A carnival of technology

On December 31, 2006 February 17th, 2009, all full power analog television broadcast licenses in the United States will expire per Title III of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (47 USC 309), ending analog television broadcast and completing the transition to digital TV. The goal of this change is to reclaim the VHF TV spectrum, and because digital TV is way more rad than that analog NTSC junk. Cable and satellite TV subscribers are unaffected by this change and are most likely already receiving digital signals anyhow.

I don’t have cable or satellite. Apart from the presidential debates I’ve been masochistally consuming this year, about the only TV I watch is that show with the angry jerk doctor, so I haven’t felt any need to pay for it. And since the median year of the movies I have on DVD is around 1980 or so, I haven’t found any pressing need to buy a new television set. I am one of the dwindling group of people affected by the switch, one of the people using rabbit ears and an analog television, so I need to buy a converter box if I want to watch TV after February. And that’s what I did.

Part of that most recent act to mandate the digital switch was a program to provide $40 coupons, up to two per household, toward the purchase of a digital converter box (www.dtv2009.gov). Mine came in the mail on Friday, so I walked over to that new Target sitting atop the apartment complex down the street that was demolished in an effort to rejuvinate The Prado, and I purchased a converter. Target had three brands ranging in price from $50 to $60, and I couldn’t see any difference among them other than that one of the $60 models had a plug for a smart antenna, which I don’t have. Cheapest one available, then.

The coupon I had was issued by the United States Department of Commerce, and it came as a red magstripe card, looking much like the logo for the dtv2009 site. Of course, no one at Target knew what to do with it. This card didn’t go through the Visa or Diner’s Club or whatever network like other discount cards might, and it didn’t have a barcode to scan like a manufacturer’s coupon. It took three people poking buttons and scanning things to figure it out, but I was able to buy a converter box for $10 + tax so that I can join the future and contribute my fair share to the deficit.

So now I just have to figure out how to use the thing. I have trouble picking up analog channels. With the exception of some religious stations and Telemundo, most transmitters in the area are south of me, and my apartment faces north. I can pick up Fox for some reason, but that’s about it, and even that one station is a struggle. I have fiddle with the dipoles and get out some Reynolds Wrap and try to find that one tiny spot on the gain knob like I’m adjusting the hot water in the shower. But through all of this I have instant feedback: if I did something right, the picture gets better, and if not the picture gets worse. Things are a bit different with the digital converter box. Since the picture now depends on the digital tuner synchronizing to a digital stream and not losing too many packets, there isn’t much space between a perfect picture and a blank screen. I can hit a button on the converter remote to get a signal strength bar, and I can sort of use that to adjust the antenna position and gain. It’s a lot more difficult to tell when I have it right.

So now instead of fiddling with the antenna position and maybe living with a some multipath ghosts, I have to fiddle with the antenna position even more and maybe live with some ugly-looking packet loss. Hooray, the future.