Talk:Digital television transition

Could also include...

A reason for the switching off of analog signals, despite the fact some people do not and can not use digital at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.211.44.232 (talk) 10:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

The reason? At least in the US, the desire of Congress to get their hands on a pile of cold, hard cash by auctioning the 84MHz of radio spectrum space now occupied by fourteen of the eighteen soon-to-be-defunct high-UHF TV channels is all the reason that is necessary. Follow the money. --99.245.244.176 (talk) 03:32, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Germany completed analogue switch-off on 2 December 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.43.93.1 (talk) 09:19, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Controversy

At least in the states, this actually has some controversy. It couldn't be that it is without controversy elsewhere - would love for some information on that, might be more fair and balanced. 165.134.194.139 (talk) 01:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

It has only avoided the same controversy in Canada and México because those countries have barely begun broadcasting anything in ATSC. Analogue full-power TV will still be around until 2011 and 2021 in those respective nations. If anything, the constant bombardment of messages from US TV stations telling viewers that they'll lose their TV in 2009 and should panic immediately is more confusing than informative; the FCC requires these ads run multiple times daily on every station, even digital channels. And yes, there are certain groups who will be more adversely affected than others - in the US, this would include viewers in mountainous regions (DTV performs quite badly under multipath interference conditions) or fringe areas where the new and underpowered UHF DTV stations are often unreceivable and the half-century old low-VHF network affiliates remain watchable in glorious snowy analogue. That New York (tall buildings) and Denver (mountains) are two of the three most severe sets of problem markets for DTV is not coincidental (the third was the area (NoLa, Gulfport...) hit by Hurricane Katrina, as UHF requires very tall transmission towers to get line-of-sight conditions and those can be the first to go in any large-scale natural disaster). The insanely-low power limits on VHF DTV in the US don't help matters - they are five times more restrictive than the power levels for analogue stations which were on those channels before the US government started breaking things. --99.245.244.176 (talk) 03:45, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Netherlands

I don't understand the statement for the Netherlands, who have completed the digital switchover - "The switch-off was helped greatly by the fact that about 90% of the households have cable that continues to use analog distribution." How does 90% having analogue help a digital switchover? And if it continues to use analogue distribution then there hasn't been a switchover as such. Is it a typo (continues/continued) or am I missing something? Anthropomancer (talk) 08:51, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

This switchover is for broadcast television received over-the-air. If no one is watching, because they've abandoned their antennae and gone to cable or other sources, then no one will notice if the OTA signal no longer works. --99.245.244.176 (talk) 03:30, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Indeed. The broadcast transition does not affect closed circuit distribution systems. The cable subscribers may continue using their old tuners for as long as their cable company chooses to continue providing analogue signals. (I rephrased the paragraph to be a little clearer.)
—überRegenbogen (talk) 14:32, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Digital captions beyond the Roman alphabet

Digital TVs -- at least in the USA -- only support captioning in the Roman alphabet. In the list of countries that are planning a digital switchover, I notice that early adapters use the Roman alphabet, while countries using other writing systems will be going digital later. Will they offer closed capations, and if so what kind of technology will underly it? Will TV sets eventually have Unicode capability? LADave (talk) 20:19, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

I think Taiwan had the US-style ATSC system and there were standards on atsc.org to address this issue. The other major systems are European (DVB-T) or Japanese (IDSB?) and should be reasonably character set aware? --66.102.80.212 (talk) 23:20, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

move proposal

Wouldn't this be better named "digital television switchover"?--Rtphokie (talk) 12:34, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

merge proposal

I see there is already a proposal to merge digital switchover and DTV transition. I have started a vote at Talk:DTV transition#Merger proposal. 69.140.152.55 (talk) 01:58, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

I've proposed moving DTV transition → DTV transition in the United States (or DTV transition in North America) so that digital switchover → DTV transition could be done as a page move. Otherwise, a merger attempt would fill this main international transition page with huge amounts of US-centric content currently at the DTV transition title. See Wikipedia:Requested moves and Talk:DTV transition. --66.102.80.212 (talk) 19:11, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Done, see Talk:DTV transition#Merger proposal.--Father Goose (talk) 03:05, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Where is the criticism?

Well? 207.224.55.49 (talk) 22:03, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, and an explanation

Why is this total switchover needed for? We've had both systems for years and nobody has complained? --IdLoveOne (talk) 21:30, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Because the radio spectrum is a limited resource, and switching television signals to digital format frees up some spectrum for other uses. --  Denelson83  06:37, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Many people (myself included) believe the switchover is for government control. The American government never does anything unless it can profit from something it does somehow. The DTV boxes will allow the government to spy on you, even when the TV's off. It's similar to how the government tracks people via cell phones. In other words, it's a brainwashing scam.—Preceding unsigned comment added by SuperSmashBros.Brawl777 (talk • contribs) 19:20, 19 August 2008

Denelson, could you please add some information about that to the article? SuperSmashBros, if you could find some consensus and proof of your conspiracy theories (Proof of conspiracy theory: oxymoron?) I would definitely support the inclusion of a section about that (or it could be added to List of conspiracy theories if it's not already there). There's definitely a lot more government surveillance going on, but it might not be that extreme, silly.

P.S. SuperSmash, don't forget to sign!--IdLoveOne (talk) 00:05, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

No, "proof of theory'" is not an oxymoron. If you're suggesting that conspiracies to not exist, you probably subscribe to that rather sensationalised usage of the word "conspiracy", that is all too common on certain radio talk shows, that feature callers of conspicuous mental ineptitude. ;) (Mind you, it doesn't mean that there is none of it going on; and some nefarious conspiracies are a matter of history.) [But i'm off-topic.]
—überRegenbogen (talk) 15:03, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

I have added some information in the United States deployment section. I hope it is appropriate. JasonHockeyGuy (talk) 05:02, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

"Improved quality"?

"The motivation behind the switch is the improved quality of digital broadcasts over analogue ones, adding digital subchannels, the freeing-up of valuable radio spectrum space for other services, and to bring in large amounts of money at spectrum auctions."

Most of these are valid points. But the first is a matter of opinion, and hotly debated. Most digital broadcasts merely offer a different suite of defects (such as colour banding, and pixelation). (The paragraph is also worded rather poorly.)
—überRegenbogen (talk) 15:23, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

i merged the paragraph with the (hitherto redundant) Purpose of the transition section, and cleaned up the language somewhat.
—überRegenbogen (talk) 16:41, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

The quality of digital is actually horrible. It constantly loses the signal, which never happened with analog. I can no longer even watch Fox 11. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.148.49.233 (talk) 01:15, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

IPTV helps Digital Television Transition

In areas where TV Reception is low then many can not switch to freeview in the UK, a new service TVCatchup.com has risen for such a thing this currently provides 18 free on-line digital channels live on-line for free. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.105.115.195 (talk) 13:27, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Who instigated the analog to digital transition?

I am surprised to learn that this is a global phenomenon. I had assumed that this was a U.S.-only move spurred by Congress in an effort to move to HDTV, which Japan has already had in analog form for quite a while. Why does this article make absolutely no mention of where the DTV transition movement originated? Was it some electronics industry group that pushed this, or someone else? --JHP (talk) 01:26, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

request

{{editsemiprotected}}

Hello there,

I wondered if you would mind adding a link to

www.ricability-digitaltv.org.uk

This is a site that tests digital tv products and is funded by BERR (Government Department)to provide reports on digital systems in advance of the Digital Switchover.

I work for a web agency who have developed the site and we are looking at ways to increase awareness of the site amongst UK residents

Many thanks

 Not done - sorry, but Wikipedia is not a directory of external links, nor is it a vehicle for promotion. ~ mazca ^t|c 22:32, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

dtv switchoff in the united states

the date for the analog switchoff in the us is june 12,2009. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.245.18.200 (talk) 23:51, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Where's the Criticism Section?

There's been plenty of criticism and controversy over the DTV transition, and multiple conspiracy theories about the transition (many if not all of which I believe), yet there's no mention of criticism or controversy in the article. --SuperSmashBros.Brawl777 (talk) 05:13, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

The word "Free-to-air"?

This is talking about those TV available by antenna. Free-to-air also means those "over-the-air" broadcast, but some people can confuse. Kjinho213 (talk) 23:03, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

DTV comment

DTV is shit compared to analog transmissions. DTV fails completely if the signal degrades at all, whereas you could still watch a degraded analog signal. DTV is a fraud perpetrated on the American people by cable and satellite companies. When people using only analog reception switch to the federally-mandated DTV method, they will pratically be forced to subscribe to cable or satellite because of the impossibility of watching a program through without complete interuption for several minutes several times. Why doesn't the article mention any of this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.55.146.25 (talk) 04:09, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Jumping the gun?

I've noticed someone's edited the page a few hours early, claiming the United States is already DTV switched. Seems to me we should wait until the actual switch occurs, to make sure that nothing throws a spanner in the works. DTXBrian (talk) 00:31, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

June 13

It is now June 13, someone please change the U.S. nation's color from yellow to red on the global map. Jonghyunchung (talk) 10:01, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree it is now the 14th and the US is still yellow Michael Kirschner (talk) 14:43, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

What Happened, the Map was Red for the US some time ago and now it's back to being yellow. 03:47, 17 June 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joeloliv8 (talk • contribs)

Request For Comment

Whoever thinks they make up the rules and changed the color of the US from Red back to Yellow you don't make up the rules. This is a request for comment (someone post the rfc tag) to move for a discussion (thats what we do here instead of doing things by ourselves) about the map color. ( I deleted the original rfc because for some reason it wasn't picking up can someone we issue the tag?)Michael Kirschner (talk) 10:26, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Germany

The switchoff is NOT yet completed. On the contrary...most TV is still analog here. Prospective year for a full switch off is 2012.

80.152.220.54 (talk) 10:57, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry this is wrong. The transition to terrestrial digital (DVB-T) has been completed in Nov. 2008, except one main transmitter which was shut down in 2009. There are no terrestrial analogue transmitters in Germany today. Your 2012 date probably refers to the announcement to shut down analogue satellite and cable broadcasts of the public broadcasters. But this page is only about terrestrial. Anorak2 (talk) 11:59, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Estonia

Can someone change to map to reflect Estonia's transistion to digital TV? Analog was shut off today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.196.247.187 (talk) 14:03, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

Iceland status on digital TV

Here is the information on digital Tv in Iceland. Stöð 2 and related channels have now moved to digital and stopped broadcasting in analogue, same goes for Skjár einn that has stopped broadcasting in analogue last year. The only remaining broadcaster in analouge is Rúv, but Rúv is also breakfasted digital within Stöð 2 digital broadcast. There are information on Iceland here. Currently it is unknown when Rúv moves to digital Tv signal only. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonfr (talk • contribs) 05:21, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

More about Estonia

Quote from 2nd paragraph: "... At the other extreme, a whole country can be converted from analogue to digital television, which most recently occurred in Estonia in July 2010."

This argument leaves a quite false impression of Estonia's transition to digital transmission. Commercial digital broadcast started in Estonia on 15. December 2006 with 2 muxes, third mux was added about a year later. Old analog networks remained fully operational until 1st of July 2010 (only exeption was island Ruhnu, where small analog transmitter was switched off in 2008). Since 2008, all 3 channels, viewable through the analog network, was also available in FTA digital network. It makes 2,5 years of simulcast transmission.

Thanks for attention. 82.131.31.196 (talk) 05:11, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

India????

Is India really going digital? There are poor country so can someone give a RELIABLE (there are lots of indian websites that are way to nationalistic) source cos it would be pretty pathetic if they did since they have like most of the worlds poor so digital tv is probably not even thought of in most of that country --Gargabookofayr (talk) 04:10, 30 November 2010 (UTC)