http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/frnotices/2007/DTVPublicMeeting_012408.html

I wonder:

1) If the coupon web site will actually work tomorrow?

2) How much more than $40 will I have to pay?

3) Will I ever get my $40?

4) I guess I’ll need another remote

Site is up at https://www.dtv2009.gov/

We've had a few discussions here in which US posters have thought it odd that we Brits pay the government in order to watch television... is that really any odder than, in the USA, the government paying you...?

Peter

I'm sure that the amount of money they're getting for auctioning off the old NTSC spectrum vastly outweighs the amount they're paying to the few people who will sign up for $40 off a converter. (If that is, in fact, what all this is about. I can't seem to extract any information from the first web site, and, despite Trevor's assertion, the new web site is not "up".)

Works here.

I'm more amazed that instead of the long, drawn out changeover procedure the UK is adopting, the US is simply turning it all off at once.

It's probably because they learned that adoption via a long, drawn out changeover procedure doesn't work so well. *cough*metric*cough*system*cough*

The sites say the new frequencies are for emergency communication. So no new government money should be raise. However I'm skeptical too.

Do you have converted boxes in the UK? I can't seem to find one. I did a brief search on-line. I imagine this Feb 17 2009 date will be pushed back if none are available soon. People here will put up with a lot from the government but "we's got to has our TV."

That was easy to use. Not anything like our government. However when I filled it out it then told me the coupons expires in 90 days and no boxes are available yet, great! I should have waited.

They're called Freeview boxes, and are available everywhere and fairly cheap.

Peter

Thanks, do you know if they work well in poor reception areas? I know HD FM radio cuts out way before analog dies. I suspect the same for digital TV.

They don't work at all well in poor reception areas; or, at least, not without upgrading the roof aerial.

In some transmitter areas, including the Sandy Heath transmitter which serves Cambridge, roof-aerial replacement is basically unavoidable, as the analogue channels were all closely grouped together in frequency, so most houses had narrow-band aerials installed. But the replacement digital channels are all over the (relevant part of the) spectrum, requiring a wide-band aerial.

Peter

I don't know if this was the case with the (communal) aerial at Jen's old flat, but the local council (who were responsible for it) stated only that they'd fix it before analogue was turned off.

In the end, we moved house.

What will be really cool in the UK will be SFN. It would allow even more services as there's no need to worry about interference. I think once the changeover is complete in 2012 there will be a move to it.

What would interest me more would be HD Freeview.

It's technology like SFN that will make HD on Freeview possible.

That is incorrect: 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction

It was a half truth though:

"Block D of the spectrum will be used for a national public safety network."

Alas, I don't think a converter will work well with the Casio 2"-ish portable TV I've had for years!

Harrumph.

Anyone know if the $40 coupon will work for a new digital portable? And who makes the good ones these day?

-jk