the sky is falling

Well here in Dayton ohio all of our local stations are going ahead with the switch to digital tv on the 17th. Stores are all out of converter boxes, and people are cussin and a snortin. On a call in show the other day a guy acutally called in and said his box would not work. He asked the expert if it needed some type of antenna on it and if he had to pay for the guide. He thought you put it on your tv and it would just work. Not only that but they ran a test on the analog channel that showed a sign saying "if you see this call this number because you tv is not ready for the switch" The stations expected 200 or 300 calls they got 11,000. Im a far cry from any expert but its not that hard to grasp is it?

I would not think so, but there are a lot of people who just don't understand technology. My girlfriend's parents just bought their 1st computer. It has been a bit comedic to me and to her that they have no clue as to how to use it. But, He is 72 and his wife is Polish and speaks in broken English. They will learn as they go, but some people just need things set up for them and do not want to bother with learning how themselves.

That is so typical of people.
How long have they been talking about this?
It has to be at least 18 month to two years.
How much time does it take to get the message across to people?
I guess a lot of people didn't think they would really do it.

I'm ready for the switch just so I can quit seeing the ads.

Last summer, while I was still on a walker, our company secretary set out to get her TV's ready for the switch. She doesn't have cable or satellite and doesn't want either. She is college-educated and manages the books for an engineering office, so the baseline intelligence involved was not be a problem. There was a bit of an inherent "change is bad" mindset that was worrisome, but that's not in and of itself disastrous. It was quite an adventure explaining what she needed to do to be able to set one of those boxes up so she could still record TV shows during the day, and since I was lame at the time I had to do it all through conversations at the office and a few sketches. It was messy, and it didn't help matters that the converter box was (to put it bluntly) a cheesy, feature-deprived mess with no documentation to speak of. Don't get me started on what happened when she decided to get a new DVD/VCR with digital tuner and an HDTV - that involved talking to a sales drone, which in turn involved me reading through manuals to verify all of the inaccurate statements that were made.
This comment immediately made me flash back to a moment from at least 15 years ago, when I was still a summer intern here at the office. One of our electrical CAD guys was asked by the boss to show him and the senior electrical engineer AutoCAD, just so they were familiar with it. The senior EE had at that point never used a mouse, and he would coax it into position very slowly with a fingertip grip, let go of the mouse entirely, and then push down on the left button with his index finger. Each time, the mouse would of course move. He got better eventually, and even had a computer in his office (for email, not CAD) for a couple years before he retired, but that mental picture still lingers...

Well the pressure was to great for my local stations. On the 16th they annouced they wouldnt switch to digital until June 12th. They came up with a fiqure of 40,000 people that still were'nt ready in the area. It showed some people crying hard as they thanked the stations for waiting. The thing is the people they showed proably wont be ready on the 12th either. I think they need the converter box to be free to get one, with or without new coupons. Many in the crowd want them to wait at least another year. I dont know why the boxes are so expensive. They are all made in China and proably really cost about $8 bucks. Thier all cheaply made, have relative slow and poor performance and they break down quickly in some cases. I have two in the kitchen and bedroom and they both have quirks. My magnovox gets really hot and doesnt respond to my remote well, the zenith switches channels by itself or you punch in channel 7 and it goes to 2. You would think one of these boxes would be good but they are really cheap crap bandaids untill we have new sets in every room.

I couldn't agree more. They have been talking about this for at least 5 years. They are so expensive because the Gov't is subsidizing them by issuing $40 discount cards. Otherwise maybe they'd only be $24.95 This way, you still have to pay about $20 on top of the discount card. By the way, it's touted as a rebate when in fact you need to apply for the card and receive it before you go to buy it as it is used like a debit card at the time of purchase.

If they delay till June the same issues will exist. Unless it's free, installed for them, and they get some sort of "Inconvience fee", say $50 gift card for their trouble, then they just won't do it.

Just my opinion

I saw a sad commercial yesterday. It showed a lonely old women in a chair watching snow on her tv. Tears rolling down her face as she states she has lost her channels. A booming voice says "didnt make the digital switch?" "dont wait another minute watching a blank screen get our new tv service!" It shows her again laughing and smiling as a whole new world of viewing has opened up to her. Her family is there and the are happy too. The old woman is watching what ever she wants, in the backgrond you see her adult son smashing a tv antenna into a million pieces and her two grandsons are swilling a large bottle of whiskey. Later they all go skinny dippin in the cement pond. (LOL)

I saw a similar PSA, but it wasn't so sad, more of a tutorial. Showed a lonely old woman installing a digital converter box all by herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w34nNux4Xw