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June 10, 2008

Why the DTV transition is going to fail (, )

by fluffy at 10:44 PM
Okay, so, not only do the DTV changeover people keep on making it sound as if rabbit-ears antennas are the signifier you should look for (PROTIP: rabbit-ears antennas work better for DTV than "HDTV" antennas), but ABC has taken to putting a title crawl on the top of the screen warning about the DTV changeover. On the DTV feed, making it a dire warning that is completely unnecessary to the people seeing it. Way to confuse the issue even further, guys.

What the stations should be doing is running different ads on the DTV and analog feeds — on the analog feeds say, "Hey, you're watching this on an analog set, you need a DTV converter box," and on the digital feeds say "Hey, great, you're watching this digitally. Make sure your friends and family are too." Sort of like the dancing IPv6 turtle.

If they really can't do that for some reason (and I'm pretty sure they can, based on how I've seen early DTV broadcasts fail), they could at least use a more meaningful signifier, like "if your TV channels have a dot or dash in them, like 2.0 or 5-1, you are fine, but if not you are still watching on an analog set."

Comments

#10965 06/11/2008 05:19 am
Gretchen works for a small-time online electronics retailer and she said those digital TV boxes have been selling like hotcakes. I think more than anything actually being said on TV, the fact that the GOVERNMENT MAILED ME A COO-PON was what spurred people by the thousands to order from the (again, relatively small) website.
#10966 06/11/2008 06:36 am So
Your complaint is that people might be confused if they see a digital TV warning on what are already digital TV channels.


While I feel human stupidity is nearly infinite, if somebody bothered to get a a gubmint coupon and install the DTV box, I doubt if they are suddenly going to forget about it and panic when they see the warning.

Besides, its not like the DTV conversion isn't going to happen. The FTC has already sold the spectrum.

On top of that any nerd worth his salt has already converted his more technologically feeble relatives to DTV, well in advance of the switchover.



Gedvondur
#10967 06/11/2008 08:51 am
Oh, obviously the switch is going to happen, whether people are ready or not. I'm just wondering if people will actually be ready. I guess they'll have to figure it out for themselves after it happens.

What I oppose to is the terminology which makes it seem as if people need to get a converter box to go in front of their already-digital TV. There's probably a lot of people out there who have digital TVs but didn't realize it when they bought them, and they're using a "rabbit-ears."

And, on the other hand, I know lots of people with "HDTVs" who really just have HDTV-ready TVs (which still have analog tuners), and they think they're ready for the switch when they're not. (Plus they'll be pretty disappointed by the quality when they get the government-provided converter.)