The FCC is reporting that Friday’s transition from analog to digital TV transmissions was largely uneventful. No major outages or problems were reported. Their toll free helpline was flooded with calls – over 317,000 – from people who couldn’t figure out how to operate their new converter boxes, but the FCC said most problems were more »

So you have managed to not pay attention to any of the notices that today is the day that the digital transition is in full effect and old analog televisions cannot receive over-the-air signals without a converter box. What can you do if you’ve been affected? Well if you didn’t pay attention to all the news, then clearly you don’t care about television. So how about some suggestions what to do with all your free time?

This Friday, broadcasters will stop sending out analog signals and make the DTV transition. However, even with an extended digital TV deadline imposed, an estimated 3 million homes are not prepared to make the transition. This represents roughly 2.5 percent of the television market. Nielsen released the report this Wednesday and it showed that elderly more »

Although congress has delayed the mandatory February 17 deadline of switching to digital TV, many analog television owners may be in for a rude awakening when they try to watch their shows on that day and find a snowy picture. Approximately 500 television stations have announced that they plan to make the switch to digital more »

In an unexpected move today, The House of Representatives voted 258-168 to not delay the switchover to digital TV from February 17 to June. The surprise is increased by the Senate’s unanimous vote yesterday to delay the switch, and by the reluctant acceptance by many telecom companies after the Senate vote was announced.

Rep Joe Barton, author of the original transition bill in 2005, led the charge to stop the delay. Barton sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stating that the proposed delay had no merit and actually harmed the country as the spectrum will be used in part by emergency services. Barton said in his letter, “Osama bin Laden isn’t fictional, and he isn’t waiting.” He is correct. Hopefully now that this crisis has been averted, our leaders can get back to more pressing issues.

The much-hyped mandatory transition from analog to digital TV in the United States has begun in Wilmington, NC.

For those who don’t know, by law, all TV stations that broadcast over the air using analog signals must begin broadcasting exclusively in the new digital format by February 17. Most U.S. TV stations already offer digital signals, but the majority of non-cable customers are still getting their TV through an old-fashioned analog signal.

The new digital format certainly has its advantages. Its much better picture and sound quality are the most obvious. Viewers won’t have to worry about static anymore. They will, however, have to worry about actually getting the signal to their favorite local stations, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Nine months to go before the U.S. gives birth to an all-digital television landscape, and a new report from Nielsen shows the patient may be having some labor pains.

As reported by the New York Times’ Brian Stelter, Nielsen Media Research’s findings on the state of DTV readiness show that 25 million “unprepared” households have at least one TV that will go dark after February 17, 2009, the date all TV stations stop sending out analog signals and switch to digital. “Completely unready” are the words used to describe 10 million of those 25 million homes; that is, all the TV’s in their homes – if they have more than one TV – get their signals via antenna. That’s 17 percent of all prime-time viewing. Nielsen says that African-American and Hispanic households will bear the brunt of the lost signals.

The Consumer Electronics Association, the trade group that represents most of the companies manufacturing TV’s, has begun its DTV educational campaign. For the CEA, it’s all about context. CEA spokesman Jason Oxman told me in an email response that Nielsen is counting as unprepared homes that do have some kind of digital cable or satellite access. “Put another way, if there is even one TV in a cable/satellite household that is not plugged into the service (for example, it is used to watch DVDs or play video games), Nielsen counts that household as unprepared,” Oxman says. “For the 86 percent of US households that subscribe to cable or satellite, the DTV transition does not impact their ability to watch TV.”

All that’s left is Bush’s John Hancock to put in stone the deadline for all American televisions to go digital. The date will be February 17, 2009, where all US TVs will either need to be digital or have a digital to analog converter. Luckily for consumers prices are falling too. This past holiday buying more »