Winners, losers in digital TV transition
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TV's big switch from analog to digital broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them: Do they need a new converter box, a new TV, a better antenna?
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An entirely new generation of digital TVs is being produced now, but manufacturers are using ingenuity and wherewithal to try to distinguish their products from each other's in unique ways.
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The energy-hog televisions are losing ground to their cheaper counterparts. But developers hope that will change with improved technologies.
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Cutting-edge game units, TVs, satellite receivers, camcorders and more are introduced.
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Microsoft has tuned up its software for service providers, but consumers shouldn't expect much in the near future.Photos: Is IPTV software ready for prime time?IPTV chugs along
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(InfoWorld) - A group of broadcasters, consumer electronics vendors, and civil rights groups pledged Wednesday to leave no television viewers behind as the U.S. transitions to digital over-the-air broadcasts by February 2009. The groups, collectively known as the Digital Television Transition Coalition, will use a variety of means, including public service announcements and community-based campaigns,Â to educate TV viewers about the transition from analog broadcasts. An estimated 20 million U.S. homes, containing 90 million TV sets, that don't have cable or satellite service will need to buy converter boxes or new TV sets to continue to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts. People with analog TV sets will no longer receive over-the-air signals after the Feb. 17, 2009, deadline. Congress has approved $1.5 billion for vouchers for residents to buy converter boxes in a bill passed last year. The bill requires U.S. TV stations to move off radio spectrum in the upper 700MHz band with that highly coveted spectrum going to public safety agencies and commercial bidders. Cable and satellite viewers will not need to buy converter boxes or new TVs. Starting this week, all television sets shipped across state lines in the U.S. must be capable of receiving a digital signal. "Part of our job ... will to be to help many people understand that, while they may think they have a problem, in reality, they are already well equipped to deal with the transition and enjoy the benefits," said Marc Pearl, executive director of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition. "It is essential that nobody loses a TV signal due to a lack of accurate information." Many of the people affected by the transition will be poor or elderly people, said Nancy Zirkin, vice president and director of public policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The coalition needs to "make sure that this audience knows before the switch that they are eligible for federal vouchers," she said. The coalition launched a Web site to help educate TV viewers on the switch to DTV. In a recent survey of over-the-air viewers, the National Association of Broadcasters found that 56 percent of respondents reported that they have "seen, read, or heard nothing" about the transition to digital television, and only 10 percent were able to pinpoint 2009 as the year. The upper 700MHz band would allow wireless signals to travel four to five times as far as existing mobile phone signals, advocates of the digital televisionÂ transition say. That makes the spectrum valuable for mobile broadband providers and for police and fire departments that want to communicate with regional counterparts. Among the coalition members are the Association of Public Television Stations, the Consumer Electronics Association, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
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Google buys a mapquest of its own. Also: Sharp takes us to the future of television in 3-D & hellip;.  PayPal finds a way to make amends for mistakes & hellip;. and more.
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Owners of thousands of small television stations that reach rural populations or specialize in community affairs and minority programming are worried the digital transition is going to leave their audiences watching a blank screen.
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A European project aims to change how people receive their digital entertainment in the future.
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It&#39;s one of the biggest technical changes in television since color TV: the digital transition. And because many Americans remain in the dark about it, federal regulators
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It's not too early to start thinking about how to ensure your television won't go dark when analog broadcasts shut down in 2009.Photos: Converting from analog to digital TV
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Early Internet entrepreneurs envisioned a day when consumers would devour short bites of entertainment on their computer screens delivered over the Internet by fat broadband pipes. When the companies failed, executives blamed it on ...
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Digital media is the future. Here's one way to cash in.
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Spectrum troubles, defections, and a new CEO? Best to look elsewhere.
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Americans are becoming more aware of next year's switch-over to digital TV, but many are still confused about how they will be affected, according to a pair of surveys released on Wednesday.
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Texas Instruments (TI) has developed the wireless industry&#39;s first digital TV on a single chip for cell phones. This will capture broadcast signals and allow cell phone users to watch live broadcasts ranging.
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What could eventually resolve the value proposition for mainstream consumers to accept an incoming ultra-high-bandwidth pipeline into their homes is the ability of high-definition, on-demand video. But that will require a level of cooperation that competitors thus far have been unable to muster.