Since most households can no longer get the $40 coupons, time to assess what happened. Manufacturers were slow to make the DTV granny boxes, and most were flawed. Overheating shortens their lifetime, chirps were in the audio, lipsync sometimes failed, buggy timers miss timepoints, multipath haunts some boxes, the EPG fails to deliver the promise of PSIP, buttons are too small for Granny, APT finally arrived, smart antennas didn’t arrive, some Grannys will need antenna upgrades, menus were strange, and box crashes happened. Magazine reviews of granny boxes were shallow at best. Consumer Advocates said little on Granny Boxes. On the web, avsforum had lots of noisy chatter, but contained some fabulous pearls of wisdom well worth the digging. The Feds with beancounting mentality made the coupons die quickly, a mere 90 days. Households that got coupons when first available found nothing worth purchasing, and 5 million coupons expired as waste. The Feds flip flop on APT hurt manufacturers as well as the LP stations. The States of confusion have cash refunds for taxes on the coupons. See:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14072944#post14072944
When retailers were originally shipped product, they seemed caught unawares. Of course they didn’t know of flaws in their product, but they still don’t know about the flaws in the products sold by their competitors, either. Newspapers did barely more on granny boxes than quote press releases, and showed listings for cable TV, but not DTV. Nobody mentions that viewers are losing over 35 TV channels of prime radio spectrum. See:
http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0157/t.12136.html
Just a week ago, I told someone who didn’t know it that DTV has been transmitted for years now. Viewers have lots to learn, and with no one to help, they will learn the hard way. Broadcasters successfully informed the public that the transition was coming, but their sound bytes didn’t include the phrase “while supplies last”. One crawl ended with “… for more information, contact your electronic retailer.”
Well, at least retailers are not as clueless as most libraries. Here in Silicon Valley, programs on DTV were presented by the Alameda County Library, a shining light in the darkness. At a December library staff meeting, I said that the coupons would be available in January, and we should have a program about the DTV converters. Hopefully, this wasn’t confused with my previous requests for a program on DTV. Those had been rejected year after year after year because it wouldn’t fit in the budget. This year, well, it didn’t fit in the budget, and a program on converters didn’t either, so I suggested cheaper approaches. How about a display in the small display case? Maybe later, it’s booked up for months. Well, then I suggested the following message on the widescreen for our passerbys:
The Digital TV transition happens February 17, 2009.
Old TV’s may need a TV Converter Box. Every
household is entitled for up to 2 coupons for a Box
while supplies last, probably through July 2008.
From your household, call 1-888-DTV-2009
to request your $40 coupons, good at local stores.
The answer was no, the widescreen is mostly for library events. I wonder if the librarians could have answered in a timely manner the series of questions that my suggested message would have generated anyway. Librarians are great at patting themselves on the back with talk of nobly educating the public and being 2.0 aware. But I guess “reaching across the digital divide” means turning kids into gamers, as it didn’t include helping Granny get her box, make it work, or learn how to use it, much less explain UHF reception problems. Firedog at Circuit City will do that for over $79 after coupon. So, why did most libraries here fail Granny so badly? Programs here are divided into 3 types: Adult, Children, and Teens. Bulletin Boards show the plethora of upcoming programs for each. If Granny sat in the chair in the Large Print Room, then on the other side of the Large Print Stack in front of Granny (not “a” Large Print Stack), the wall is empty. No bulletin board, no posting of events for Granny put on by the Geriatric Librarian. The kids check out piles of books, and we ask for library funding based on the high circulation figures. Maybe Granny just doesn’t check out enough library books to be worth noticing. Besides, programs for kids are an investment in the library’s future. Granny will just be dead soon. My post on purchasing is here:
https://thedonofpages.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/digital-tv-granny-box-purchasing/
I’ll work on the November Election with some of the many Grannies that will work a 15 hour day at the Polls to make it possible for the community to vote. After that, I’ll evaluate the Granny boxes yet again, so I can make another purchase then. I’ll try to ignore the DTV test coming up in Wilmington. See:
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/07/17/daily.5/