# Government Coupons For Digital TV



## Dave (Jan 29, 2003)

Its is being reported over at cnet.com that starting in January 2008 the government is going to start mailing out up to (2) $ 40 coupons per household for the Digital transfer in March of 2009. I would imagine that whoever has this contract is jumping up and down for joy. They also say if need be they will add another $ 480 MILLION to the pot. To make sure everyone can still get the TV channels. This is in case the first set of coupons are not enough for everyone in the country for there analog TV's. Remember though, JUST (2) per household allowed right now.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

So... I wonder... are they going to also buy antenna and TVs for everyone too?

I still hate the notion of taxpayer dollars going to set-top converters for anyone.

We have starving, sick, and homeless people in this country... we have victims of natural disasters like hurricane Katrina... and our government is going to pay to get people a digital set-top converter?

We should be ashamed of our skewed priorities.


----------



## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

What burns me is that they are still selling analog only TV's. The law should have indicated a date for the termination of sale of analogue only TV's.

A $40 credit to help pay for a new compliant set for low income people would make a little more sense to me. It will not be long before those STB will be a $100 milion paper weights.


----------



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

As of March 1 this year, analog only TV's 13 inches and up may no longer be produced. It's going to take a while for existing stock to be depleted.


----------



## Dave (Jan 29, 2003)

The real kicker is that the boxes will run between $ 50 and $ 70 dollars each.


----------



## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

The Government also released the specifications for converters that will qualify for the coupon program. It's a bare bones type of thing that tunes ATSC on channels 2 through 69 and outputs NTSC on channel 3 or 4. It can also output the red, white and yellow RCA jack signals. There can be a remote control. 

They are soliciting manufacturers to participate. I'm not sure if this thing has a target selling price but one would hope a coupon will pay most of the bill. The circuits don't cost much if you make enough to recoup your R&D and setup expenses. How many of these boxes must a vendor produce to get the price down to around $50? 

But, what if nobody participates?

--- CHAS


----------



## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

HIPAR said:


> But, what if nobody participates?
> 
> --- CHAS


You can bet some one will come up with a cheap crappy box that will give everyone a real head ache.


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

Hmm. Can you combine your two $40 coupons to buy one new $70-$80 converter? 

If so, how many coupons will be on sale on eBay?


----------



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

On the day analog dies, there will be millions of OTA-only viewers with 15 year-old
tv sets who suddenly get nothing but snow and have no clue as to the reason why.

When I lived in the ATL area, I knew a guy who only watched channel 11 (WXIA).
As far as I know, he never changed the channel.

The extent of ignorance in this world is staggering. How some of these people
survive past age 30 in an increasingly technological world defies logical explanation.

:shrug:


----------



## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

Nick said:


> The extent of ignorance in this world is staggering. How some of these people
> survive past age 30 in an increasingly technological world defies logical explanation.
> 
> :shrug:


Of course the opposite is also true, in the sense that's it's amazing watching people freak out who are seperated from their electronic gizmos. My god if the cell phone or PDA dies or the internet and/or computer goes down, the power goes out and none of the appliances including the TV w/ surround sound. i've watched people just not be able to handle being "disconnected" even if only for a relatively short period like a couple hours. It's like they don't know how to live w/out it, you'd think they were part of the Borg collective rather than human! :lol: So "electronic ignorance" goes two ways, those who are ignorant to it and those who are ignorant to the world outside the boundaries of electronica.


----------



## Dave (Jan 29, 2003)

Since the Government is going to run this program, there are going to be certain restrictions on the number of coupons (2) and the products they can be used for. And only one (1) coupon per box. Also I believe you the "consumer" are going to have to request the coupons from the Government. They are not going to just mail them to everyone in the country. We all know how goood the Government is about getting the info to the masses.


----------



## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

drew2k said:


> Hmm. Can you combine your two $40 coupons to buy one new $70-$80 converter?
> 
> If so, how many coupons will be on sale on eBay?


No, your not suppose to be able to combine them.


----------



## leww37334 (Sep 19, 2005)

HDMe said:


> So... I wonder... are they going to also buy antenna and TVs for everyone too?
> 
> I still hate the notion of taxpayer dollars going to set-top converters for anyone.
> 
> ...


I am just curious, can you name me one person in the US, excluding mentally ill, physically ill, murder victims and Terry Schaivo who has starved to death in the last six months in the US? Please cite the news article when you find one.

Did you also note that the Government is creating a new ATSC tuner box that never existed in the commercial world and that no one in their right mind would buy except for this voucher program, kinda reminds you of other Government welfare programs, doesn't it?


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

leww37334 said:


> I am just curious, can you name me one person in the US, excluding mentally ill, physically ill, murder victims and Terry Schaivo who has starved to death in the last six months in the US? Please cite the news article when you find one.


Well, I don't know anyone personally that has starved to death... but that isn't what I said either. I said "starving". We know there are starving people in the US. Are they starving to death? I don't know... but I know there are folks who are not getting enough to eat.

I also don't know any mentally ill or murder victims personally but I k now they exist.

As for newspaper articles or Web sites... Somehow I doubt that a homeless person starving to death would make big headlines. That is the kind of thing we would probably try to hide in this country.



leww37334 said:


> Did you also note that the Government is creating a new ATSC tuner box that never existed in the commercial world and that no one in their right mind would buy except for this voucher program, kinda reminds you of other Government welfare programs, doesn't it?


I didn't know that. But I do think it is a collossal waste of money to be providing set-top boxes with taxpayer money, when there are so many other better uses for that money. There is just no logical reason to provide such a thing for free.

Now, if broadcasters (private businesses) want to provide set-top boxes to rural customers so they don't lose the viewers... that would make sense... but the government does not need to be handing out vouchers.

Think about it like this... there will be homeless people in New Orleans, still suffering from Katrina, who wil get a voucher for a set-top box to hookup to their nonexistant TV for their nonexistant house when they get home from their nonexistant job and eat their nonexistant dinner. Priorities are whacked sometimes in this country.


----------



## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

The idea, originally, was that the government would not be held responsible for cutting off millions of people's only video link to the world, by making their analog TV obsolete.

The final cut made it the government's responsibility to provide as many converters as possible, to prevent anyone's analog TVs from becoming obsolete. Probably, no one in Government could come up with a fair definition of "qualifying household"......should it be based on income, wealth, age, physical or mental ability, already being on some assistance program, whatever?

The boxes are still designed to only keep an existing analog set/monitor/recorder working past 2-17-09. No HDTV output or surround sound. Not many frills....although the S-VHS output will be nice for people who want to make it a "second tuner" for P-I-P on their new big screen HD sets. One prototype does include timer and IR blaster functions, so the old trusty VCR or analog TIVO will still work (the boxes can't have an integrated PVR, though).

Here's the link:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/

The alternative to all this might be, give everyone on the Gulf Coast a laptop, and hope there's enough Wi-Fi bandwidth in the SuperDome to accomodate all of next season's hurricane refugees.


----------



## leww37334 (Sep 19, 2005)

If the idea is to provide public service alerts to people who don't have cable or satellite, then a weather radio fits the bill nicely. 

HDMe, do you really believe the press would "cover it up", if a homeless person starved to death? This would be front page news, especially if it could be blamed on Bush.


----------



## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

The government will reap billions from this switchover. The distribution of $40 coupons will not come near the billions the government will get from the auctioning off of the freed spectrum. The initial estimate was 3 billion, but many analyst predict it will be much, much higher.

This link tells about a spectrum auction last year that brought in over 13 Billion.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060919-7781.html


----------



## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

This link is to the Digital to Analogue converter box specifications being provided to manufacturers.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/DTVmanufacturers.pdf


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

leww37334 said:


> HDMe, do you really believe the press would "cover it up", if a homeless person starved to death? This would be front page news, especially if it could be blamed on Bush.


I don't believe the press/media would cover it up... but I don't believe they would actively chase the story either. Who is going to report this to the media? If a dead homeless person is found, he will be picked up and taken care of by the rescue/police infrastructure... and unless there is reason to suspect foul play, there is no reason for them to make a big announcement about it.

Unless a famous person starves to death (and what are the odds of that happening) most folks really won't care enough to make a big deal out of it such that it makes national news.

I'm pretty sure it would not be a headline story.


----------



## robert koerner (Aug 20, 2005)

Maybe you should be looking at how many Americans die because they cannot afford medical treatment.

Bob
Aid to the USA before Foreign Aid.


----------



## Supervolcano (Jan 23, 2007)

lwilli201 said:


> You can bet some one will come up with a cheap crappy box that will give everyone a real head ache.


You mean like PACE?
!rolling


----------



## eahmjh (Dec 2, 2006)

robert koerner said:


> Maybe you should be looking at how many Americans die because they cannot afford medical treatment.
> 
> Bob
> Aid to the USA before Foreign Aid.


Remember that 80% or greater households have some sort of digital to analog TV converter. You ask who has these. Every cable or satellite box is a digital to analog converter box. Most of us that have the H20, HR20 are a digital receiver that outputs digital or analog (s-video or composite) signals. Our RCA DRD440E is an old D box that is has only analog output to our 20 years old RCA 27" console TV in the guest room. Fortunatly the other TVs are HDTV with one hooked to an H20 and the other to a HR20


----------



## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

HDMe said:


> I don't believe the press/media would cover it up... but I don't believe they would actively chase the story either. Who is going to report this to the media? If a dead homeless person is found, he will be picked up and taken care of by the rescue/police infrastructure... and unless there is reason to suspect foul play, there is no reason for them to make a big announcement about it.
> 
> Unless a famous person starves to death (and what are the odds of that happening) most folks really won't care enough to make a big deal out of it such that it makes national news.
> 
> I'm pretty sure it would not be a headline story.


Larry King went on about Anna Nicole dying for two weeks. Was it important? No but its money for them. When analog goes off you'll won't hear nada of the digital switch, if it goes down.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Paul Secic said:


> Larry King went on about Anna Nicole dying for two weeks. Was it important? No but its money for them.


Yep, exactly my point... if she had been a homeless person instead of "famous", then it wouldn't have made a big splash.

Not saying she isn't/wasn't important as a person... but we sweep alot of stuff under the carpet.


----------



## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

kenglish said:


> The idea, originally, was that the government would not be held responsible for cutting off millions of people's only video link to the world, by making their analog TV obsolete.
> 
> The final cut made it the government's responsibility to provide as many converters as possible, to prevent anyone's analog TVs from becoming obsolete. Probably, no one in Government could come up with a fair definition of "qualifying household"......should it be based on income, wealth, age, physical or mental ability, already being on some assistance program, whatever?
> 
> ...


Do you mean there arn't any conveters? No wonder there wasnn't a transition last year. There really would have been rioting in the streets!


----------



## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

there are "converyters: now.


----------



## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

robert koerner said:


> Maybe you should be looking at how many Americans die because they cannot afford medical treatment.
> 
> Bob
> Aid to the USA before Foreign Aid.


There is no question that people dying is more important than this issue. But that does not mean that this cannot be discussed at all and given that this is a TVf orum it seems that a discussion about this topic is more relevant than one about medical ccae.


----------

