Digital TV is coming soon to the USA: Feb. 17, 2009

It will come even sooner if you watch NBC in Des Moines, IA. On Monday, August 25th, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines will test out the local market's preparedness for Digital TV.
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8885613
From 5am to Midnight, they will broadcast in digital.

Is this a great idea or just an evil plot by the local NBC station to stop the democrats from being heard?

Next up: Wilmington, North Carolina is first to 'take to the air' as they convert to digital TV at noon on September 8th, 2008.

On Monday, Sept. 8th, Wilmington NC became the first bradcast areas to flip the switch to digital. At least, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX made the switch.

The first negative result: The town of Myrtle Beach, SC no longer has an NBC affiliate since the NBC digital boradcast from Wilmington doesn't reach that far. Also, some viewers in Wilmington found out first hand that digital signals will cut in and out completely when the signal is weak, making one or more of their broadcast channels too unreliable for viewing.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6594869.html

Note: Wilmington is a market where almost everyone has cable/satellite (93% of homes) and there was heavy promotion ahead of time for the switch (since Wilmington went first).
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6591651.html?industryid=48696
Imagine what could happen when towns with a large percentage of over-the-air viewers like Milwauki, Salt Lake City, and Portland see the effects of the digital switch. the networks will see a noticable decline in ratings, especially those networks with weaker station signals like CW, MNTV, UNI...

I guess that means on February 17th, I wont be getting MyNetworkTV since the affiliate is located over 90 miles away.

quote:

Originally posted by yankeesrj12:
I guess that means on February 17th, I wont be getting MyNetworkTV since the affiliate is located over 90 miles away.

How is the over-the-air signal? If you have lots of ghosting or snow or phase shifting, then yes, the digital signal will likely be a bluescreen.

quote:

Originally posted by Obveeus:
Digital TV is coming soon to the USA: Feb. 17, 2009

It will come even sooner if you watch NBC in Des Moines, IA. On Monday, August 25th, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines will test out the local market's preparedness for Digital TV.
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8885613
From 5am to Midnight, they will broadcast in digital.

Is this a great idea or just an evil plot by the local NBC station to stop the democrats from being heard?

Next up: Wilmington, North Carolina is first to 'take to the air' as they convert to digital TV at noon on September 8th, 2008.

It was a great test according to the station manager in an interview with TVWeek. Apparently they got plenty of calls from what it sounds like and people are starting to realize that this indeed is happening.

quote:

Originally posted by Obveeus:

quote:

Originally posted by yankeesrj12:
I guess that means on February 17th, I wont be getting MyNetworkTV since the affiliate is located over 90 miles away.

How is the over-the-air signal? If you have lots of ghosting or snow or phase shifting, then yes, the digital signal will likely be a bluescreen.

That pretty much means my TV at home will be worthless this summer too for the CW affiliate in one market but I have yet to see how it will work from the other market where the CW is a digital sub of the NBC affiliate. I will also possibly gain access to MyNetworkTV from the Fox and CBS affiliates in the two markets I receive so for me its not all that bad.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:
That pretty much means my TV at home will be worthless this summer too for the CW affiliate in one market but I have yet to see how it will work from the other market where the CW is a digital sub of the NBC affiliate. I will also possibly gain access to MyNetworkTV from the Fox and CBS affiliates in the two markets I receive so for me its not all that bad.

Trading away CW for MNTV sounds pretty bad to me.

I watched about 2 hours of CW a week last year. I watched one to two hours of MNTV and much more of the syndicated offerings from the MNTV digital sub from the CBS affiliate than I ever did from the CW Plus affiliate. Plus, I should still have access to CW as a digital sub in the other market. Its just basically going to be a test for me to see how far these digital signals go. I'm 65 miles from one and basically 70 from another.