I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day about the ending of analogue TV broadcasting. Over the next couple of years each region in the UK will start to switch off its analogue transmissions permanently. Televisions bought in recent years will have no problem, as they have a digital tuner built in. Otherwise an additional digibox will be needed to be bought.
My friend was particularly bothered because one of his older TVs seemed like it was going to be totally obsolete. He had had it for over 20 years and because it didn't have the right type of connector (a SCART socket) it wasn't compatible with the digiboxes in his local electronics store. He said it was illegal that you can buy a TV set and then be forced to buy a new one because large companies want to squeeze even more money from consumers.
This is a valid point, and this has become a bit of a trend in the digital electronics market. In the late 90s the cables on printers was changed from parallel ports to USB. Many people found that when they upgraded their operating system or indeed their whole PC system they were forced to buy a new printer. The problem was basically that there were no XP drivers or no parallel port.
At first I thought that maybe this is just another example of how quickly technology is going out of date. But when I thought about if for a second it just seemed like there would be too many old TVs ? there is a need out there. Where there is a need to be filled, there is a buck to be made.
I knew there must be a digibox out there that would be able to connect via the aerial cable. I went to Google and typed in something like ?digibox no Scart?. One of the top results was a FAQ page with our exact question. The answer was to get a digibox with a ?UHF output?. I had known what I was looking for, but now I knew what to call it and how to ask for it.
This ?UHF output? allows a TV, no matter how old, to receive a digital signal. If you are stuck in the same predicament before you throw away your old TV, ask your local TV retailer for a digibox with a UHF output. If you want to be buy online you could go to eBay, select the TV category, then digital receivers category, search for ?UHF output? with ?search title and description? ticked. Good Luck.
With the scheduled February 17, 2009 deadline for conversion from the old fashioned analog TV signal to the newer and more efficient digital TV signal less than two years away now, there's a fair amount of confusion in the press about the issue. It all began back in the late nineties when Congress- under lobbying pressure from consumer electronics manufacturers- mandated that all over the air analog TV transmissions would cease and be replaced by analog TV signals. So far that mandatory date of the transmission has been pushed back from 2006 to 2009 because of objections from TV stations that don't want to shell out the money for new transmission equipment and from TV owners who don't want to shell out the money either for a new TV set or a special set top box that will allow their old analog TV sets to display the digitally transmitted television.
When discussing all of these issues, it's important to keep a few things in mind. First of all, digital TV is a relatively new way of transmitting video that takes advantage of computer technology to send a signal that can easily be cleansed of any interference by special receiver hardware, thereby providing a TV picture of incredible clarity. All satellite TV companies already use this format on all of their programming and many cable TV companies use it on most of their programming.
One of the reasons that this whole thing is such a fuss is that analog TV signals take up more of the over the air electromagnetic bandwidth than the equivalent TV programming does in digital format. This fact, combined with the fact that many TV stations are transmitting their content simultaneously in both analog and digital formats, means that there's a lot of electromagnetic bandwidth being wasted on unnecessary TV transmissions. That bandwidth could be used for numerous other things like emergency services communications and wide spread wireless Internet access. That's a large part of the incentive to completely change over to digital TV.
Another major reason to change over to digital TV is that there's a lot of money for consumer electronics makers to rake in when all of the analog signals go off the air because at that point analog TV sets will be obsolete- at least when it comes to being used to watch TV directly off of the air. At that point, consumers will either need to buy special converter boxes to make their old TV sets work or buy completely new TV's. Of course, their are plans for the government to subsidize purchase of those converter boxes, but no matter where the money comes from, it still means plenty of profit for the consumer electronics industry.
Now, there are plenty of mixed signals about the coming transition. For example, every TV set now on the market has to have a digital tuner that will allow it to pick up the digital over the air signals. Also a coalition of broadcasters and electronics manufacturers has formed in order to educate the public about the impending transition. But at the same time these positive steps are being taken, some politicians are saying that the transition might have to be pushed back again and some analysts are saying that it will have to be pushed back again. Only time will tell how any of this will play out.
Both Zach Hope & Emily Sanderson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Zach Hope has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, Iphone Reviews and web development. Zach Hope is the author of Speed-Up-Windows-XP.com, a site that can teach anybody to to invigorate old computers. You can elim. Zach Hope's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Emily Sanderson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Communications, Information Technology and Communications. E.Sanderson writes articles about the latest developments in technology, electronics, and satellite TV. She'd like to inform you about the latest services and how. Emily Sanderson's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.