Are your televisions prepared for 2009?

Are your televisions prepared for 2009?

  • Yes, we're all set

  • No, but I know exactly what we're going to have to buy to make that happen

  • No, I have no idea what we're going to do

  • I don't really care if we can't watch television anymore


Results are only viewable after voting.
Yeah, we have trouble with Channel 5 here (NBC). It usually comes through but occasionally there is no signal. Since most of the shows I watch are on other channels, it's not a big inconvenience.

What I don't like is that we are going to have to buy a new tv. The one in our bedroom is so old that nothing can be hooked up to it.
 
Really? Nothing? What's the make/model number? Generally, unless the antenna for the television is hard-wired into the television itself, there is some adapter available to allow you to connect something to feed the television.
 
Yeah, we have trouble with Channel 5 here (NBC). It usually comes through but occasionally there is no signal. Since most of the shows I watch are on other channels, it's not a big inconvenience.

What I don't like is that we are going to have to buy a new tv. The one in our bedroom is so old that nothing can be hooked up to it.

What's hooked to it now? Most TVs that are still working have a coax cable connector. Even if it has just two screw terminals for an antenna, a digital converter box (with the appropriate additional adapter) can be hooked to it.
 

Really? Nothing? What's the make/model number? Generally, unless the antenna for the television is hard-wired into the television itself, there is some adapter available to allow you to connect something to feed the television.

I don't think I've ever seen a TV that didn't have a connection for an external antenna even if the rabbit ears were built in. Usually there's a bypass shunt to enable/disable in internal antenna.
 
Yeah, going back even 40 years I seem to remember that there was always some way to feed RF in, at least.
 
It depends. Is Fox provided to you via satellite, or via analog pass-through? If via satellite, then you're okay -- the problem you saw during the test was DirecTV's and they have to fix it. If via analog pass-through, then you may have a problem: I do not believe DirecTV receivers from 11 years ago had digital pass-through. So you may have to upgrade to a later receiver. However, I'm not sure about that.

Here's a link to an article about the DirecTV local channel confusion: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/06/directvs_digital_transition_ad.php

How would I know if it is an analog pass through? All our networks are through DirecTV -- we do not have any antennas or anything beyond our dish on the roof. Can they transmit an analog signal to the dish and that is what I'm getting?? I really have no idea about these things. I assumed anything recieved by my dish was digital. :confused3

We have two TVs. Both receivers are the same age but one of the TVs is only a year old. So does that mean the newer TV might be fine and the older one isn't?

I guess I will find out next month and then get a new receivers if my channels no longer come through. WHY couldn't they do this conversion in the middle of summer and NOT during February sweeps!! :mad: :mad:
 
How would I know if it is an analog pass through? All our networks are through DirecTV -- we do not have any antennas or anything beyond our dish on the roof. Can they transmit an analog signal to the dish and that is what I'm getting?? I really have no idea about these things. I assumed anything recieved by my dish was digital. :confused3

We have two TVs. Both receivers are the same age but one of the TVs is only a year old. So does that mean the newer TV might be fine and the older one isn't?

I guess I will find out next month and then get a new receivers if my channels no longer come through. WHY couldn't they do this conversion in the middle of summer and NOT during February sweeps!! :mad: :mad:

Everything received by your dish is digital.

I believe what Bicker means by "analog pass through" is a signal from another source (other than Direct's sat digital signal) connected to the back of the DirectTV box. This would most likely be an antenna to receive signals from local stations that Direct does not carry.

If you have no other connections to your DirecTV box, then you should be OK as long as the local broadcasters provide Sat and Cable operators with programming (digital or analog) for them to rebroadcast via their systems. What's not going operate is the local broadcasters analog (over the air via an antenna) signal. I believe cable and sat provides get their signals from local TV broadcasters via satellites.
 
I believe what Bicker means by "analog pass through" is a signal from another source (other than Direct's sat digital signal) connected to the back of the DirectTV box. This would most likely be an antenna to receive signals from local stations that Direct does not carry.
Absolutely. This was essential before DirecTV started carrying local channels all over the country. Generally there were two inputs into DirecTV receivers: The (all-digital) feed from the DirecTV satellite dish, and the RF feed from your antenna. As you pointed out, if you don't have your DirecTV receiver connected to an antenna, then no worries.
 
I don't think I've ever seen a TV that didn't have a connection for an external antenna even if the rabbit ears were built in. Usually there's a bypass shunt to enable/disable in internal antenna.

Actually, I have a small tv that only has a built in antenna. There is no way to hook it up to anything without taking it completely apart.

It's a good thing that I no longer have to use it to watch tv because it will be rendered completely useless in February.


As for if we're ready, yes we are. We got 2 converter boxes months ago. My dad hooked up one of the tv's and was not happy. None of the channels came in very well at all. So he finally got cable installed in the house. Now he's pissed because he has to spend the money on it just to watch tv.
 
Thanks for the help. I assumed I was ok, but when they ran that test and I didn't get the signal I started to have some doubts.
 
I have a question...we have a LCD HD TV in the Family room. Where can I find a listing of what channel 49-102, 18-1, 79-18, etc are? It sucks having to guess at all of the channels. (Its not going through a digital receiver, only the cable coming through the wall.) I would love to have a listing like that. I should also add that these are channels that aren't available on the TV with the digital box.

I think we have 3 versions of several channels - one analong, one digital and one HD. Its all so confusing. lol
 
We were ready for this years ago when it was supposed to happen. I'm glad it's finally here. More people are aware and ready for better TV.
 
I have a question...we have a LCD HD TV in the Family room. Where can I find a listing of what channel 49-102, 18-1, 79-18, etc are? It sucks having to guess at all of the channels. (Its not going through a digital receiver, only the cable coming through the wall.) I would love to have a listing like that. I should also add that these are channels that aren't available on the TV with the digital box.

I think we have 3 versions of several channels - one analong, one digital and one HD. Its all so confusing. lol

Check the website of your service provider. If the channel shown on your screen is a X.Y (versus just a single number such as 107, 3 or 38), it's digital and could be HD as well.
 
I have a question...we have a LCD HD TV in the Family room. Where can I find a listing of what channel 49-102, 18-1, 79-18, etc are? It sucks having to guess at all of the channels. (Its not going through a digital receiver, only the cable coming through the wall.) I would love to have a listing like that.

There is no, and almost surely never will be any, official listing mapping QAM frequency assignments to cable channel assignments. These assignments are dynamically changed, without notice, and cable boxes, CableCARDs and digital terminal adapters are notified through signaling specific to their operation. Televisions, such as your LCD, do not have the functionality necessary to receive that signaling.

Generally, your local broadcast channels include PSIP data, which the cable company passes along to your television. Many (though not all televisions) have the capability to use this PSIP data to map the QAM frequency assignment for local broadcast channels to their broadcast channel using this passed-through PSIP data. However: (1) This only helps map broadcast local channels, like ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.; (2) It maps these QAM frequencies to their broadcast channel, i.e., 4-1, rather than their cable channel, i.e., 804; (3) It relies on the broadcast local channel including the PSIP data in the feed that they provide to the cable company; (4) It relies on the cable company not screwing up the PSIP data; and (5) It relies on your television using the PSIP data correctly.
 
Check the website of your service provider. If the channel shown on your screen is a X.Y (versus just a single number such as 107, 3 or 38), it's digital and could be HD as well.

Only the non "-" channels are listed on Comcast's website. :( Oh well, I guess I'll have to keep a pen and paper down there to write them down as I figure them out.

There is no, and almost surely never will be any, official listing mapping QAM frequency assignments to cable channel assignments. These assignments are dynamically changed, without notice, and cable boxes, CableCARDs and digital terminal adapters are notified through signaling specific to their operation. Televisions, such as your LCD, do not have the functionality necessary to receive that signaling.

Generally, your local broadcast channels include PSIP data, which the cable company passes along to your television. Many (though not all televisions) have the capability to use this PSIP data to map the QAM frequency assignment for local broadcast channels to their broadcast channel using this passed-through PSIP data. However: (1) This only helps map broadcast local channels, like ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.; (2) It maps these QAM frequencies to their broadcast channel, i.e., 4-1, rather than their cable channel, i.e., 804; (3) It relies on the broadcast local channel including the PSIP data in the feed that they provide to the cable company; (4) It relies on the cable company not screwing up the PSIP data; and (5) It relies on your television using the PSIP data correctly.

Huh? :confused3 :lmao:
 
I was afraid of that... the problem is that this is not a simple issue. As you noted yourself, Charade's simple answer to your question didn't really pan out. That's because the issue is a lot more complex, and there is no simple answer -- at least not a positive one.

I'll try explaining myself a bit better...

There is no, and almost surely never will be any, official listing mapping QAM frequency assignments to cable channel assignments.
Okay, so this is basically a flat-out "No" to your question: You wanted a way to know what these channels are, and the answer is that there will never be an official list.
These assignments are dynamically changed, without notice,
Even if you take down the channels now, and make up your own list, it will only be valid for now. The channels could all change tomorrow. They do this to improve the quality and reliability of channels, moving them around to perhaps take advantage of pairing lower bandwidth channels with higher bandwidth channels, etc.
and cable boxes, CableCARDs and digital terminal adapters are notified through signaling specific to their operation.
Cable company-issued equipment have a separate way of keeping in touch with the latest changes to these assignments.
Televisions, such as your LCD, do not have the functionality necessary to receive that signaling.
Generally, televisions don't.
Generally, your local broadcast channels include PSIP data, which the cable company passes along to your television.
Everything I said above applies mostly to the cable channels. The local broadcast channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) may provide you another way of dealing with this, but that will only help you tune in the local broadcast channels; it won't help you tune in the cable networks.
Many (though not all televisions) have the capability to use this PSIP data to map the QAM frequency assignment for local broadcast channels to their broadcast channel using this passed-through PSIP data.
Your television may or may not be able to use this information to help you.
However: (1) This only helps map broadcast local channels, like ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.;
This won't help you find ESPN, or CNN, or Discovery, or Disney, etc.
(2) It maps these QAM frequencies to their broadcast channel, i.e., 4-1, rather than their cable channel, i.e., 804;
The way this capability works is that instead of you worrying about what 49-102 or 79-18 (two of the channels you mentioned) are, you'd simply deal with the "friendly" channels that your local broadcast channels advertise. Perhaps your NBC station is "Channel 18". If so, then you can just enter 18-1, and you'll get "Channel 18" (even though it may really be on channel 49-102).
(3) It relies on the broadcast local channel including the PSIP data in the feed that they provide to the cable company;
Not all local broadcast channels tack the necessary data on to their broadcast signal to make this work (though they are required to by law, and, generally, when they don't, someone forced them to fix it quickly). Beyond that, even if they are doing what they're supposed to with the signal they are broadcasting from their over-the-air transmitter, they may be providing a completely separate feed of their programming to the cable companies and that separate feed may not have the right data tacked onto it to make this work.
(4) It relies on the cable company not screwing up the PSIP data;
Even when the local broadcast channel gets this right, there are a few things that the cable company can do to screw things up.
and (5) It relies on your television using the PSIP data correctly.
And even when the local broadcast channel does everything right, and the cable company does everything right, your television might not work correctly.

I hope this is a bit clearer.
 
Why would a provider dynamically change the channel line up other than every so often when they need to add/subtract channels?
 
I meant to dig out some references to better answer this question but I haven't had a chance to do so. Let me summarize what I know.

QAM is the modulation cable companies use to transmit cable channels to you. Each QAM channel is 6 MHz of bandwidth, just like one ATSC channel -- ATSC is the modulation broadcasters use to transmit over-the-air broadcasts to you. The QAM channel can be used for two or three high-definition (HD) digital television channels, or about six standard-definition (SD) digital television channels. The underlined phrases indicate some (but not all) of the reasons why QAM frequency assignments are often dynamically changed.

Just looking at the HD issue: Pretty-much, two HD channels ride very comfortably on one QAM channel (again: 6 MHz). With three HD channels, things get tight. Picture quality, in that case, could be adversely affected if all three channels are (simplifying this, because I don't remember the technical terms) blasting out very dense content. HD is broadcast one of two ways, depending on its source: 1080i or 720p, 1080i has an easier time presenting fine details, but does so at the expense of its ability to present fast action (or a raging fire, or running water). 720p is better with action, but can never provide the same amount of fine detail that 1080i can present. Generally, on QAM channel can present two 1080i channels, plus one 720p channel, but if one of the 1080i channels is presenting a lot of action, then you could see picture quality adversely affected. When customers complain about that, cable companies might move that 1080i channel to a QAM channel with two 720p channels, instead of mated with another 1080i channel and one 720p channel.

Why not just have each QAM channel contain only one 1080i channel? Because there aren't enough QAM channels available. Most broadcast and cable networks broadcast using 1080i. (ABC and all its cable nets, and Fox and all its cable nets, are 720p; while NBC and all its cable nets, CBS and its cable net, CW, PBS, Discovery are 1080i.) So where customers want lots of HD channels, many QAM channels need to be two 1080i plus one 720p.

It gets a lot more detailed, but that gives you some idea...
 















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