> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Hatcher
> No need for a cottage industry.
>
> As I posted previously, the guardians of the purse strings up in Foggy
> Bottom plan to provide converters to anyone who wants them at taxpayer
> expense. See:
>
> http://www.ncpa.org/newdpd/dpdarticle.php?article_id=2438
>
> -
> Bill Hatcher
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Comments on the article posted above:
Since the federal government mandated the change to HDTV signals from
analog, I can see an argument for them providing the necessary equipment to
make the transition as painless as possible for people who might not
otherwise have the means. What I can't see is them providing me 14
converters for my 4 televisions 6 vcrs and 4 PVR inputs at $10 each (which
would still cost me $140 -- versus $700 for me to purchase a converter for
each at the $50-$60 suggested price). And I don't want to even think about
the scheduling problems to record shows on different stations (since I am
sure the channel changing function will be on the set top box and lost to
the PVR or VCR).
Any way we look at this mandated change, it is going to cost time, effort
and money to implement. I have 4 perfectly good television that have several
years of useful life left and the HDTV equivalent replacements are costly.
One of the cheapest tubed HDTVs advertised this weekend was $600, and that
was without the HD tuner. In the article it indicated that we should have
been preparing for this, but HDTVs have been and remain expensive so that it
would be nearly impossible to plan on replacing them in the few years that
this program has been in place. I would have loved to have been an early
adopter of HDTV, but in the beginning there was no HDTV broadcasts and the
televisions were prohibitively expensive. For the weathly and near wealthy,
mandated HDTV is a great idea. For the average joe middle class and lower,
it is an expensive requirement. Dual broadcasting should continue, except
the federal government see an opportunity to generate some income from the
old channel 1-51 bands. I always thought of the government as a non-profit
organization that was supposed to look out for the little guy. Seems to be
getting farther and farther away from that ideal.
Well, I better get off my soap box and earn some money to purchase all that
new equipment.
Jim Maki
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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