The bill still needs to be approved by the U.S. Congress before it is signed into law by President Obama. Both the President and Congress have indicated their willingness to see the law passed. The original deadline for the transition to digital television was February 17th.

“Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., author of the bill to push back the deadline. “I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time.”

It is presumed (details on the bill are not public yet) that the bill also allocates an additional $25 million in funding to The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is the government agency responsible for dispersing $40 discount coupons for set top CECB converter boxes. The converter boxes allow those with analog television sets to decode the DTV or HDTV signals for viewing, albeit with degraded picture and sound quality. To get on the waiting list for coupons, U.S. residents may call 1-888-DTV-2009 or visit the TV Converter Box Coupon Program at http://www.dtv2009.gov.

Up until today, the looming DTV transition deadline in February and the current shortage of coupons sent by the government had created a miniature black market for the items. Ads on Craigslist.Org and auctions on eBay had been demanding higher and higher prices. This should put a quick end to most of these ads, which were being quickly deleted by each of the two websites. It is currently against federal law for anyone to sell DTV converter coupons.

Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission received a number of complaints about the cable television provider when it decided to switch certain analog channels on its cable system to digital this past month. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau launched an investigation into the matter and ordered Suddenlink to answer a number of questions and provide documentation on the matter via an official Letter of Inquiry (LOI). It gave Suddenlink two weeks to respond.

Rather than comply with the LOI, or even attempt to comply, some bonehead acting on behalf of the company decided to send back a letter questioning the FCC’s authority on the matter and actually accused the Commission of breaking federal law by not complying with the federal “Paperwork Reduction Act”, among other things. They also questioned the FCC’s authority to demand such information within two weeks, which they deemed not enough time. They never suggested exactly how much time they thought would be more appropriate. Three weeks, perhaps?

Anyone who has ever dealt with the Federal Communications Commission is well-aware that anyone falling under their authority (Suddenlink definitely does) who is stupid enough to question their judgment or jurisdiction is just asking for trouble. To put it mildly, the FCC has no sense of humor when it comes to these matters. The fact that someone this incompetent at Suddenlink has been put in a position responsible enough to respond to official inquiries from the U.S. Government simply boggles my mind. I am used to seeing these kinds of responses from dimwitted CEO’s of telecommunications resellers, but to see this coming from a licensed, facilities-based carrier is just plain scary. If the company was publicly-traded, I would advise dumping their stock immediately, as corporate incompetence such as this rarely results in a solid bottom line. As it is, I’m just lucky that I don’t have to suffer through being a Suddenlink customer.

In any event, the results were completely predictable. Suddenlink was issued an NAL, or Notice of Apparent Liability, for $25,000 for its part in thwarting the FCC’s investigation. An NAL is sort of like a speeding ticket. The company has the right to a hearing, but it’s pretty much just a kangaroo court that is run by the same people who ordered the NAL in the first place. You can’t fight city hall. Duh!

This may not be the end of the matter, by a long stretch. If Suddenlink continues to stonewall the FCC, the Commission will simply keep piling-on the fines. In theory, they could actually revoke Suddenlink’s ability to offer its services. I have to believe that there must be someone with an ounce of sanity at the company who will step-in before it comes to that though. Until then, Suddenlink customers will likely look forward to higher cable bills as a result of the NAL. After all, someone has to pay for the $25,000 penalty, and it quite certainly isn’t going to come out of the pockets of Suddenlink executives.

A copy of the NAL in Adobe Acrobat format is attached for your reading pleasure.

http://www.fcc.gov/suddenlink.pdf

“He’s basically a living legend,” said Don Smullin, general manager of Eureka Television Group. Smith was the owner of a media empire that spanned from Bakersfield to Oregon and that included the local Fox, Univision, CW, My Network and CBS stations.

While Smullin said he didn’t yet know who would take over as owner of Eureka’s five stations, he assumed it would be someone in Smith’s family, but added, “I’m not privy to that information.” Until a replacement is named, Smullin said he has no worries for the television group’s future. “A lot of the blessings we have is that Chester left the company in very strong financial shape,” he said. “We have no debt.”

We have been looking for a source of these DTV converter boxes locally for awhile now. The hard part wasn’t so much finding a store that stocked the boxes, but finding a model that included the analog pass-through feature that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Without this feature, we would lose access to about half of the channels that will be available locally after February 2009. This includes all local LPTV (Low Power Television) stations and translators. We’ve written plenty of articles on this feature in the past, so be sure to check our archives for more information.

So, what did we find, and where did we find it? Surprisingly, the store that finally came through for us was Target. The Target store in Eureka, California stocks three different models of DTV converter boxes. The first two are pretty much a waste of money, since they do not have analog pass-through. They always seem to have plenty of these boxes in stock, strangely enough. However, after making repeated trips to the store last week we finally found the model in stock that we wanted. It’s the Venturer STB7766G1.

Obviously, Venturer is not exactly a household name, but we have not seen a great deal of difference in quality between manufacturers when it comes to DTV converter boxes, so we’re not too worried as to the quality. The main thing we are interested in here are the features and the price, which is the lowest we have seen any DTV converter box sell for.

Assuming that you happen to arrive at a time when these boxes are in stock, the sticker price is $49.95. Of course, that’s the price before applying the discount from your $40 government coupon. Once you toss-in the sales tax of 7.25% (that’s what it is here), your final purchase price will be a little over $13. Of course, the state sales tax is calculated on the original sticker price of $49.95.

Be sure to have your government coupon handy with you when you go to the store, and be sure to pay attention to the total price when checking out. As we could have guessed, the Target employee at the check-out counter was totally clueless as to how to apply the coupon, and originally charged us full-price for the unit, even after having scanned the coupon! So, make sure that they actually apply the $40 discount while you are there, unless you plan on making a return trip to get your money back for being overcharged.

Interestingly, while checking out, I was also asked to sign some sort of piece of paper that was spat out along with my receipt. It basically stated (I didn’t get to keep a copy of the document, unfortunately) that I agreed that I had just used-up one of my government coupons, and that I was not going to get the entire purchase price back if I returned the item. I wasn’t really expecting to have to sign anything when paying for an item with cash, but whatever…

The unit is very basic, but does everything that you should need it to do, including allowing you to watch channels that continue to broadcast in analog after February 2009. I’ll have a full product review for you later this week. For the moment though, we suggest that you snatch one up with one of your government coupons while you can. At $49.95, you aren’t going to find a cheaper model anywhere else, and most certainly not one that includes analog pass-through. We’ll have more detailed information on it later this week. Stay tuned!

The below list was compiled from the U.S. Department of Commerce (NTIA), and is current as of January 2008. We’ve added an *asterisk in front of stations licensed in Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte and Southern Mendocino Counties in Northern California. Keep in mind, these stations all transmit using very little power, so picking up any of them is rather tricky. As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive list of translators available for the area, and the only one that lists network affiliations and the names of the stations that operate invividual translators.

One fact that I find particularly interesting is that we have more LPTV stations and translators in rural Northern California than you will find in any major metropolitan area, such as Los Angeles or San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco seems to only have a single LPTV broadcaster. Also, the localities given do not always seem to reflect the actual location of the translators in all cases. Broadcasters are not required to disclose the “exact” location of their transmitting facilities, which can make it extremely difficult to determine which direction to point you antenna in for the best reception. This is especially true at UHF frequencies (channels 14 and up), where you likely won’t see any signal at all if you don’t aim an antenna in precisely the right direction.

Another interesting factoid is the large number of low-power television stations that have been licensed in the Eureka area. Despite having been granted construction permits, none of the channels currently assigned to “MS Communications” have ever broadcast a signal, to the best of our knowledge. Apparently, MS Communications holds the licenses for literally hundreds of LPTV stations across the country, none of which seem to be operational. It is doubtful that there will ever be any television programming on these stations.

We’ve added comments where appropriate, including network affiliations.

Community Served Station Call Letters Channel ALTADENA KTAV-LP 69 ALTURAS K20DE 20 ALTURAS, ETC. K47EH 47 ALTURAS, ETC. K60AR 60 ANDERSON/CENTRL VAL. K38FQ 38 ARROYO GRANDE KSSY-LP 20 ATASCADERO KASC-CA 7 BAKERSFIELD KTFB-CA 4 BAKERSFIELD K08MM 8 BAKERSFIELD KKEY-LP 11 BAKERSFIELD K18HD 18 BAKERSFIELD K21FP 21 BAKERSFIELD K24GS 24 BAKERSFIELD KBTF-CA 31 BAKERSFIELD KVPT-LP 34 BAKERSFIELD KBFK-LP 36 BAKERSFIELD KNXT-LP 38 BAKERSFIELD KZKC-LP 42 BAKERSFIELD K46II 46 BAKERSFIELD KEBK-LP 47 BAKERSFIELD KABE-LP 52 BAKERSFIELD KBFX-CA 58 BARSTOW KCIO-LP 6 BARSTOW K16GE 16 BARSTOW K28IE 28 * BENBOW, ETC. K12JJ 12 (KAEF Translator) BIEBER, ETC. K06GS 6 BIG BEAR LAKE K06MU 6 BIG BEAR LAKE KPCD-LP 40 BIG BEND, ETC. K04EZ 4 * BLUE LAKE K36BT 36 (KAEF Translator) BLYTHE K24FA 24 BLYTHE K26FS 26 BLYTHE K29EC 29 BLYTHE K31FE 31 BLYTHE K33FD 33 BOONVILLE, ETC. K57CT 57 BOONVILLE, ETC. K59CH 59 BOONVILLE, ETC. K61CH 61 BOONVILLE, ETC. K63CE 63 BOONVILLE, ETC. K67CC 67 BOONVILLE, ETC. K69CU 69 BRIDGEPORT, ETC. K02JX 2 BRIDGEPORT, ETC. K07QM 7 BRIDGEPORT, ETC. K11HS 11 BRIDGEPORT, ETC. K13EX 13 BURNEY, ETC. K05DQ 5 * BURNT RANCH, ETC. K12JL 12 (KIEM Translator) CALEXICO K36FO 36 CATHEDRAL CITY KDPX-LP 45 CATHEDRAL CITY-PALM KPSP-LP 58 CEDARVILLE K71AF 71 CHALFANT VALLEY, ETC K64CY 64 CHALFANT VALLEY,ETC. K55FD 55 CHALFANT VALLEY,ETC. K61EJ 61 CHICO K02OA 2 CHICO KEFM-LP 6 CHICO KXVU-LP 17 CHICO K19FY 19 CHICO KZVU-LP 22 CHICO KUCO-LP 27 CHICO KKPM-CA 28 CHICO KKTF-LP 35 CHICO KBIT-LD 51 CHICO KSGO-LP 59 CHINA LAKE, ETC. K14AT 14 CLARKS CROSSING KDAS-LP 48 * CRESCENT CITY K09VQ 9 (KEET Translator) * CRESCENT CITY, ETC. K22DS 22 (KOBI Translator) * CRESCENT CITY, ETC. K39EO 39 (Daystar Television Network) CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K15DP 15 CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K17DF 17 CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K19DI 19 CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K25EB 25 CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K27DV 27 CROWLEY LAKE-LONG VA K58BN 58 DAGGETT K15BZ 15 DAGGETT K19BS 19 DAGGETT K41CY 41 DAGGETT K48IP 48 DAGGETT K50HV 50 DAGGETT, ETC. KTSK-LP 17 DAGGETT, ETC. K23BP 23 DAGGETT, ETC. K35BQ 35 DAGGETT, ETC. K39DW 39 DAGGETT, ETC. K46HT 46 DUNSMUIR, ETC. K02CN 2 DUNSMUIR, ETC. K05BR 5 EAGLEVILLE K13IU 13 EAST WEED K33DI 33 EL CENTRO-HOLTVILLE K56GC 56 ETNA-FORT JONES K02HC 2 * EUREKA KUVU-LP 9 (CW Network) * EUREKA ** K27FX 27 * EUREKA KEUV-LP 31 (Univision) * EUREKA KEMY-LP 33 (MyNetwork) * EUREKA ** K41FD 41 * EUREKA ** K48GP 48 * EUREKA ** K50EQ 50 * EUREKA ** K52FK 52 * EUREKA ** K57HB 57 * EUREKA ** K59FW 59 * EUREKA ** K63GK 63 * EUREKA **** K67GU 67 (KKTF-LP Translator) * EUREKA ** K69IE 69 FALL RIVER MILLS,ETC K11JM 11 FALL RIVER MILLS-MCA K28DB 28 FORT BIDWELL K04GB 4 FORT DICK K36HM 36 FORT JONES, ETC. K04EQ 4 FORT JONES, ETC. K06KA 6 FORT JONES, ETC. K13HU 13 * FORTUNA K14MN 14 (KBVU/KTVU Translator) * FORTUNA/RIO DELL K20CN 20 (KAEF Translator) * FRESHWATER, ETC. K45DS 45 (KAEF Translator) FRESNO K03HK 3 FRESNO KVHF-LP 4 FRESNO K12OZ 12 FRESNO K15ET 15 FRESNO KHSC-LP 16 FRESNO KZMM-CA 22 FRESNO KJKZ-LP 27 FRESNO KBID-LP 31 FRESNO KJEO-LP 32 FRESNO KSDI-LP 33 FRESNO KMSG-LP 39 FRESNO KTFF-LP 41 FRESNO K56DZ 56 * GARBERVILLE K10HX 10 (KVIQ Translator) * GARBERVILLE, ETC. K04NX 4 (KIEM Translator) GONZALES KOTR-LP 2 GRASS VALLEY K16CX 16 * GREEN POINT, ETC. K05EQ 5 (KRCR Translator) HAPPY CAMP K07IX 7 HAPPY CAMP, ETC. K09PI 9 HAPPY CAMP, ETC. K11GO 11 HAPPY CAMP, ETC. K13GL 13 * HAYFORK K05CR 5 (KIXE Translator) * HOOPA K07GJ 7 (KIEM Translator) * HOOPA K11NE 11 (KVIQ Translator) HOPLAND K06FA 6 HOPLAND K10FZ 10 HOPLAND K11TD 11 HOPLAND K13ID 13 HOPLAND K35DO 35 INDIO KVER-CA 4 INDIO KEVC-CA 5 INDIO K06MB 6 INDIO KVPS-LP 8 INDIO KUNA-LP 15 INDIO K19DH 19 INDIO K25GW 25 INDIO/PALM SPRINGS KDFX-CA 33 INLAND EMPIRE KHTV-LP 48 INYOKERN K19CL 19 INYOKERN, ETC. K47AE 47 JOSHUA TREE K25GK 25 JOSHUA TREE, ETC. K14JT 14 * KLAMATH K25CI 25 (KAEF Translator) LA JOLLA K35DG 35 LA JOLLA K59AL 59 LA JOLLA K67AM 67 LAKE CITY, ETC. K06FF 6 LAKE SHASTINA K27BH 27 LAKEHEAD K02FF 2 LAKEHEAD K14HX 14 LAKEPORT K15FJ 15 LAKEPORT K26GK 26 LAKEPORT K33CH 33 LAKEPORT K46DR 46 LAKEPORT K54CY 54 LAKEPORT K56AW 56 LAKEPORT K58AW 58 LAKEPORT K64AZ 64 LAKEPORT K68AL 68 LAKEPORT, ETC. K52AJ 52 LAKESHORE, ETC. K04FL 4 LANCASTER K26GN 26 LANCASTER KEDD-LP 50 * LEWISTON K06EX 6 (KHSL Translator) * LEWISTON K28CY 28 (KIXE Translator) * LEWISTON, ETC. K03CT 3 (KRCR Translator) LIKELY K05ET 5 LIKELY K11LD 11 LITCHFIELD K13RZ 13 LITCHFIELD K46HL 46 LITCHFIELD K48DI 48 LITCHFIELD K50HJ 50 LOMPOC K10OG 10 LOMPOC KLDF-CA 17 LOMPOC K23CL 23 LONG VALLEY K05FR 5 LONG VALLEY K49EA 49 LONG VALLEY K56BS 56 LONG VALLEY REGION K60BR 60 LOS ANGELES KVTU-LP 3 LOS ANGELES KNET-LP 25 LOS ANGELES KSMV-LP 33 LOS ANGELES KNLA-LP 68 LUCERNE VALLEY K15CA 15 LUCERNE VALLEY K19BT 19 LUCERNE VALLEY K33DK 33 LUCERNE VALLEY K41CB 41 LUCERNE VALLEY K43EE 43 LUCERNE VALLEY K48AD 48 LUCERNE VALLEY K50EW 50 LUCERNE VALLEY K54AD 54 MAMMOTH LAKES, ETC. KSRW-LP 33 MARIPOSA K27GZ 27 MARTINEZ K49HV 49 MINERAL K05JK 5 * MIRANDA K08LD 8 (KVIQ Translator) * MIRANDA K10NU 10 (KIEM Translator) MODESTO KAZV-LP 14 MODESTO KEXT-CA 27 MODESTO K49EO 49 MODESTO KACA-LP 61 MONTEREY KMUV-LP 23 MONTEREY KYMB-LP 27 MONTEREY KMCE-LP 43 MONTEREY, ETC. K29AB 29 MORENO VALLEY KRMV-LP 45 MORONGO VALLEY KHIR-LP 3 MORONGO VALLEY K13WJ 13 MORONGO VALLEY K14AB 14 MORONGO VALLEY K16AA 16 MORONGO VALLEY KJHP-LP 18 MORONGO VALLEY K21GI 21 MORONGO VALLEY K30GU 30 MORONGO VALLEY K32EM 32 MORONGO VALLEY K34EU 34 MORONGO VALLEY K36GO 36 MORONGO VALLEY K40HX 40 MORONGO VALLEY K48EM 48 MORRO BAY K09UF 9 MORRO BAY K22EE 22 MOUNTAIN GATE, ETC. K03FU 3 NATIONAL CITY K61GH 61 NEEDLES K30BQ 30 NEEDLES, ETC. K17BN 17 NEEDLES, ETC. K31HY 31 NEWBERRY SPRINGS K03EK 3 NEWBERRY SPRINGS K06IQ 6 NEWBERRY SPRINGS K08IA 8 NEWBERRY SPRINGS K10IX 10 NEWBERRY SPRINGS K12JI 12 NEWELL, TULELAKE K13IV 13 * ORLEANS K08HJ 8 (KVIQ Translator) * ORLEANS K11IQ 11 (KIEM Translator) OROVILLE K08NH 8 OROVILLE K15CX 15 OROVILLE K42HL 42 OXNARD KSKP-CA 25 PALERMO K04QC 4 PALM DESERT KDUO-LP 43 PALM DESERT, ETC. K09XW 9 PALM SPRINGS KCWQ-LP 2 PALM SPRINGS KYAV-LP 12 PALM SPRINGS KODG-LP 17 PALM SPRINGS K20HZ 20 PALM SPRINGS KVES-LP 28 PALM SPRINGS K40ID 40 PALM SPRINGS KPSE-LP 50 PALM SPRINGS DK77AV 77 PALM SPRINGS/INDIO K21DO 21 PALMDALE KPAL-LP 38 PALMDALE K67AO 67 PARADISE K05EM 5 PARADISE K49CT 49 PASO ROBLES K17GD 17 PASO ROBLES KPAO-CA 22 PASO ROBLES K23ED 23 PASO ROBLES KJCN-LP 36 PASO ROBLES K44DN 44 PORTERVILLE K15CO 15 PORTERVILLE KVVG-LP 54 POTTER VALLEY K06DK 6 POTTER VALLEY K08EE 8 POTTER VALLEY K10EQ 10 POTTER VALLEY K12DV 12 POTTER VALLEY K66DQ 66 POTTER VALLEY K69DI 69 POWAY, ETC. KUAN-LP 48 REDDING KMCA-LP 2 REDDING KVFR-LP 4 REDDING KRDN-LP 5 REDDING KFMD-LP 6 REDDING KRVU-LP 21 REDDING KGEC-LP 26 REDDING KMSX-LP 29 REDDING K33HH 33 REDDING K40HE 40 REDDING K46HI 46 REDDING KRDT-CA 47 REDDING K50GP 50 REDDING KRHT-LP 58 REDLANDS KLAU-LP 66 REEDLEY KCWB-LP 13 RIDGECREST K41GO 41 RIDGECREST K43AG 43 RIDGECREST K45GQ 45 RIDGECREST, ETC. K02HY 2 RIDGECREST, ETC. K04HX 4 RIDGECREST, ETC. K05FO 5 RIDGECREST, ETC. K07NH 7 RIDGECREST, ETC. K09MG 9 RIDGECREST, ETC. K11ML 11 RIDGECREST, ETC. K13NF 13 RIDGECREST, ETC. K49AA 49 RIDGECREST, ETC. K51DD 51 RIDGECREST, ETC. K53AB 53 RIDGECREST, ETC. K55AB 55 RIDGECREST, ETC. K57AK 57 RIDGECREST, ETC. K59AO 59 * RIO DELL K04NY 4 (KIEM Translator) * RIO DELL, SCOTIA K10FS 10 (KVIQ Translator) RIVERSIDE KZSW-LP 27 SACRAMENTO KBTV-CA 8 SACRAMENTO KMMK-LP 14 SACRAMENTO KMUM-CA 15 SACRAMENTO K22FR 22 SACRAMENTO KEZT-CA 23 SACRAMENTO K27EU 27 SACRAMENTO KSTV-LP 32 SACRAMENTO KCSO-LP 33 SACRAMENTO K45HC 45 SACRAMENTO KRJR-LP 47 SACRAMENTO KSAO-LP 49 SALINAS KMMD-CA 3 SALINAS K15CU 15 SALINAS KLFB-LP 21 SALINAS K38JP 38 SALINAS/MONTEREY,ETC KDJT-CA 33 SAN BERNARDINO KSGA-LP 64 SAN DIEGO KBNT-CA 17 SAN DIEGO KDTF-LP 36 SAN DIEGO KZSD-LP 41 SAN DIEGO KBOP-CA 43 SAN DIEGO KTCD-LP 46 SAN DIEGO K63EN 63 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY KSFV-LP 26 SAN FRANCISCO KMMC-LP 40 SAN FRANCISCO, ETC. KFTL-CA 28 SAN LUIS OBISPO K16FC 16 SAN LUIS OBISPO KMMA-CA 18 SAN LUIS OBISPO KKFX-CA 24 SAN LUIS OBISPO K28FK 28 SAN LUIS OBISPO KSBO-CA 42 SAN LUIS OBISPO KFUL-LP 44 SAN LUIS OBISPO K47GD 47 SAN LUIS OBISPO KCCE-LP 50 SAN LUIS OBISPO KPXA-LP 60 SAN LUIS OBISPO,ETC. K57BC 57 SAN MARCOS KSKT-CA 43 SANTA BARBARA KZDF-LP 8 SANTA BARBARA KSBB-LP 17 SANTA BARBARA KWHY-LP 22 SANTA BARBARA K26FT 26 SANTA BARBARA KVMM-CA 41 SANTA BARBARA KTSB-LP 43 SANTA BARBARA KBAB-LP 51 SANTA BARBARA K59CD 59 SANTA BARBARA, ETC. K28GY 28 SANTA CLARA-SAN JOSE KAXT-CA 22 SANTA MARIA K07TA 7 SANTA MARIA KKDJ-LP 8 SANTA MARIA KQMM-CA 14 SANTA MARIA KLFA-LP 25 SANTA MARIA KDFS-CA 30 SANTA MARIA K35ER 35 SANTA MARIA KWSM-LP 40 SANTA MARIA K46GF 46 SANTA MARIA K51GB 51 SANTA ROSA K25HI 25 SANTA ROSA KDTV-CA 28 SANTA ROSA KTVJ-LP 36 SANTA ROSA KQRM-LP 40 SEIAD VALLEY K04NU 4 SEIAD VALLEY K08EQ 8 SEIAD VALLEY K12JD 12 * SHELTER COVE K02OD 2 (KIEM Translator) * SHELTER COVE K10KY 10 KVIQ Translator) * SHELTER COVE K12OV 12 (KEET Translator) * SOUTH EUREKA/LOLETA K51EG 51 (KAEF Translator) SOUTH LAKE TAHOE K12PP 12 SOUTH LAKE TAHOE K33CN 33 SOUTH YREKA K47DV 47 STATELINE, ETC. K43DB 43 STOCKTON KMMW-LP 47 STOCKTON KDTS-LP 52 SUSANVILLE KREN-LP 29 SUSANVILLE, ETC. K36HH 36 SUSANVILLE, ETC. K42GV 42 SUSANVILLE, ETC. K61EN 61 SUSANVILLE, ETC. K63CM 63 SUSANVILLE, ETC. K69FS 69 SUSANVILLE-HERLONG K59ET 59 SWAUGER CREEK K51CP 51 SWAUGER CREEK K54CX 54 TAHOE CITY K23DT 23 TAHOE CITY K56BW 56 TEMECULA K12PO 12 * TRINITY CENTER K39DG 39 (KIXE Translator) TWENTYNINE PALMS K18FH 18 TWENTYNINE PALMS K38EE 38 TWENTYNINE PALMS, ET K51DU 51 TWENTYNINE PALMS,ETC K16FI 16 TWENTYNINE PALMS,ETC K29GK 29 TWENTYNINE PALMS,ETC K47IB 47 TWENTYNINE PALMS,ETC K49DC 49 UKIAH K17CG 17 UKIAH K21CD 21 UKIAH K27EE 27 UKIAH K29DF 29 UKIAH K31GK 31 UKIAH K39AG 39 UKIAH K41AF 41 UKIAH K43AF 43 UKIAH KTJH-LP 44 UKIAH K45AH 45 UKIAH K47AL 47 UKIAH K51AQ 51 UKIAH K55GX 55 UKIAH K69DF 69 VAN NUYS KWJD-LP 25 VAN NUYS KSKJ-CA 38 VAN NUYS K55KD 55 VENTURA KIMG-LP 23 VENTURA K45DU 45 VICTORVILLE K39GY 39 VICTORVILLE K47CC 47 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K21AC 21 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K25AD 25 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K27AE 27 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K31AD 31 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K51AN 51 VICTORVILLE, ETC. K55CW 55 VISALIA KFAZ-CA 8 VISALIA KMCF-LP 35 VISTA K26FA 26 VISTA KHAX-LP 49 * WEAVERVILLE, ETC. K02EE 2 (KIXE Translator) * WEAVERVILLE, ETC. K04DD 4 (KHSL Translator) * WEAVERVILLE, ETC. K05CF 5 (KRCR Translator) WESTWOOD, ETC. K54EE 54 * WILLOW CREEK K08GR 8 (KIEM Translator) * WILLOW CREEK K10EN 10 (KVIQ Translator) * WILLOW CREEK K34BW 34 (KRCR Translator) YREKA K06GP 6 YREKA K41JB 41 YREKA K53DY 53 YREKA, ETC. K04HE 4 YREKA, ETC. K13LO 13 YREKA, ETC. K17BA 17 YREKA, ETC. K35DE 35 YUCCA VALLEY K27DS 27 Source: Stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, January 23, 2008
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** Also listed, but unable to confirm:

K13MD Channel 13 Hyampom (KIEM Translator?)

k09PM Channel 9 Covelo (KEET Translator?)

K09MS Channel 9 Hoopa (KEET Translator?)

K04EM Channel 4 Hayfork (KRCR Translator?)

K05FZ Channel 5 Trinity Center (KRCR Translator?)

K05EX Channel 5 Burnt Ranch (KRCR Translator?)

*** Construction permit applied for by MS Communications, Inc. No word on what, if anything, will eventually be on these channels. Channels currently vacant.

**** Supposedly belongs to KKTF-LP, a Spanish language broadcaster in Chico, which plans to offer Telefutura. Currently vacant.

Whether you are shopping locally, or online, the story seems to be the same. Even online retailers who have attempted to carry every single converter model manufactured today have a harder time keeping these things in stock than Ticketmaster does holding on to tickets for a Hannah Montana concert.

The few converters that linger on the shelevs of electronics retailers seem to fall into one of two categories. The first category consists of DTV converters that are wildly overpriced compared to the competition. Since there are few differences between a top-of-the-line DTV converter box and a generic, no frills unit, consumers seem hesitatnt to shell out twice as much money for a product that is no better than cheaper units that are constantly out of stock. Can you really blame them?

The second category of DTV converters still available are ones that we will label as “functionally obsolete”. Even though they are priced the same as more capable units, these DTV converters lack the basic functionality needed to continue watching existing television stations in most U.S. markets after February 2009, or even today. In particular, their lack of ability to pass-through analog TV signals makes them only slightly more useful than a paperweight in communities like Humboldt County, where close to half of all stations will continue broadcasting in analog long after February 2009 has passed.

So, why are so many of these “duds” left in stock, while the “functional” models are in short supply? You can bet that it all has to do with money. It costs slightly less to manufacture the cheaper converters with fewer features. Because these units sell for about the same retail price as their superior quality counterparts, retailers make much more money on the cheaper units. Most retailer pre-orders have been for the the low-end units, and the industry has accordingly followed suit, leaving consumers with few decent models to choose from. The small number of consumers actually buying these units today are informed enough to snatch-up the good models while they are stock, leaving the shelves littered with converters that no one would ever purposefully want to buy. This has led to quite a bit of “bait and switch” selling by retailers, who either believe that the public is too stupid to know what features to look for or have sales associates that are too dumb to know themselves just how worthless these products will be to their new owners.

We had hoped to bring you a product review this week on a very decent, low-priced DTV converter box that was advertised at a national chain store this past week. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, they were all gone. Assuming that they will ever be back in stock, we will attempt to do a full product review and provide you with information on where to get the best possible deal on them. Stay tuned!

Much to their credit, the paper made a point to mention the sorry state of affairs when it comes to trying to find DTV converters in local stores, and how retailers seem to never have them in stock for very long. The Eureka Reporter gets double bonus points for going out of their way to point out how important buying a DTV converter with analog pass-through is. For once, someone in the media seems to “get it”, when it comes to understanding what a big problem this is for small communities such as ours. I just wish that more of the mainstream media would start picking-up on this story, and start warning people away from the vast majority of digital converters out there that will result in loss of TV service availability to their users.

For those of you who haven’t read the article yet, we highly recommend that you read last week’s story Don’t Buy These Converter Boxes. It points out what features your box will need to have in order to be able to watch ALL local channels on your TV set after February 2009.

In the next couple of days we will be publishing a first look at DirecTV’s new Video On Demand (VOD) service, which uses your high-speed Internet connection to automatically record your choice of thousands of programs directly to your DVR (digital video recorder). All movies, news clips, documentaries, etc. are available exclusively to DirecTV customers who subscribe to the company’s HDTV service. It’s quite likely an even better advancement in TV viewing than HDTV service itself, and probably the neatest TV innovation since TiVo. Stay tuned!

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All contents of pages on HumboldtOnline.Com are copyright 2008 by Vantek Communications, Inc.

Eureka, CA, United States of America

First of all, filling out the online form is easy. There are a minimal number of questions. You can fill out the entire form online at http://www.DTV209.gov . It takes only a few minutes. You can also call their toll-free number at 1-888-DTV-2009. You will be walked through the application status over the telephone. Either way, the application process asks pretty much the same questions, and you will get your coupons just as fast one way as the other.

There are some “catches” with the application process. Considering the fact that this program is administered by the federal government, the whole system runs fairly smoothly though. The biggest “catch” is the fact that if you want to get the coupons in the first place, YOU HAVE TO APPLY FOR THEM! You won’t get them automatically if you fail to apply. There are only a limited number of coupons that are being produced, although the feds won’t tell us the exact number. Either way, availability is on a first-come, first-served basis. Once they are gone, they’re gone.

The second “catch” can be a bit of a pain for many rural Americans. This is rather ironic, since those in rural areas are the ones most directly affected by over the air signal reception of DTV signals. In a nutshell, you will have to give the government a physical “street” mailing address in order to get your coupons mailed to you. You can NOT use a PO Box as a mailing address. You can NOT use a business address to send your coupons to. You can NOT use a service such as Mailboxes, Etc., The UPS Store or other private mailbox provider. You can NOT have the coupons shipped to you overseas or to any domestic address that does not match-up with a (very buggy) database of residential addresses maintained by the U.S. Postal Service. This is a rather unforgiving process, unfortunately. You will need to enter your street address information EXACTLY as it appears in the USPS database, otherwise your application will be rejected. So, what do you do if you live in a remote area and you do not have a “street address” that is serviced by the U.S. Postal Service? At this point, insofar as we can tell, you are just out of luck. Sorry.

The same goes for any legitimate street address that the USPS has “mucked-up” in their database. From previous experience, I can tell you that this database is horribly inaccurate in many cases. For example, the business address that I have used for 10 years to receive postal mail, UPS shipments, FedEx deliveries, freight deliveries, my income tax and voting materials, driver’s license, etc. does not exist at all in the USPS database. Funny, I still get mail there every single day though. Go figure! In cases like this, you may want to try calling their toll-free phone number at 1-888-DTV-2009 instead, since you will not get anywhere with the online application system.

So, you’ve called or filled-out the DTV converter box application online. Now, what? Sit. Wait. Check your mailbox again, and be prepared to wait a bit longer. A very informal survey we did recently indicated that it took approximately 20-30 days for consumers to receive their DTV converter box coupons in the mail. You will eventually receive a standard sized #10 envelope with a couple of pages of information and (usually) two “coupons”. They don’t look like your average coupon though. They look more like credit cards. There is a mag stripe on the back of each plastic card, as well as a serial number on the front. The mailing will most likely come from TV Converter Box Coupon Program, PO Box 2000, Portland, OR 97208-2000.

The first page (see above) contains your name and address, the coupon(s) and a list of local retailers where you can supposedly buy a CECB digital TV converter box. These locations are most likely automatically generated from a database that matches your zip code to that of nearby registered CECB converter box retailers. It is far from a complete list though. The one we received (see above) listed eight locations in Humboldt County where the digital television converters are available. They consisted of SEARS, Radio Shack, K-Mart and Target. We do not have a Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart or a number of other participating electronics chain stores in our area, or they most likely would have been listed first.

The second page (see left) contains some general information about the DTV converter box program. This page also has a list of the most recently approved CECB DTV converter box models that are eligible for the program, although we are guessing that the list will probably be less than 100% up-to-date by the time you get it. Lastly, the insert contains a list of about a dozen or so mail order and online retailers that will accept the coupons and who presumably have the decoders in stock. If you want to read the entire list, see the end of this article for a link to download a digital copy of the insert, which you can print out for yourself.

Lastly, and most importantly!!! If you take away only a single fact to remember from this entire article, it should definitely be to take a close look at the expiration date on each coupon. At most, you will only have 90 days in order to use your $40 DTV converter coupons before they expire. Once they expire, they are absolutely worthless. The government will not give you an extension or re-issue you new coupons. In other words, use them, or lose them! You have 90 days to use the coupons from the day the coupons are printed, NOT from the day that you receive them. As with most bulk mailers, this agency quite likely only sends out their mailings once per week in order to get a bulk discount from the U.S. Postal Service. So, you may find that up to two weeks has been shaved off the 90 days you have to spend the coupons by the time you actually receive them. The government has caught quite a bit of flack over the entire 90 day expiration date issue, but it’s too late for them to make any changes to the program at this point. So, buyer (and taxpayer) beware!

Below are links to graphic copies of the materials you will receive once you register to receive your free government Digital Television (DTV) converters, or CECB boxes. They have been “Photoshopped” to remove certain parts of the serial numbers. Needless to say, you can’t just print these pages out on your inkjet printer and try to pass them off as real coupons. Each DTV converter box coupon has it’s own individual serial number and mag stripe. The information on these pages is for reference and display purposes only.

Free DTV Coupon Insert Page1

Free DTV Coupon Insert Page 2

We will soon publish an updated list of online retailers that can actually process the $40 DTV digital converter box coupons via the Internet. Most online retailers have no way to accept these coupons at present, and most likely never will. A handful of companies have stepped forward to fill this gap, and they are the only ones you should consider buying from online, since you will most likely be overcharged (no discount given) if you try ordering from a merchant that hasn’t made special provisions to deal with these specific coupons.

UPDATE: President Obama and the U.S. Congress officially extended the deadline for broadcasters to switch to DTV to June 12, 2009. You can keep applying for coupons via phone or the Internet until that time. Keep in mind that the extension is basically voluntary, meaning that broadcasters can switch their signals to DTV and STOP broadcasting in analog anytime that they want to. There are very few stations that are waiting until June to make the jump to DTV, due to the high cost associated with simulcasting both digital and analog signals. So, chances are that the only analog broadcasts still remaining in your area are most likely that of translators and low-power (LPTV) stations, which are not required to transition to digital, anyway.

Stay tuned!!!

• 84% of people surveyed know that the transition is happening.
• Almost one-half of those who need to do something to still watch TV on some or all of their sets had inadequate plans or no plans to address that problem.
• While more than one-half of those polled knew about the government’s converter-box-subsidy program, only one-third of those knew how to get the boxes.
• One-third of those who didn’t need the converter boxes or coupons were going to apply for them anyway.
• Some 464,000 ($40 Government) coupons have already expired without being used, or about 58% of the 800,000 that already reached their expiration dates.
• The NTIA’s Bernadette McGuire-Rivera stated that the NTIA has decertified about one-dozen retailers — she called them “bad apples” — that were putting consumers on waiting lists for boxes, getting them to “swipe” their cards so that they could collect the $40 subsidy and then keeping them waiting for boxes that never arrived.

More information on the report is available at Broadcasting and Cable Magazine.

Channels listed as “Digital” are transmitted via the cable system using a proprietary, encrypted digital signal format that can only be (theoretically) decoded by one of the company’s authorized cable tuners/converters/descramblers. The channel numbers shown on the display are not necessarily associated with a station’s original broadcast channel or frequency.

SuddenLink uses fiberoptic lines to carry their signals from one utility pole to the next. Once reaching the utility pole nearest your home it converts these pulses of light into a digital radio frequency signal that is directly connected to your cable box via coaxial cable. Internet and telephone service from SuddenLink reaches customers via digital signals that are carried along with TV signals on the same lines.

Channel No. Channel Name Type
2 KBVU-FOX 29 Eureka, CA Basic
3 KIEM-TV (NBC) 3 Eureka, CA Basic
4 Suddenlink Homesource Basic
5 KEMY-LP MNT 33 Eureka, CA Basic
6 KVIQ-CBS 6 Eureka, CA Basic
7 KAEF-ABC 23 Arcata, CA Basic
8 Local Education Basic
9 KUVU-LP CW 17 Eureka, CA Basic
10 California Channel Basic
10 Local Access Basic
11 Community Channel Basic
12 Community Channel Basic
13 KEET-PBS 13 Eureka, CA Basic
14 USA Expanded Basic
15 CNN Expanded Basic
16 CNN Headline News Expanded Basic
17 MSNBC Expanded Basic
18 CNBC Expanded Basic
19 Fox News Channel Expanded Basic
20 ESPN Expanded Basic
21 ESPN 2 Expanded Basic
22 Comcast Sports Net Bay Area Expanded Basic
23 QVC Expanded Basic
24 The History Channel Expanded Basic
25 The Learning Channel Expanded Basic
26 Animal Planet Expanded Basic
27 Lifetime Television Expanded Basic
28 TNT Expanded Basic
29 Home & Garden Television Expanded Basic
30 Discovery Channel Expanded Basic
31 Lifetime Movie Network Expanded Basic
32 VH-1 Expanded Basic
33 MTV Expanded Basic
34 CMT Expanded Basic
35 Arts & Entertainment Expanded Basic
37 Telemundo (satellite) Expanded Basic
38 Spike TV Expanded Basic
39 The Travel Channel Expanded Basic
40 E! Entertainment Expanded Basic
41 Sci-Fi Expanded Basic
42 Bravo Expanded Basic
43 FX Expanded Basic
44 Comedy Central Expanded Basic
45 Disney Expanded Basic
46 Cartoon Network Expanded Basic
47 Nickelodeon Expanded Basic
48 TV Land Expanded Basic
49 ABC Family Expanded Basic
50 Food Network Expanded Basic
51 Trinity Broadcasting Network Expanded Basic
52 Oxygen Expanded Basic
53 Discovery Health Channel Expanded Basic
54 The Weather Channel Expanded Basic
55 truTV Expanded Basic
56 Jewelry Television Expanded Basic
58 Home Shopping Network Expanded Basic
59 ShopNBC Expanded Basic
60 Access Television Network Expanded Basic
61 American Movie Classics Expanded Basic
62 Turner Classic Movies Expanded Basic
63 MTV 2 Expanded Basic
64 VERSUS Expanded Basic
65 Speed Channel Expanded Basic
67 Digital Preview Channel Expanded Basic
70 TV Guide Channel Expanded Basic
71 Wizebuys TV Expanded Basic
72 Humbolt Trading Post Expanded Basic
73 Product Information Network Expanded Basic
74 C-SPAN 2 Expanded Basic
75 Alpha Numeric & Weather Expanded Basic
76 C-SPAN Basic
77 TBS Superstation Basic
78 KEUV – LP 31 Eureka, CA Basic
99 NASA Expanded Basic
100 Discovery Kids Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
101 The Science Channel Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
102 Planet Green Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
103 Investigation Discovery Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
104 The Military Channel Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
120 Noggin Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
199 iN DEMAND Barker Digital Discovery/Variety Tier
201 Independent Film Channel Digital Movie Tier
202 Sundance West Digital Movie Tier
203 Encore West Digital Movie Tier
204 Encore Love West Digital Movie Tier
205 Encore Mystery West Digital Movie Tier
206 Encore Action West Digital Movie Tier
207 Encore Drama West Digital Movie Tier
208 Encore Westerns West Digital Movie Tier
210 LOGO Digital Movie Tier
220 Do-it-Yourself Digital Variety Tier
221 Fine Living Digital Variety Tier
222 Game Show Network Digital Variety Tier
223 Toon Disney Digital Variety Tier
224 Fuse Digital Variety Tier
225 MTV U Digital Variety Tier
227 SoapNet Digital Variety Tier
228 BBC America Digital Variety Tier
229 Hallmark Channel Digital Variety Tier
230 EWTN Digital Variety Tier
231 EWTN Espanol Digital Variety Tier
232 Three Angels Broadcasting Digital Variety Tier
233 MTV Jams Digital Variety Tier
234 Si TV Digital Variety Tier
235 Nick Toons Digital Variety Tier
236 The N Digital Variety Tier
237 MTV Hits Digital Variety Tier
238 VH-1 Classic Rock Digital Variety Tier
239 VH-1 Soul Digital Variety Tier
240 CMT Pure Country Digital Variety Tier
241 TV One Digital Variety Tier
242 CBS College Sports Network Digital Sports & Information
243 ESPN Classic Digital Sports & Information
244 ESPNews Digital Sports & Information
245 The Tennis Channel Digital Sports & Information
246 Fox Soccer Channel Digital Sports & Information
247 The Golf Channel Digital Sports & Information
248 Outdoor Channel Digital Sports & Information
249 ESPN U Digital Sports & Information
252 Bloomberg Digital Sports & Information
254 G4 Digital Sports & Information
255 History Channel International Digital Sports & Information
256 Biography Channel Digital Sports & Information
257 C-SPAN 3 Digital Sports & Information
258 Style Digital Sports & Information
261 National Geographic Digital Sports & Information
262 TVG Digital Sports & Information
300 HBO West Digital Premium
301 HBO2 West Digital Premium
302 HBO Signature West Digital Premium
303 HBO Family West Digital Premium
304 HBO Comedy West Digital Premium
305 HBO Zone West Digital Premium
306 HBO East Digital Premium
307 HBO Family East Digital Premium
308 HBO Latino West Digital Premium
320 Cinemax West Digital Premium
321 More Max West Digital Premium
322 Action Max West Digital Premium
323 Thriller Max West Digital Premium
330 Cinemax East Digital Premium
331 More Max East Digital Premium
340 Showtime West Digital Premium
341 Showtime Too West Digital Premium
342 Showtime Showcase West Digital Premium
343 Showtime Extreme West Digital Premium
344 Showtime Beyond West Digital Premium
350 The Movie Channel West Digital Premium
360 Encore West Digital Premium
361 Starz West Digital Premium
362 Starz Edge West Digital Premium
363 Starz in Black West Digital Premium
364 Starz Kids & Family West Digital Premium
365 Starz Cinema West Digital Premium
401 Toon Disney en Espanol Conexion Unica
402 Cartoon Network Espanol Conexion Unica
403 Discovery en Espanol Conexion Unica
404 MTV Tr3s Conexion Unica
406 CNN en Espanol Conexion Unica
407 Fox Sports en Espanol Conexion Unica
408 Telemundo (satellite) Conexion Unica
409 Telefutura Conexion Unica
410 Galavision Conexion Unica
411 Mun 2 Conexion Unica
412 Nick Toons SAP Conexion Unica
413 Nick Too Conexion Unica
414 Sorpresa Conexion Unica
415 The History Channel en Espanol Conexion Unica
416 ESPN Deportes Conexion Unica
417 TV Chile Conexion Unica
418 CineLatino Conexion Unica
419 EWTN Espanol Conexion Unica
420 Si TV Conexion Unica
421 De Pelicula Conexion Unica
422 De Pelicula Clasico Conexion Unica
423 Telehit Conexion Unica
500 iN DEMAND Barker Digital PPV
501 iN DEMAND 1 Digital PPV
502 iN DEMAND 2 Digital PPV
503 iN DEMAND 3 Digital PPV
504 iN DEMAND 4 Digital PPV
505 iN DEMAND 5 Digital PPV
506 iN DEMAND 6 Digital PPV
507 iN DEMAND 7 Digital PPV
590 Playboy Digital PPV
591 Blue Digital PPV
592 Blox Digital PPV
593 Spice:Xcess Digital PPV
594 Club Jenna Digital PPV
595 Clips Digital PPV
598 Playboy en Espanol Digital PPV
700 TNT HD HD Basic
708 ESPN HD HD Basic
709 ESPN 2 HD HD Basic
710 Arts & Entertainment HD HD Plus Tier
711 National Geographic HD HD Plus Tier *
712 Food Network HD HD Plus Tier
713 Home & Garden Television HD HD Plus Tier
715 HD Theater HD Plus Tier
717 Universal HD HD Plus Tier
718 HDNet HD Plus Tier
719 HDNet Movies HD Plus Tier
720 HBO HD West HD Premium
721 Showtime HD West HD Premium
722 Starz HD West HD Premium
901 MC – Sounds of the Seasons Digital Music
902 MC – Today’s Country Digital Music
903 MC – Classic Country Digital Music
904 MC – Blue Grass Digital Music
905 MC – Hip Hop and R&B Digital Music
906 MC – Classic R & B Digital Music
907 MC – R&B Soul Digital Music
908 MC – R &B Hits Digital Music
909 MC – Rap Digital Music
910 MC – Metal Digital Music
911 MC – Rock Digital Music
912 MC – Arena Rock Digital Music
913 MC – Classic Rock Digital Music
914 MC – Adult Alternative Digital Music
915 MC – Alternative Digital Music
916 MC – Retro-Active Digital Music
917 MC – Electronica Digital Music
918 MC – Dance Digital Music
919 MC – Lite Hits Digital Music
920 MC – Adult Top 40 Digital Music
921 MC – Hit List Digital Music
922 MC – Kids Only! Digital Music
923 MC – Party Favorites Digital Music
924 MC – Showcase Digital Music
925 MC – 90s Digital Music
926 MC – 80′s Digital Music
927 MC – 70′s Digital Music
928 MC – Solid Gold Oldies Digital Music
929 MC – Smooth Jazz Digital Music
930 MC – Jazz Digital Music
931 MC – Blues Digital Music
932 MC – Reggae Digital Music
933 MC – Soundscapes Digital Music
934 MC – Easy Listening Digital Music
935 MC – Big Band and Swing Digital Music
936 MC – Singers and Standards Digital Music
937 MC – Show Tunes Digital Music
938 MC – Contemporary Christian Digital Music
939 MC – Gospel Digital Music
940 MC – Classical Masterpieces Digital Music
941 MC – Light Classical Digital Music
942 MC – Pop Latino Digital Music
943 MC – Musica Urbana Digital Music
944 MC – Salsa y Merengue Digital Music
945 MC – Mexicana Digital Music
946 MC – Rock ‘en Espanol Digital Music

SuddenLink cable television listings for analog, DTV and HDTV channels.

AACS – Advanced Access Control System. A computer specification for guarding next-generation optical-media content created by the film, electronics, and software industries.

AC-3 – (see Dolby Digital 5.1)

Aliasing – Jaggedness that appears at diagonal edges of objects in a pixel or raster image. De-aliasing (anti-aliasing) is a smoothing of the jagged edges by blending adjacent pixels slightly.

Artifact – A flaw in an image caused by the way the data is processed. Interference and noise are not usually called artifacts. So artifacts are in a sense predictable.

Aspect ratio - The ratio of screen width to screen height. For TVs it is either 4:3 (1.33:1) or 16:9 (1.78:1). Theater film uses many different aspect ratios, some as high as 2.5:1.

ATSC – (Advanced Television System Committee technical standard) This is the name of the technology used by terrestrial digital TV stations in the U.S.

Blocking – Macro-blocking An over-compression of the image that makes the block edges slightly noticeable. This “checkerboarding” is subtle and usually momentary. Some causes are:

1. Software bugs in the MPEG encoder.
2. The neBlockstwork allocating too little bandwidth to the broadcast.
3. The picture being portrayed is just changing too fast.

Blocks - Macro-blocks MPEG-2 divides the screen into small square regions called blocks and uses a mathematical process to compress the data for each block. Macro-blocks are a small group of blocks. See What exactly is ATSC? .

BNC connectors – These common RF connectors are sometimes found on VGA cables in place of a VGA connector. They employ a quarter-turn twist-lock mechanism.

Bob and Weave – Two processes for de-interlacing (converting interlaced video into progressive scan). Weave refers to combining successive fields. Also called interfield, this method preserves the original resolution. Bob refers to up-converting a field into a frame, in effect creating new lines by averaging the adjacent lines above and below. Also called intrafield, this method causes a loss of resolution but never causes motion artifacts. See also Motion Adaptive De-interlacing.

Breakup – Also called dropouts, block errors, or macro-block errors, these are gross errors in the picture caused by reception errors that result from interference and signal noise. Both audio and video are affected, with video distortions about five times as prevalent as audio dropouts. This ratio never seems to change. If the ratio is anything else then the cause is a network problem, not a reception error. The shortest-lasting breakups just cause a few macro-blocks to be obviously wrong, while more severe errors cause major parts of the screen to be left un-updated for a time, and possibly the whole image to freeze. Green shows up a lot.

Cable card - The Cable Card is the mechanism the industry has adopted to prevent the piracy of cable services. Nearly all cable channels are encrypted, the main exception being local stations. The cable card contains the keys to unlock encryption.

If you want the simplicity that comes with the cable receiver being integrated with the TV then you should buy a TV with a cable card slot. However if you like TiVo then you would instead get a DVR, which will have its own cable card slot. The cable card is supplied by the cable company. The card is a special purpose PCMCIA card (like used in many computers).

The present cable card system for DTV is called CableCARD 1.0. There are two types of cards: SCards (single stream) and MCards (multiple stream). MCards are used when a DVR can record multiple programs simultaneously.

CableCARD 1.0 – lacks two-way features and cannot be used for ordering pay-per-view, interactive guide, and other two-way features. Millions of cable card slots in TVs already sold are going unused. Reasons include: 1. The viewer uses satellite. 2. The viewer doesn’t want subscription channels. 3. The user wants two-way features and so has to use a cable box. Some TV makers are reducing the number of sets they sell having cable card slots, but they say they will increase the number when two-way is possible. Two-way is not available because the technical standard is not yet established. (The CEA and NCTA are fighting each other and the FCC has been a timid referee.) Present DTV systems with CableCARD 1.0 are labeled DCR (Digital Cable Ready). Future DTVs will likely be labeled iDCR (Interactive Digital Cable Ready).

Warning: The term CableCARD 2.0 has two conflicting definitions. 1. CableCARD 2.0 was first used to refer to the next generation of cable services that included two-way features. 2. SCards were introduced first. Later, when MCards were introduced they were commonly referred to as CableCARD 2.0.

C-band / Ku-band – 1. a range of RF spectrum. C-band is approximately 4 GHz. Ku-band is app. 12 GHz. 2. Geo-stationary satellites the networks use to acquire and distribute programming to affiliates and cable TV companies. These satellites use C-band and Ku-band frequencies. 3. a consumer service that uses the satellites the networks originally set up for themselves. An 8-foot steerable dish is required. Some channels are free. Others are available by subscription. The digital channel subscription service is called 4DTV.

CEC - (Consumer Electronics Control) This feature allows units to control each other. The commands tend to be the same as the buttons of an infrared remote control, so fewer remotes are necessary. The implementation is a single-wire bus that is a “party line” connecting to all units. The HDMI cable carries this line.

CECB – Coupon Eligible Converter Box. An analog-to-digital DTV converter box that has been approved by the federal government for use with its $40 discount coupons.  Coupons are available from the U.S. federal government at http://www.dtv2009.gov .

COFDM - modulation technique. This technical standard has been used in Europe and other places for digital TV. 8VSB is used in the U.S.

Color temperature – This describes how white is displayed. Low temperature means slightly reddish, while high temperature means slightly bluish. Standard NTSC white corresponds to the color a glowing hot object would be at 6500° K

Comb filter – A circuit in NTSC sets that separates the color information from the brightness information.

Component video - This 3-wire convention was created for connecting DVD players to TVs or monitors. It avoids downgrading the signal to NTSC. The signals may be RGB or YPrPb. Some HD STBs have only component video output.

Composite video - This 1-wire standard contains all video information: intensity, color, and sync. The encoding is the same as NTSC, and thus has the “overlapping sideband” problem which sometimes causes wrong colors to appear.

Convergence – An adjustment that must be made occasionally to CRT sets. This adjustment makes the three colors coincide perfectly.

DBS – (direct broadcast satellites) These satellites are powerful enough to be received by an 18 inch dish. They use Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies. Companies that provide DBS services to consumers in the U.S. are DirecTV and Dish Network. Canadian DBS providers are Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu. Also called DSS. They typically broadcast in some type of digital format that is encrypted at the uplink and decoded by the receivers of authorized subscribers.

D-ILA – (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) (see LCOS)

DirecTV – One of the two major providers of DBS programming in the United States.

Dish Network - One of the two major providers of DBS programming in the United States.

DLP - (digital light processor). A technology for video projection, also call DMD (Digital Micro-mirror Device). It is a large chip with about a million tiny mirrors on its surface. The chip can tilt each mirror to vary the amount of light reflected off of it.

Dolby Digital 2.0 – This is a two channel (stereo or Pro Logic) version of Dolby Digital. It is often used by DBS systems.

Dolby Digital 5.1 – Also known as AC-3, it provides 6 channels of sound: left, center, right, left rear, right rear, and sub-woofer. It is also called “5.1 channels” since the 6th channel has reduced bandwidth. Dolby Digital 5.1 is the audio standard for all U.S. digital TV stations, most DVDs, some DBS programs, and many theaters.

Dolby Pro Logic Surround – This is a 4-channel analog system. During recording, the 4 channels are “folded” into 2 stereo channels. If played back without a Pro Logic decoder, it sounds like normal stereo. This format is becoming obsolete.

Dot Crawl – a common flaw in NTSC images caused by the “overlapping sidebands” problem. It consists of animated checkerboard patterns which appear along vertical color transitions.

DTCP - (Digital Transmission Content Protection) This is an encryption standard for IEEE 1394 that prevents the copying of first-run movies and pay-per-view events. DTCP is also called 5C Copy protection (in reference to the ‘five companies’ that license it).

DTS - An alternative to Dolby Digital. ATSC does not use DTS but some DVDs do. Most audio receivers that work with Dolby Digital also handle DTS.

DTV – (digital TV). Examples of DTV are DBS satellite services, digital cable TV services, and ATSC digital TV (over-the-air, broadcast) stations.

DTVLink – This logo is on equipment that has IEEE 1394 and DTCP.

DVB – (Digital Video Broadcasting) An alternative to ATSC used in most of the world outside the U.S. It has three different standards:

· DVB-T is for terrestrial (OTA) broadcasts.

· DVB-S is for satellite broadcasts.

· DVB-C is for cable broadcasts.

DVI - (Digital Visual Interface) This connector conveys HDTV image scanning signals in binary data form. The data rate is very high (1.65 Gb/s). Binary data is preferred by monitors that are not CRTs. DVI comes with a decryption option called HDCP which will decode encrypted programs such as first-run movies.

EDTV – (enhanced definition TV) Essentially DVD quality, it is a small step up from NTSC. An EDTV will convert all 18 ATSC formats to 480p.

FCC – (Federal Communications Commission) This is a Federal agency responsible for regulating radio wave usage and some other media. The FCC answers to Congress and also implements international radio standards.

Fire-wire – (see IEEE 1394)

First-surface mirror – Normal mirrors have the silvering on the back surface of the glass. First surface mirrors have it on the front. Cleaning a first-surface mirror must be done very carefully.

Flicker (or Twitter) - Flicker is a pulsating of the image, a flaw most noticeable in images drawn only 24 or 30 times per second. Flicker is usually only noticeable in bright whites.

FM – Frequency Modulation. An analog method of modulating a carrier wave (frequency) with an audio or video signal. Primarily used for transmission of audio and music.

FTA – “Free To Air” or “Free To All”. This is a digital satellite technology employing MPEG-2, but it is not compatible with DBS systems (Dish or DirecTV) or with Motorola Digicipher II (C-band 4DTV) and it doesn’t have a provision for encryption. At the present time the only high definition stations on FTA are PBS, Voom, The Outdoor Channel, and Movie Central. Lyngsat.com lists all the stations. Skyvision.com, FTAsatellite.com, and others sell receivers. The frequencies used are Ku-band and C-band. FTA’s forte is that it is cheap and very international. FTA is heavily used outside the U.S. FTA started becoming popular in the U.S. about 2002 among experimenters and immigrants. In the opinion of some people the rise of FTA is a mistake and HDTV might eventually kill it. It might survive in the U.S. market because of a need for an unregulated domain for international stations.

GLV – (Grating Light Valve) This is another contender to replace CRTs in projection TVs.

HAVi – (Home Audio Video Interoperability) This is a standard for 1394 bus audio and video devices. It is software that is required for the units to talk to each other. HAVi allows plug-and-play recognition of devices, interoperability, and brand independence.

HDCP – (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) This is a DVI decryption option. It will decode encrypted programs such as first-run movies. (It’s real function is to prevent unauthorized copying of programs.)

HD- Capable TV A standard definition set with a digital tuner. (This term was probably invented to confuse people.)

HD- Ready TV An HDTV monitor or TV that lacks a digital tuner.

HDMI – (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) This miniature connector is intended to replace DVI. It is backward compatible with DVI, and an adapter will connect it to a DVI unit. It has 19 pins and carries DVI plus digital audio. It also has a reverse data line (DDC) that allows the STB to sense the monitor’s state and native formats, and a control line (CEC) for system level control.

HDTV – (High Definition TV) A TV that displays 1280×720 pixels or better.

IEEE 1394 - Also called Firewire or iLink. Originally a serial bus for PCs, 1394 may or may not become the interconnection standard for DTV products. It is competing with HDMI. IEEE 1394 is a spec for a hardware interconnect plus a software shell. But additional software, such as HAVi, is required for connected units to actually talk to each other.

i.link – (see IEEE 1394) Sometimes referred to as “firewire”.

Interlaced scan – Historically, TV CRTs are interlaced, while computer CRTs are not. Interlaced means that the electron beam skips every other horizontal line, filling in the missing lines on the next pass. A frame is composed of 2 fields. One field is all of the odd numbered lines, and the other field is all of the even numbered lines.

Jack – A female connector, usually for audio or video connections.

Ka band – A range of RF spectrum centered around 30 Gigahertz. Historically never used, DirecTV and Dish Network are starting to launch satellites that use these frequencies. (The name comes from “above K band”. K band is a long established military band.)

Ku band – A range of RF spectrum centered around 12 Gigahertz. These are the principal frequencies used by DirecTV and Dish Network, although DirecTV will probably some day move entirely to Ka band. (The name comes from “under K band”.)

LCD – (Liquid Crystal Display) LCD is the most common flat panel display technology.

LCOS – (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) This is an LCD-like projection technology.

LFE - (Low Frequency Effects) Sub-woofer. The 6th channel in a 5.1 channel system.

Line Doublers – This device converts NTSC or 480i into 480p. Line doublers with motion-adaptive processing can to an extent turn a 30 frames/sec image into a 60 frames/sec image, thus removing some of the jerkiness and blurriness associated with motion.

LNA – Low Noise Amplifier. These were used in C-Band TVRO systems prior to the invention of the LNB. The only difference between an LNA and LNB is that the LNB downconverts the original satellite transmission frequency to a lower frequency for transmission through coaxial cable. There is lower loss in coaxial cable at these frequencies, making LNBs more efficient than LNAs.

LNB – (Low Noise Block converter) An LNB can be found at the focus point of a dish antenna. It is a low noise amplifier that also converts the signal to a lower frequency. (The original higher frequency would not travel very far in ordinary coaxial cable.)

Mosquitoes Fuzzy dots that can appear near sharp edges in MPEG and JPEG images, possibly looking like a swarm of mosquitoes. These artifacts are caused by over-compression or over-enhancement of edges.

Motion Adaptive De-interlacing The image is divided into regions where there is motion and where there is none. Areas of the image without motion are de-interlaced using “weave”, and areas with motion are de-interlaced using “bob”. See Bob and Weave.

MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group technical standard 2) This is a widely used standard for digital encoding of motion pictures. It typically achieves a 50 to 1 compression of data. It achieves this mainly by not retransmitting areas of the screen that have not changed since the previous frame.

MTS – (Multi-channel Television Sound) This refers to an analog NTSC TV equipped with stereo and SAP (separate audio program) features.

Multipoint convergence – Projection TVs with 3 CRTs require periodic adjustment to keep the 3 images perfectly aligned. Typically this is a simple 5 minute procedure the consumer must do every month or so.

Multi-path interference – Some neighborhoods are plagued with this problem: The signal finds more than one path to the antenna. Multi-path results from diffraction around the sides of hills and buildings. For NTSC sets this will result in ghosts: multiple images shifted laterally. For DTVs the result can be an unusable signal, even though it may be strong. The solutions are moving the antenna or selecting a very directional antenna. Newer generations of DTV receivers are better able to cope with multi-path.

Must-Carry – This refers to the legal obligation of cable companies to carry analog or digital signals of over-the-air local broadcasters.

Native format – Most DTVs will convert the 18 ATSC formats into 1 or 2 formats and will draw only those. For these sets, the ‘native’ format is 1. the formats the set will draw or 2. the original format. (These are contradictory definitions, but they reflect current practice. 1 is probably the preferred meaning.)

NTSC – (National Television System Committee technical standard) This is analog TV invented in 1946. NTSC has 525 lines (483 visible) interlaced, 60 fields per second. This (analog) standard is in use in North America, Japan, South Korea, Burma, Taiwan, the Philippines, and much of South America.

OAR – (original aspect ratio) Also called Letterbox format, OAR means that none of the image is clipped or squeezed. Unused parts of the screen are usually black.

OLED – (Organic LED) A new display technology. Somewhat resembling plasma, it uses organic Light Emitting Diodes.

OTA – (over the air) Analog or digital terrestial broadcasting of a television signal. Typically used to refer to broadcast television stations in North America.

Over-scan/Under-scan – Computer CRT monitors under-scan, which means they leave a thin black border around the image. TVs over-scan, which means a small part of the image perimeter is lost. (Digital displays don’t necessarily do either.)

PAL - (Phase Altering Line standard) This alternative to NTSC has 625 lines, interlaced, 50 fields per second. It is used in most of Europe, Asia (except USSR), Africa, and Australia, and parts of South America.

Pan-and-scan – A method of broadcasting a wide screen film on a 4:3 channel. Most of the time just the center of the image is shown. (The right and left edges are clipped off.)

PCM – (Pulse Code Modulation) or L-PCM (Linear PCM) This 2-channel digital audio standard is simpler than Dolby Digital.

Pixilation - What you see when you sit too close. (You see individual pixels.)

Plug – A male connector.

PrimeStar – An early attempt by Cox Cable to compete in the DBS market. It ran this KU band system in the United States for several years before folding, opting to concentrate on its cable television franchises. Its early demise was heavily fueled by an expensive anti-satellite-TV campaign launched by its cable television division. Since it was one of only two commercial DBS satellite television providers at the time, the ads largely served to discredit their own product.

Progressive scan – This is the opposite of interlaced scan.

PSIP data – (Program and System Information Protocol) This data is arranged as a table with multiple sub-tables. The data identifies the station name, what the sub-channels are, the program name, the following programs, content advisories, language options, and caption options. Some of this data is transmitted as often as 7 times per second.

PVP-OPM – Protected Video Path Output Protection Management. Downgrades computer video resolution or blocks the picture entirely if the connected display doesn’t support content protection.

PVP-UAB – Protected Video Path User-Accessible Bus. Encrypts video content as it passes over the PCI Express bus from the high-def disc to prevent other PCI Express devices from intercepting the video stream.

Rainbow effect – A side effect of delivering the image colors sequentially instead of simultaneously. DLP displays have this effect if they use a spinning color wheel or sequentially-firing LEDs. Most viewers are not bothered by the rainbow effect.

Raster – A group of closely-spaced lines whose brightness changes so as to appear to be an image.

RGB – 1. red-green-blue 2. a 3-wire standard (See component video) 3. a 5-wire standard (See VGA.)

RGBHV – See VGA.

Screendoor effect – If each pixel has a dark border around it, viewers who sit too close can see it. The effect is somewhat like looking through a screendoor.

SDTV – (standard definition TV) SDTV is 480i, which is approximately the resolution of NTSC and DVDs.

SECAM – (Sequential Color And Memory standard) This alternative to NTSC. This analog television transmission standard has 625 lines interlaced at 50 fields per second. It is used in the former USSR, France, and parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

SPDIF - (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) This is digital audio, and can be either coaxial cable or fiber optic.

Spotlight – A pay-television channel launched on C-Band by Cox Cable in the late 1980′s. It was intended to replace HBO as the main pay channel on all Cox franchises. Customer complains and lack of support from major studios led to an early death for this channel. It survived for less than 4 years.

STB - (Set Top Box) These include satellite receivers, cable TV receivers, OTA receivers, and various recording devices.

Sub-channels – OTA DTV stations can show multiple programs simultaneously, subject to the 6 MHz bandwidth limit. This is called multicasting.

SVGA – Super VGA. See VGA.

S-video – Also called Y/C, this two-wire standard keeps the color separate from the intensity signal, and thus avoids the overlapping sideband problem of composite signals. (Converting an NTSC signal to S-video gains you nothing since what was lost cannot be recreated.) Although the quality of S-video is close to component video, S-video cannot transport anything better than 480i.

Symbol rate – The symbol rate for ATSC is 10.76 million symbols/sec. 8VSB has 3 bits/symbol. After the error correction bits are removed the net transfer rate is 19.28 million bits/sec.

THX – 1. a standard that theaters try to meet. 2. equipment to help theaters meet that standard.

Toslink – A fiber optic cable standard.

Transponder – A satellite channel. There is often one program per transponder. Some transponders are wider than 6 MHz and can carry more than one NTSC program. Several digital channels can fit on one transponder.

TVRO – Television Receive Only. The earliest C-Band satellite television systems were referred to as TVRO systems. This was to distinguish the home dish reception systems from “uplink” dishes, which actually transmit signals to satellites, and thus require proper licensing from the Federal Communications Commission. The earliest systems were roughly the same size in diameter as uplinks, often being 10 meters, or around 20′ wide. Most early parabolic dishes also featured solid aluminum, steel or fiberglass reflectors, as opposed to mesh C-Band systems that became popular later on.

VC1 – VideoCypher 1. A legacy TV encryption standard invented by Macom/General Instruments. It was the first satellite television encyption standard to digitally encypt both the audio and video portions of an NTSC signal. Based upon the original 64 Bit DES encryption standard, it is now considered too weak an encryption scheme for transmission of sensitive data. Its use was very limited, due to the high cost of the technology at the time. The earliest adopters were the CBS Television Network for its network TV news feeds on C-Band, and NASA, which used the technology to encrypt video transmissions during space shuttle missions conducted for the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

VC2 – VideoCypher 2. One of the earliest encryption standards used in satellite television, primarily for C-Band signals. Introduced in the late 1980′s, it encrypts NTSC video using analog sync destabilization and audio using a proprietary digital format. It is still in use with some C-Band broadcasters.

VGA – a 5-wire standard interface, originally for computer monitors, now common for HDTV monitors. Usually the 5 wires are in one cable. The connector can be either a 15-pin connector or five BNC connectors. The signals are usually red, green, blue, horizontal sync, and vertical sync. But Y, Pr, and Pb can replace the colors.

Virtual channel number – This is the channel the consumer thinks he is watching. The actual (physical) channel is selected by a hidden mechanism.

YCrCb – Almost identical to YPrPb. If you connect a YCrCb unit to a YPrPb unit you might have to adjust the color slightly. YCrCb is an older standard uncommon for consumer connections.

YPrPb - Color representation requires three independent variables. CRTs prefer red, green, and blue. Ink jet printers prefer yellow, magenta, and cyan. NTSC encodes color as luminance (brightness), hue (color), and saturation (absence of white in colors). Storage media such as DVDs prefer Y, Pr, and Pb, where Y is luminance, Pr is red-Y, and Pb is blue-Y. This is because Pr and Pb can be at lower resolution and not degrade the image noticeably, thus saving storage space.

YPrPbHV – See VGA.

3:2 pull-down This is the process of converting a 24 frames/sec image into a 30 frames/sec image. Some line-doublers will reverse this process to acquire the original, and then re-perform it.

4DTV – This is a DTV subscription service for C-band and Ku-band. Transponders are digitally encrypted using a proprietary format.

5.1 channel – This is 6 channel audio. The 6th channel (the sub-woofer) has reduced bandwidth.

5C Copy Protection – See DTCP.

8VSB modulation technique – (8-level vestigial sideband) DTV stations in the U.S. use 8VSB modulation. This is an AM mode wherein the carrier is multiplied by an 8-level digital signal, and then a filter is used to remove all but the carrier and 6 MHz of the upper sideband. (“8VSB” is often used as a synonym for OTA.)

Portions of this document Copyright 2002-2009 by Ken Nist. The “document” includes all web pages at www.hdtvprimer.com. The author places no restrictions on the use of this document. It may be used by anyone in any manner for any purpose. Additional definitions copyright 2009 by Vantek Communications, Inc.

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