could win a Panasonic 50-inch Plasma HDTV, Sony Blu-ray high-definition disc player, and Pioneer Surround Sound System.  I'm not sure about you, but any one of those items would greatly enhance my television viewing experience.

By now I'm sure you're wondering what you have to do to win these wonderful prizes.  First you need to make a video that is less than three minutes in length.  The video's theme will inform and educate the public on how to prepare friends and family for the DTV transition.  After you have made the video, you need to create a YouTube account (if you do not already have one) and submit the video between October 21, 2008 and November 23, 2008.  After that time, judges will chose 5 finalists and the YouTube public at large will get to vote on the video they like the best.  The winner will be chosen on December 10.  This is just a brief summary of the contest and if you would like to find out more click on official rules. 

I've chosen to include this information on my blog not only to inform people of this contest (which I intend to win), but also to show how the media industry is using convergence media to disseminate information about the DTV transition.  I think this is truly an ingenious way to get more people informed about the transition.  Not only are Google and CEA using the Internet to reach people about the DTV transition, they are recruiting people to spread the word to their families and friends by having them make a video about how they plan to tell them.  I've often learned that the best way to hear about something is through word of mouth so this seems like a very good way to teach people about the transition in a way they may understand rather than watching a 30 second ad on a local television station.  Also, I am contributing to the convergence aspect of this plan as well by writing about the contest and the DTV transition on a blog, which coincidentally is owned by Google.  This just proves that converged media has really taken over.  

I'm off to get some ideas for my video project and to start making room the for the 50-inch plasma HDTV.  If you have any ideas on how to help me win, feel free to comment and let me know!

Just When You Thought Snow Was Bad....

If you have been following my blog for any amount of time now, you will remember I said I was going to do a test of the DTV broadcast system and that I would report back with the results I found. I have since done so and I can honestly say, with a great deal of sadness, the results were not that wonderful. What I witnessed was actually worse, in my opinion, than watching the "snowy" analog channels, which will soon be no more. One might ask, "With all of this great new digital technology, how could it be worse than snow?" My friends, let me tell you, it can be!

I'll start by giving some background information on the equipment I conducted my analysis on. I have a new HDTV with a built in digital tuner, thus I have no need for a digital converter box. I also used an old pair of rabbit ears that I dug out of the back closet and placed them strategically on top of the entertainment center. After hooking them up and changing the settings on the television to scan air and not cable signals, I began my analysis.

At first glance, I was rather impressed on the way the picture looked. I was thinking this might actually be worth dumping the cable for after all. I flipped through the channels with amazement when suddenly I noticed the pixelation. I figured it must have been from bad reception, much like how the "snow" showed up in the old days. There is one key difference between the two types of bad reception though. With the "snow," you could still at least watch what was being broadcast with only the slightest frustration of not getting a very good picture. However, with the pixelation, the entire screen froze up and stayed that way until the signal came in clearer. Imagine this happening while you are watching a Monday night football game and you missed the game winning touchdown because the frame was frozen in place. That is a whole new level of frustration to deal with.

I understand this passage seems to be a little negative to the whole DTV conversion, but understand I am just reporting on what I witnessed on my first test of the system. After speaking with an engineer at a local television station, I realized there may have been some things I was doing wrong during this initial test, so I've decided not to give up on the quest to make DTV work for me. In the next few weeks I'm going to be upgrading some of my equipment and testing the system again. When I get my results, I will report back.

In addition, if you have tested the new DTV system for yourself, I would love some feedback on the the experience worked for you. Feel free to comment below!

The DTV Transition and the Television Station

Three million dollars.  That is how much one local television station spent to upgrade their equipment to make it compliant for the DTV transition.  I spoke with one of the engineers at the station earlier today and he said that is roughly what they have spent so far to upgrade their equipment for the transition.  This equipment includes tower upgrades and transmitter upgrades--basically taking the existing equipment and updating it to make it DTV compliant.  Imagine the size of the bill if this station had bought all new equipment rather than updating existing equipment.  Yikes!         

Now, I don't know about you, but $3,000,000 still seems like a lot of money for a smaller market television station to dish out for a federally mandated project.  Since it is something that the government is requiring of all full power television stations, wouldn't you think they would help to pay the bill?  The answer, unfortunately for those stations, is NO!  Unlike the consumer who can request a coupon to help defer the cost of their converter box, the small town television stations don't get the option to request help for upgrading their stations.  

The good news (at least for people who live in Eastern North Dakota) is that all of the local television stations have already completed the upgrade to broadcast digitally.  That means the average television consumer who will be buying a converter box before February can buy one now if they want and get a digital quality picture without having to wait until 2009.  If you don't live in Eastern North Dakota and would like to find out if the stations in you area have converted yet, visit the National Association of Broadcasters website.

The DTV Transition and the Viewer

After talking to friends and family for the past few months about the DTV Transition, one question seems to be coming up more than any other: How will the DTV Transition affect me? The answer to the question will depend greatly on the the user and the type of equipment they are already using.  Lets examine some possible scenarios to answer the question.

The first scenario I would like to tackle is one that my brother Lee is dealing with.  He has an older television set and uses rabbit ears to pick up the few random stations he can get in his area.  Since he doesn't watch much TV, he doesn't want to waste his money on cable or a satellite dish.  He has seen the commercials about the DTV Transition and asked me what he needed to do so he can continue to pick up the shows he does watch.  

The best advice I could give my brother is to go get a DTV converter box, which range in price from $40 to $70.  Also because many people who need the boxes come from low income households, the government is offering to pay up to $40 per box to help defer the cost.  The $40 would come in the form of a coupon and each household can get up to two coupons.  If you would like a coupon, go to https://www.dtv2009.gov/options.aspx and view your options on how to request one.  There is a lot of other useful information at this site as well including the different models of boxes available and where to find the boxes in your area.  My brother may still have to pay a few dollars, depending on the converter box he chooses, to continue to watch his regular programing, but at least it is a one time fee and not a monthly cable bill.  I also think once he gets his box and starts watching  the digital cable without the fuzz of regular rabbit ears, he will be happy he did.  

Scenario number two involves my dad who already has a digital cable box hooked up to his television.  He asked me how the DTV Transition will change how he is currently watching television.  I told him it wouldn't affect him at all.  For people who have digital cable boxes or just plain cable hooked up to their televisions, the transition won't even be noticed.  Since their television is already coming in the digital form, cable and satellite viewers are not required to get a digital converter box or any other new piece of equipment to make the transition.  The exception here is for those people who still have a television in the house not hooked up to cable or for those people whose satellite provider does not offer local channels and they are using an antenna to receive those channels in an analog form.  In those instances, a digital converter box will be needed as well.  

The last scenario is my story.  I have a new television I bought less than a year ago that has a digital tuner built into it.  I currently have cable, but have wanted to switch back to rabbit ears since cable is expensive and I don't have much time to watch TV while going to school.  Since my television has a built in digital tuner, I am not required to get a converter box to pick up digital channels.  I am able to just hook the antenna up to my television and I will be able to pick up all digital channels being broadcast in my area.  I have attempted to do this already with mixed results.  Look for a recap of this experiment in my blog later this week.  

On a side note, I have added some blogs I am following that involve other people who are following the DTV Transition as well to my site.  They may help you understand the transition a little better.  Check them out--I'm sure they would appreciate the visit!

  

Is it February Already?

I happened upon a startling discovery earlier this week: the DTV transition has already begun!  I'm not talking about the few random stations here or there that have started to broadcast in digital as well as keeping their analog signal.  No, this transition is a full fledged cut off all analog signal transition, and it is affecting a large population of people in North Carolina.

I made this discovery right after I had just finished posting my last blog about the DTV transition.  I turned on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams as I like to catch up on the days events from time to time.  One of the news stories, this particular night, really caught my attention though.  It was about the DTV transition and how Wilmington, NC, has become the first market in the country to make the transition.  I have embedded the video below in case you missed the story (pay special attention to the obnoxiously large light switch that was hooked up to absolutely nothing when they flipped it on).

   

I think it is great the transition is going rather smoothly and that they are testing markets to ensure a smooth transition for the rest of us.  However, I do have a slight problem with this early transition.  First off, I have been scanning www.dtv.gov for several weeks now and don't recall seeing anything on their site about how the Wilmington, NC, television market would be making the transition so soon.  I am sure the stations that made the transition had been running the ads and crawls like they have been here prior to the switch.  However, if anyone in that area had gone to find more information about it on the main website, they would have come up short.  

I also found a story about the Wilmington transition on CNN.com.  It states that the local Walmart had a sign posted that said they ran out of the digital boxes needed to decode the signal.  So that makes me wonder, was the shortage due to lack of planning on behalf of Walmart or did the community not have enough advanced warning to get the boxes?  Or could it possibly have been that the box manufacturers haven't been able to keep up with the demand?  All very good questions I hope the government has answered before February.