CEA Supplies Converter Boxes In Test Market
By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 7/21/2008
Arlington, Va. — Preparing for a real-world market test of the analog TV cutoff, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is providing more than 100 free digital television converter boxes to residents living in long-term care facilities in Wilmington, N.C., and the surrounding counties.
The converter boxes are being reserved for residents who do not subscribe to pay-TV service or have DTV sets, and therefore must have a box in order to continue watching over-the-air TV broadcasts. CEA said.
Wilmington’s full-power commercial television stations will commence all-digital broadcasting on Sept. 8, 2008, five months ahead of the nationwide digital conversion on Feb. 17, 2009.
“Wilmington is leading the nation in ushering in the era of digital broadcasting, and this initiative by CEA members means long-term care residents in Wilmington can continue to enjoy their favorite channels, as well as new programming choices,” stated Gary Shapiro, CEA president/CEO.
The converter boxes that CEA will distribute are being supplied by its member companies Best Buy (Insignia brand), EchoStar (DTVPal brand) and LG Electronics (Zenith brand).
CEA is providing information on the donations to administrators of long-term care facilities and representatives from local agencies. This CEA initiative is made in cooperation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is the federal agency responsible for the converter-box program.
Representatives from EchoStar and Zenith are demonstrating how to install and operate the boxes and CEA is providing copies of its “Florence Henderson’s Digital Tips” brochures, which include a three-step converter-box installation guide. Facility staff will install the converter boxes for residents this summer.
“TV is a lifeline for many people in long-term care, and many of our seniors on fixed incomes rely on free over-the-air channels,” said Jane Jones, director of the Area Agency on Aging for the Cape Fear Council of Governments in Wilmington. “We appreciate the consumer electronics industry’s help and concern for these individuals.”
Other residents across the country are eligible to receive converter boxes at a dramatically reduced rate through a government subsidized coupon program. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is the federal agency overseeing distribution of up to two $40 discount coupons per household to offset the cost of certified converter boxes; more information is available at www.dtv2009.gov or (888) DTV-2009.
More information about CEA’s ongoing digital television public education efforts and a downloadable copy of “Florence Henderson’s Digital Tips,” can be found online at www.digitaltips.org. Consumers may also obtain the guide by writing to Digital Tips, P.O. Box 73, Fanwood, N.J. 07023.
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Many Off-Air viewers who buy a converter box have problems receiving the same stations digitally with the box installed as they did without it or get no broadcast stations at all (with converter boxes that don’t pass analogue signals). Excluding the possibility that they have a defective converter box or have installed it incorrectly, there are many more likely reasons why this happens:
1. They have an old antenna that has corroded over the years
2. They have the wrong antenna (VHF only) for UHF reception where most of the digital broadcast signals are and will be located
3. They may have received an acceptable analogue picture for years, but a) the broadcast station’s analogue signal was not that powerful in the first place (signal power or distance) producing a little snow) and/or b) the old antenna is not powerful enough to receive and send a strong digital signal to the digital tuner in the converter box. Unlike analogue, no strong signal, no picture, just a blue screen
4. Many of the TV antenna designs now in use and on the market today such as the Yagi and rabbit ears have technology roots going back 30 years or more and may not work well with the digital chip sets in converter boxes.
5. The analogue signal passed through trees, but the digital signal passing through tress, especially through pine trees, won’t be strong enough to be decoded by the digital tuner.
6. Their antenna is aimed at the old analogue tower location and the digital towers have been relocated or it was aimed wrong all these years, but received a marginal analogue picture.
7. The digital stations may be broadcasting in low power until the transition.
8. They may be dealing with multi-path. Multi-path (bounced signals) is caused by buildings, hills and any other hard object in the line-of-sight to the broadcast towers. They cause signals to reach the antenna out of phase, confusing the ATSC (Digital) chip set in the converter box (or digital TV set tuners. If the signal reaching the front of the antenna is not 2 to 3 times stronger than a bounced signal from the same station reaching the back of the antenna, the ATSC chip doesn’t know which signal to use, so it just keeps searching.
9. They may have not performed the correct search procedure on their TV to find the digital stations. Many stations have changed channels, mostly to UHF (14-69)
10. The old incoming cable and/or connectors may be bad. These don’t last forever.
There are many converter boxes on the market, with more coming. As with any new technology, their quality, efficiency and price vary considerably. So the selection of a converter box will be an important variable to desired digital reception. Consumer Reports has rated some of the available converter boxes.
As for those viewers who wish to continue to view low power analogue broadcasts also, as far as I know right now, the $40 coupons can be used on 16 brands of converter boxes with the "analog pass-through" feature: APEX DT250, Apex DT500, CASTi CAX-02, DIGITAL STREAM DSP7700T, DIGITAL STREAM DTX9950, DIGITAL STREAM DX8700, DISH Network DTVPal, Jiuzhou DTT9001, Magnavox TB-100MG9, Microprose MPI-500, Philco TB100HH9, Philco TB150HH9, RCA DTA800B1, Skardin DTR-0727L, TATUNG TDB3001 and Venturer STB7766G1. There are probably more.
But TV reception starts with the right antenna. Viewers should certainly try their old antenna first. It’s true that any of these older antennas will pick up some signals, maybe all the broadcast signals a viewer wants to receive, depending on their location. If they’re getting all the OTA channels they want and almost completely uncompressed DTV and HDTV, unlike cable or satellite, than they’re good to go.
While it’s correct that antennas can’t tell the difference between analog and digital signals, there are definitely certain models which have higher DTV batting averages than others. Not all antennas are equally suited for DTV. A percentage of viewers will require something a little more tailored for DTV reception.
