Senate Nears Deal To Delay Digital TV

[drfsupercenter]

Well I get what you're saying but why wouldn't these elderly people have gotten the coupons a year ago when they had plenty of them?

If people don't watch TV enough to see the DTV transition advertised they probably won't even miss it! Basically, the government will be rewarding laziness! I mean, they approved me for two coupons and I said I have cable. (There were some reserved for those with no cable, though)

It's not that I have a problem with delaying the date (apart from the frame ghosting thing I mentioned which just makes watching local channels a PITA), it's more the concept of this thing has been planed for well over a year and now they want to undermine that and change the date... they could delay it by 2 years and still not 100% of people will be ready. It's just a fact the government will have to admit.

[Abuilder]

Drf
Some elderly people won’t understand the need for a convert box until their TV turns into snow. And when that happens I can see a few just listening to there AM radios. while they are complaining about the damn government. LOL
And YES the money factor is a big issue for people on a fixed income. Give it 40+ years Danny, then you'll understand.

I got my box about three months ago and really enjoy all the extra station with digital. The funny thing is, about three weeks ago my old analog TV decided to take a dump so I ended up buying a digital ready LCD TV anyway. Go figure!

[drfsupercenter]

Some elderly people won’t understand the need for a convert box until their TV turns into snow.

Well how would that be any different in July then?

And all my local channels have been "advertising" the DTV transition forever... like "If you don't get a converter box or a new TV you won't be able to enjoy this station after 2/17" How do you miss that? I mean, once or twice I understand... I don't even watch commercials and I've seen those ads.

[Abuilder]

Drf
A big part of this change over to digital is, some people just don’t like the idea that BIG Brother is forcing the change. That is a crock of sh1t!
My question is:
Who got paid off and who did the paying to force this change.!
It all smells like a SONY type transaction to me.

[drfsupercenter]

Big brother is still gonna be forcing the change if they move it to July!

Nobody's getting paid off except all the Chinese companies that make the converter boxes. And I'm willing to bet anything, they'll move it to July... it'll roll around, come June they'll go "OMG, 4 million people still aren't ready!" and want to push it back some more.
Imagine if they moved the Superbowl back a couple weeks because not everybody was going to be home on that night.

To quote the Joker: "Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan."
All that'll happen is people who did buy converter boxes will get confused and be like "why'd I waste my money if the government lied about the date?"

[doctorhardware]

I have not received the Visa debit cards as of yet for the converter box. I decided if the government wants to give out money might as well get in on the deal.

[drfsupercenter]

They aren't Visa debit cards... they look like credit cards but they're just $40 off coupons. You can't use them on anything but converter boxes.

[doctorhardware]

The Visa card that I saw at Tiger Direct for the digital TV tuner, said debit above the Visa 3D logo. So that is what I am going by. I have not received mine in the mail as of yet.

[drfsupercenter]

This is what they look like:

http://sfcitizen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/img_5859a.jpg

I saw some at Wal-Mart and Target that would be $10 after the coupon. And they aren't bad, either.
I also got one at Best Buy for a bit more, because it had S-Video output (slightly better quality.) But the actual user interface is terrible... the cheaper ones are actually better LOL

[PurpleDemon]

Senate passes bill to delay digital TV switch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate passed a bill on Monday to delay the nationwide switch to digital TV signals, giving consumers nearly four more months to prepare.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090127/tv_nm/us_dtv_congress

[drfsupercenter]

Just watch, June will roll around and people still won't be ready.

Sad. Just sad. Now I'm glad I have cable... this is just stupid. (Though, on that note, now that I'll be suffering from ghosting a while longer... anyone know how to filter out antenna signals from the coax cable?)

[PurpleDemon]

Did you try the terminators Doc talked about in post #3?

[Budreaux]

Just watch, June will roll around and people still won't be ready.

Sad. Just sad. Now I'm glad I have cable... this is just stupid. (Though, on that note, now that I'll be suffering from ghosting a while longer... anyone know how to filter out antenna signals from the coax cable?)

I still don;t get why you are so bothered by this.
You have cable, so you won;t even see a difference when the switch is made.
This is the right thing to do. The economy took a serious dive and we are in the process of trying to repair it, but until we do, many/most folks are note buying more than needed, and some are not even able to buy what is needed.
Sure, your ghosting problem will go away, but it is also easily corrected with a little know-how.

So please, focus your energies on correcting that issue and less on complaining about others that are less fortunate than yourself.

[doctorhardware]

That picture is different from the one's I saw at tiger direct, that this lady was using. So I am confused, when the tuners were wrong up, the cards were slide through the credit terminal it deducted $40 per card. So I do not know where they got the cards.

[Abuilder]

Doc
The two coupons I got looked the same as the pic that drf posted. I applied for mine online at www.drv2009.gov. That was back in june or july and got them within 6 weeks.