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Let them use Tivo!
Couldn't resist.

In all seriousness, I don't think the switchover will be nearly as traumatic as people think. This whole thing smacks of Y2K doomsdayism. The converters are cheap and only a relatively small segment of the population will need them. These are people who cannot afford to upgrade to a $400 digital-ready TV by the deadline. Yeah, you can get them pretty cheap if you get a relatively small tube model. And the tube models are only going to get cheaper between now and then because tube technology is obsolete.

We had to leave analog broadcast TV behind at some point. Current broadcast technology is over 50 years old; we can make MUCH better use of the bandwidth by taking advantage of mature digital technology. Now is as good a time as any.

Plus, have you actually seen what's on broadcast TV these days? Bad sitcoms, "daytime" television (shudder!), "reality" shows, and commercials. Turning off the TV is nothing like turning off water and sewer services. It's not like this change prevents poor people from accessing grocery stores. TV is not a neccessity. In fact, most of the time its just plain annoying. A technology like Tivo is almost required to cherry pick the 1-2% of good programming out of the haystack of garbage that passes for television these days.

Where is Herbert Hoover when we need him? A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and a Tivo + cable connection in every living room!
Posted by: hines1957@...   Posted on: 03/14/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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So we're spending almost a billion dollars to subsidize TV?  Steve Summers | 03/12/07
Insane  voska | 03/12/07
Political nightmare  tic swayback | 03/12/07
Right on the mark!  George Mitchell | 03/12/07
Some worries though...  tic swayback | 03/12/07
That all sounds quite normal to me ..  George Mitchell | 03/12/07
That's three months AFTER the election!  tomford@... | 03/12/07
Probably a response to lobbiest  voska | 03/12/07
Another Government Boondoggle  Saugus | 03/12/07
2009 is looking like a good year  Jack-Booted EULA | 03/12/07
The price of converters just went up $80  du2vye | 03/12/07
Cable users not impacted?  JohnQPublic | 03/13/07
Only affects Over-The-Air signal, not cable  NotQuite | 03/13/07
I don't think that was the point  bus7821 | 03/13/07
Let them use Tivo!  hines1957@... | 03/14/07
Wish we could!  woscar | 03/20/07

What do you think?

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