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Senate To Push Back Digital TV Deadline To 2009....

Oct 14, 2005 10:24PM PDT

...Man, are these guys messing things up or what? What classic example of not getting out in front of an issue and not taking the initiative. What a bunch of lily livered wimps!

>>>WASHINGTON - Congress is zeroing in on early 2009 as the time for the country to make the switch to digital television broadcasts, a move that will give viewers sharper pictures and better sound.

A Senate bill would set a firm deadline of April 2009, according to a draft proposal obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The draft of a House bill would end analog transmissions on Dec. 31, 2008.

In addition to working out a compromise on the date, lawmakers must decide whether to keep a Senate provision calling for the federal government to pay for converter boxes that would allow people who don?t have or can?t afford a digital TV, or cable or satellite, to continue to receive over-the-air local stations.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is expected to take up the bill Wednesday.

Current law calls for television broadcasters to switch to all-digital transmissions by late 2006, or when 85 percent of households have the ability to receive digital signals. But there?s confusion about how to count the 85 percent, so Congress is stepping in to set a so-called ?hard date? ? requiring broadcasters to end the transmission of their traditional analog signal.<<<

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9697337/

Discussion is locked

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re
Oct 16, 2005 7:56AM PDT

thats sad but true, I am in the same boat as you and would love to see all HD much quicker.

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Senate To Push Back Digital TV Deadline To 2009.
Oct 16, 2005 11:06AM PDT

I know this is furstration, but it dosen't surprise me.
Some of the issues we were talking about in your other post.
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142_7-0.html?forumID=60&messageID=1466080&threadID=129887

The broadcast flag that the FCC had imposed on digital content to keep the Hollywood group happy and the courts overturned in May of this year really messed everything up. So the orignal time table became usseless.
When it says 85% recive HD broadcasts that is exactly what it means!! 85% HAVE to be able to watch the HD broadcast in some way, either with a ATSC built in tuner or a set top tuner/conveter box. I remember the set top UHF boxes that were around when UHF came out. That went a lot smother than the HD changeover is.
It isn't untill next year that all TV are required to have ATSC tunners in them.
OK!! The up side is that if you have a ATSC tuner in your HDTV you CAN watch HD NOW. I'm watch the Chicago White Sox on FOX32 in HD at 720p looks grrrreat. John