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Nerdist was started by Chris Hardwick and has grown to be a many headed beast.

Analog TV Gets Stay Of Execution

by on January 27, 2009

senate-screen-01…but only for a few months. The Senate passed a bill yesterday that would delay the digital broadcasting switcheroo until June 12, mainly because the government ran out of funds to give out digital converter box coupons to people who can’t afford awesome new million-to-one contrast ratio HDTVs running at 120Hz, no doubt thanks to some type of financial crisis the media wants to remind us about every day.

 
19 comments read them below or add one

  1. Great, now I have this stupid box, that I had to pay for, sitting around for some more months getting a shitty signal. Now I hate white noise as much, or MORE, than the next person, but I really can’t stand that damn pixelation that goes on when your digital signal gets interrupted by my cat walking in front of the box.
    I’m just bitter because I want a fancy new HDTV TV. :(

  2. I actually think it’s a good thing to stay the execution of analog TV. What heck does it really matter anyways. Those of us with Nerd heritage already have our HDTV’s and those that still can’t figure out how to get the blinking 12:00 off their VCR’s can still watch Law and Order in analog. I say stay the execution as long is it isn’t a pain in the ass. Someday everyone will be lucky enough to see ‘vagina’s, made in china, in 1080i’.

    I think my Comcast repair guy was Chris Hardwick. He looked just like him. I tried to take his picture, but the one I got, hidden in my house while he carried the ladder, was all blurry. I think Chris has a side job fixing Cable lines coming from the telephone poles in Minnesota.

    We should start a facebook discussion on strange sightings of Chris. That could be funny.

    Peace out

    Michael

  12. Ugh, this means I’m going to have to type up yet another freakin’ press release about the switch and converter boxes and “What This Means To You, The Consumer.” Screw you, stay of execution!
    …Which is weird coming from me, since I voted against the switch to digital in the first place.

  13. This is just a poor idea all around. They delayed analog switchover by 3 years because “the people weren’t ready.” What can they do in three months that they couldn’t do in years? Of course, they made some gross miscalculations trying to determine how much money to allot to the DoC for this, but those who didn’t their coupons when there were messages everywhere should wait with snow until the coupons replenish. Besides Verizon/Google/etc. owns that airspace now, and any delay in the switchover prevents them from testing/rolling out things like WiMAX.

  14. The House voted it down. Unless the Senate re-writes it to House satisfaction and pushes it through, the switch is still happening.

  15. Wow… the entire nation is getting a coupon to be able to buy themselves a converter so they can still get Fox after the migration to digital television? That’s amazing. Out here (The Netherlands, Europe…you know, where the dutch ovens come from) we are years away from switching to digital. I doubt if the government will ever have a say in it though. Then again, they do want to prohibit the use of the old light bulb and force us to use these new incandescant things (I want LEDs!) so who knows what will happen.

  17. it’s sad that television is now a basic need and governent needs to step in to ensure those less fortunate can enjoy what was once a luxury. Whaaa!!

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