Analog TV cut-off: Puzzlement and outrage

I don’t think I’ve ever received so much e-mail so quickly as with last week’s column on the cut-off of analog television, ranging from puzzlement and outrage to predictions of sudden increases in both book sales and pregnancies. 

First, an update. Last week I had a chance to see one of the first non-HD digital televisions at a home entertainment show in New York.  RCA showed its 27-inch 27V514T set displaying a digital over-the-air broadcast next to a set receiving the same channel in analog form, through the same antenna.  The digital image was significantly better (more on this from Gary Krakow).

As several readers reminded me, many over-the-air viewers will find that converting to digital sets could significantly improve the images they receive. At the same time, however, fringe-area viewers may find that digital signals simply don’t reach them at all.  And several readers in England, where digital over-the-air is already common, noted that the signals are more sensitive to weather and can break down in heavy rainstorms.   

But the discussion really isn’t about digital versus analog—that decision was made years ago; it’s about how digital will replace analog in this country.  And on that score, the vast majority of readers were very outspoken. 

Marguerita, West Jordan, UT: I think if they were going to do this they should have begun halting the production of analog sets when they proposed the transition.  If they would have produced reasonably affordable sets right off the bat, more people would have them in their homes now. It is obvious that foresight was not part of the plan. 

Sue Gordon, Huntington Beach, CA: No one has even mentioned the staggering cost to local government, businesses and consumers to manage all of these "obsolete" analog TVs as hazardous waste.  Many states, including California, as well as the federal government, now regulate CRTs as hazardous waste.  The cost to recycle them ranges from $30-55 a unit and the cost to dispose of them is equally onerous. The government better consider the financial impact of disposing/recycling these obsolete televisions.

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