Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Commerce TV Subsidy Compromise: Spend First, Limit Later

Re: Commerce TV Subsidy Compromise: Spend First, Limit Later

eric — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:08:28 -0000

For me TV is mostly a joke. Cable TV especially so. I just set up an OTA HDTV rig on a computer -- to capture local high def programming. It isn't really practical for general viewing, but sometimes I want to save a particular program. Right now the HDTV signals are in the UHF band, so rabbit ears are not the best. When analog TV goes dead, I read that they intend to shift the frequencies down into the VHF band -- so rabbit ears will work again.

I am glad for OTA television, and glad for this federal program. It's probably one of the few ways I'll ever get to suck on a government teat.

If you want to complain about government waste, why don't you concentrate on the programs that waste the most money? Start with the nonsense programs the defense department keeps pursuing.

Re: Commerce TV Subsidy Compromise: Spend First, Limit Later

James Gattuso — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:36:26 -0000

My point is that the converter box is only necessary for reception of over-the-air signals. Certainly, you need an antenna to receive such signals. But fewer and fewer viewers are getting their signals this way. I don't know if it will go away completely, but do think that it will at best be a marginal form of TV transmission.

Re: Commerce TV Subsidy Compromise: Spend First, Limit Later

Gary McGath — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:22:54 -0000

"Rabbit ear reception" will go away? The notion seems to be pretty widespread that digital TV reception won't require an external antenna any more. That sounds unlikely to me.