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will the digital broadcast "switch over" in 2009 effect cable telivision?
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crashwg:
I've heard some discussion here and there about the switch that will be taking place early 2009 in the U.S. but I can't seem to find any sort of documentation outlining what the changes will be.

I spoke with someone at Circuit City and they basically just told me that I'll need a cable box to watch TV when the switch occurs.  Everything I read in print only refers to "broadcast" though which leads me to believe that cable television will not be changing...

I would think there would be an "official press release" or something of that sort.  :-\
ChadTower:

What he meant by "cable box" was probably an HD->SD converter to make the signal compatible with your SD television.  Of course, who knows if he had any idea of what he was talking about.

boykster:
When the broadcast spectrum goes all digital, standard analog tuners will no longer work, and legacy tv's will require a tuner box to both receive the digital transmissions, and to downconvert the received digital broadcast to a format that SD tv's can display.  One thing to note is that this changeover does not require broadcasters to switch to HD, just that they deliver the signal digitally.  There are already many local stations transmitting digitally (as well as in the analog range) but just delivering SD broadcasts.

The "mandate" on these boxes is that they be inexpensive for consumers to ease the transition. 

As far as cable / sat operators, they are essentially immune from this, as the policy only affects the over-the-air broadcast spectrum, and frankly most cable co's and sat co's are already delivering the bulk of their content in the digital realm.  Now whether or not they continue to offer analog simulcasts (as they do now on most cable systems) so that consumers can plug the raw cable feed into the back of their sets and use the internal tuner or not will remain to be  seen.  In my area, Comcast has already deprecated the analog signal, and completely simulcasts their entire lineup in the digital realm.  I KNOW they would love to eliminate the analog channels to reclaim a bunch of bandwidth for new programming, but haven't as there are millions of customers who use it.

Only time will tell.....I'm not even conviced the full switchover will happen in 2009...its already been pushed back a couple of times.

 :dunno
JoyMonkey:
This just happened in the Netherlands. As of today they're the first country in the world to completely abandon analog TV broadcasts. I think I read somewhere that everyone had to buy converter boxes for about $40 a pop.
ChadTower:

Won't happen in the US.  You'll get too many people yelling "but the poor shouldn't have to pay" and it will get held up for possibly years so that Congressmen can get sound bites advocating "free converter boxes for my constituents" but not actually doing anything related to converter boxes.
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