Lincolnite

I believe Omaha will be doing the same and not delaying their digital transition. (At least channel 6 will be turning theirs off and I got the impression that 7 would as well) 

It was a terrible decision to delay the switch. The 5 million or so people who aren’t ready won’t use the 6 months to get ready. They’re just going to delay the inevitable.

I think we are going to see a lot around the nation of what we see in Omaha.  Stations turning off their signals regardless of what Congress says.  A handful of people will be upset but when they actually are faced with the TV off, they’ll do something about it.

I’m glad that local stations decided not to delay the inevitable. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of station take this route since they have all prepared for it anyway.

As far as I know, it hasn’t been confirmed yet that channels 3 and 7 will be sticking to the February 17 transition date. All the other Omaha stations will be switching, though.

Nevermind, all Omaha stations have announced that they’ll stick to the February 17 date.

Add on Banacek and Mannix and I may just get me one of them coupons for my old b/w Zenith…..

I’ve been following the passionate discussion about the topic over at the AVS forums.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=144464&page=235

Apparently, many stations across the nation did not budget to license & operate on both a UHF and VHF transmitter after the mandated cutoff date, so could not afford to continue broadcasting in analog even if they wanted to. I’m not surprised to see the locals switch anyway - it is cheaper.

I think there was a lot of money made on TV sales to the elderly who did not know better and believed they needed a new TV.

I also can’t believe that there are still stations that are not in HD. Or just as bad (I’m looking at YOU local Lincoln stations) claim to be in HD, but broadcast in 720p. That should not be called HD, it should be called SSSD. “Slightly Sharper Standard Definition.” LAME.

I bought a TV that handles full HD recently and have been looking at options and running the numbers. After looking around, I am considering dropping back down to basic cable. The local channels are available in HD for free over your cable connection (QAM) if you have a HD ready TV. Paying extra for the HD Digital Set Top Box ($7) + HD DVR service ($8) + Digital Tier ($9) [=$24/month or $288/year) just to see ESPN HD and a few other basic cable channels in HD is hardly worth it.

The bummer is - I looked into the satellite packages and they are roughly equivalent. You get a few more HD channels on satellite for the same price, but by the time you add fees in, they are roughly identical. No accident I’m certain.

PRICES: http://www.timewarnercable.com/Nebraska/learn/bundles/Lincoln.html

No complaints here - this is a very “1st World” problem and I am thankful to have a job and a roof over my head these days. Just observations about the feeding frenzy that HDTV service became.

One nit to pick:

There’s very little increase in picture quality when going from 720p to 1080i, and the increased frame rate makes 720p a better choice in some situations (most sports, for example).

If/when the networks start broadcasting in 1080p, then you can yell at local stations for using 720p.

I just saw today that Channel 7 in Omaha will NOT be turning their analog signal off on the 17th.  They just announced today that they would keep it on during their 6pm news.

Bad decision IMO. I wonder what 6 will do now. 7 is the big player in the Omaha market and 6 might have to follow suit.

I’m really glad 10/11 and 8 have decided to forgo the transition. Maybe after they do that Omaha will see how well it goes or how little rioting in the streets there would be and will turn the analog signals off.

And just to update, the only station in Omaha that will make the transition is 6.  42, 7, and 3 will all wait until June…or until they extend the deadline again