Comments on: Obama Urges Delay In Digital TV Transition

President-elect Says Too Many Americans With Analog TV Sets Won't Be Ready For Feb. Switch

[roscoe2400-2009]

There are a couple of you on here who blame Obama for this mess. You''''ll grab at anything if you think it will make Obama look bad. He didn''''t have a *** thing to do with this. The fact is that he is smart enough to see that it isn''''t working and is asking for more time to work the kinks out. If he had been for leaving it the way it is you''''d be ranting the he was wrong. Give it a rest!


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Posted by Element51 at 05:50 PM : Jan 08, 2009


Mr. Pres. Elect Obama should stay the **** out of it!

There''s only one President at a time! He should simply do exactly what he has done with every other "important" issue that the public has been beggging him to become involved with!

What a friggin'' moron!


When it''s important--- like hundreds of people dying and thousands being wounded and the entire Gaza strip being bombed into oblivion----- Oh no, I can''t say anything---- there''s only one President at a time!

I can see it now---- if t''s a hot potato ---- can''t touch--- here you take it!!

What a buffoon!

[Stratmaster7]

Posted by roscoe2400 at 07:24 PM

ummm... he was a Senator, and now is President elect. So suddenly he doesn''t have the right to express his position on an issue?

[roscoe2400-2009]

Why the H*ll is he getting involved in this???? Has he forgotten that there is only one President at a time?? What does he think he''s doing??? Going to try to override the authority of the current adninistration???

How dare he??? Isn''t there something more important for him to do??

What a buffoon!!!

I can see it now--- if it''s a hot topic--- ain''t goin'' near it!

[Stratmaster7]

What I can''t believe is that anyone who already has digital would give a *** if the dtae for mandated conversion is delayed. Are you ust looking for anythig to complain about? Give them another 6 months. I haven''t heard of anyone needing airwaves for any critical use and not being able to get access.

[debinok1]

Obama should push for al-a-carte programming so we all can finally pay for only the channels we want to see. I would only have four or five channels.

Posted by u-r-right
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They should leave well enough alone. Analog works. Digital is still new and still has problems. This should not be a forced change until it works as well as what we already have.

[u-r-right]

Obama should push for al-a-carte programming so we all can finally pay for only the channels we want to see. I would only have four or five channels.

[debinok1]

I''''m sure if even the poor would have been saving since last year and had a coupon they could afford it.
Posted by ampsanne
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Do you understand the concept of "poor"? Have you ever had to "save" to buy a gallon of milk? Have you or your children ever went to bed hungry because there was no food in the house? There are true poverty cases in this country. Some of these homes still have TVs that have no remote. Some of these homes do not even have a phone. Do you get that?

[debinok1]

How does someone graduate from COLLEGE saying things like "I have went to college" ????


LMAO too funny

Posted by scottyusa
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I attended college, my family says "you went to college and are high falutin" sorry if I was not as descriptive as you would like.

[janefondu]

I applied for my coupons was approved for 2. I hadnt received them in over 90 days. I asked where they were. The gov says they sent them through regular mail I should have received them and since it was over 90 days they were now no good and saw that they werent used. I asked send me 2 more I since I hadnt received them. They said NO we sent you 2. I said you send them by regular mail. I didnt get them, you see they werent used. They said sorry thats the rules. I think the government is full of *** and not sending these things out. What the heck put a dang coupon in the paper for all of americans for these things. Use it as part of the Porn Industries TARP bailout!!! This DTV coupon program is being run by Mr. Brown the former FEMA director I think. Its a sham!!!

[scottyusa]

Nope, nothing I didn''''t already know. I have family that refuses to take my help because I have went to college and am now considered "high falutin", I know very well how much they are ignored and pushed to the back burner.

Posted by DebinOK1 at 05:19 PM : Jan 08, 2009

How does someone graduate from COLLEGE saying things like "I have went to college" ????


LMAO too funny

[scottyusa]

Delay it? Why? It has been advertised for over a year now. "Obama officials are also concerned that the government is not doing enough to help consumers prepare for and navigate the transition" Huh? Thisn''t that difficult to understand. 3 choices: get a new digital TV, get cable or satallite or go out and buy a converter box. I think at least 99% of americans get it. The people that procrastinated until the last minute should be out of luck if they are too cheap to go out and get the converter.

[libra217]

Nope, nothing I didn''t already know. I have family that refuses to take my help because I have went to college and am now considered "high falutin", I know very well how much they are ignored and pushed to the back burner.

Posted by DebinOK1 at 05:19 PM : Jan 08, 2009

How does someone graduate from COLLEGE saying things like "I have went to college" ????

[tmittelstaed]

Fry''s Electronics has had at least 1 sale on converter boxes for $40 per box - meaning the box was FREE if you got the coupon. Expensive digital TV antennas are a scam - there are plans on the Internet for making a digital TV antenna out of aluminum foil taped to cardboard - and the antenna has better gain than the expensive "powered" antennas. The new digital channels broadcast on the same UHF bands that analog TV''s broadcast on now so any existing UHF antenna you have will work fine.
It is true most stores didn''t start selling the converter boxes until the last quarter of 2008 but they are retailers, what do you expect? You can call the store in advance to see if the converters are in stock.
Some converter boxes sell for more than $49 but these are ones with remote controls and other enhancements.
And within a year from now Goodwill is going to be full of converter boxes and old TV''s so it is not like these are going to be unavailable.

[tx_doughboy]

"I really don''''t get it. This transition to digital was announced YEARS and YEARS ago. Anyone who watches a TV has known about it.

So how many more years will it take for all the poor rabbit-eared TV watching schmucks to save up enough coin for the stupid little converter box?"

It had also been known for years that a strong category 4 storm would flood New Orleans, but that didn''t mean anything to the people that stayed.

My point is that people that haven''t taken action to prepare for Digital TV by now are not going to until they have to. For years and years this bit of progress has been delayed because of these kinds of concerns, but at the end of the day this change needs to be made. The frequencies that are being used for analog TV could be used to provide broadband internet access to the same people. It is my understanding that those frequencies have already been sold by the government. Delaying this change does nothing to change the behavior of those that refuse to take action and is completely unfair to rest of the population that has taken care of business.

[ampsanne]

The TV stations have been warning the people since last year when this ruling would go into effect. Plus you could get coupons for a discount off the converter boxes. We bought two of them at Radio Shack for $23 a piece with the coupons. Although we do have cable, not all the TV''s we have are on a cable system. I''m sure if even the poor would have been saving since last year and had a coupon they could afford it.

[leeanna58]

If they do not get their coupon in time, we recommend that they either buy a converter box without a coupon, buy another television, or connect to cable, satellite or another pay television service," says Meredith Atwell Baker, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Quote from above.

It is difficult to believe that anyone who watches TV didn''t have time to know about the converter boxes. However, there are a lot of elderly on fixed income who would not be in contact with what is going on without their TV set. Personally, I recommend that Meredith Atwell Baker try living on a social security stipend for 3 to 4 years to find out what many elderly deal with on an every day basis. She might take some of her National Telecommunications and Information Administration salary and purchase converter boxes for the residents of at least one senior citizen complex.

[ausus-2009]

Nobody has mentioned the cost to small non-profit community TV stations. In an overseas country which is about two years behind the US in changeover, one community station has already shut down because it can''t afford the cost of changeover and another is advertising extensively (on its own station) against the change.

[shanev137]

I really don''t get it. This transition to digital was announced YEARS and YEARS ago. Anyone who watches a TV has known about it.

So how many more years will it take for all the poor rabbit-eared TV watching schmucks to save up enough coin for the stupid little converter box?

[treknutz]

The percentage of those who do not have cable or satellite service is by scale so small the local TV stations should furnish them for free to the poor who cannot afford them. With all the revenue dollars from Wal-Mart advertisement alone they can more than afford it!

This is a no brainer folks.

[whitecat151]

Seems to me that this issue has been advertised all over the place, has had news stories about it, notices in the newspapers and on and on... for at least a year.

I do understand that there are people who have been watching the same television for the last fifteen or twenty years, and cannot afford a new one, or get cable, or buy a converter.

However, I''d be willing to bet that a large majority of the folks who will end up being "inconvenienced" are the ones who don''t leave town during a mandatory evacuation, go fishing on a lake during a thunderstorm, or are just plain too lazy to solve their own problems... and now expect the government to help them out.