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| Yes | 32% | 203 votes | Total: 635 votes | |
| No | 68% | 432 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesIt is interesting to hear the amount of chatter surrounding the debate over digital television. Whether or not consumers believe they should be forced into the digital realm, the reality is that the FCC has already dictated that this will happen. What is unfortunate is that too many consumers do not understand why this change is necessary, only that it is coming.
By initiating a switch to digital television throughout the United States, the FCC is actually creating a significant amount of white space that can be used by residents and businesses alike to conduct a full range of communications and technologies - many of which have yet to be invented. This move will ultimately improve the way we communicate, enjoy entertainment, manage our networks and so much more.
The use of this newly open space will also trigger a boom in investment, job creation and consumer demand in the high-tech sector. Companies such as Dell, Google, IBM and others are closely watching this change and are working hard to be first-to-market with new technologies, advancements on current platforms and information. As the U.S. enters a new year in a struggling economy, this area of technology can hold significant promise.
According to the Technology CEO Council (TCC), American citizens and students will benefit from connecting to the longer range, wireless services that will become possible through the white space spectrum. Consumers as a whole stand to gain from increasing market-based competition among service providers and infrastructure builders. In order to ensure optimal promise for the consumer, education within this space of technology is essential.
As consumers on this side of the issue, it is very easy to assume that this move is a result of a push from electronics manufacturers seeking to push television sets. It can also be assumed that companies such as Dell and Google are behind the move to open up more opportunity for their own initiatives. True, each of these sectors and companies stand to gain significant benefit from this change, but not exclusively.
Consider the move like this: if you can get better quality viewing while also gaining access to technologies that were never before available and there is no significant cost to you, why would you not support the move to digital conversion? On the technology side, digital viewing can be provided using a fraction of the space that analog televisions use today. It is all about space and how we can maximize it to our benefit. We thought the digital age was already here, yet there is so much more to come.
Learn more about this author, Susan J. Campbell.
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No
We are more and more becoming a society that where are choice is being taken away and being forced to digital TV is just one more thing,
True, if you are poor and do not own a digital TV you can buy a converter box, and get a coupon towards the cost of one, but that is not the point, to me anyway. The point is being told I have to change the way I view TV.
It is bad enough I do not have cable or a dish and rely on local programing that I can get in on my set, now it is digital. There are just some people who really can not afford the luxury of digital tv's, cable or satellite TV and this is just one more thing that the poor and the elderly are being forced to change to if you want to watch tv. In my opinion it is not fair. In my area, even with the converter box we are unable to get a signal, so no television, and this is totally unfair for us.
Did we, the citizens of the United States vote on whether or not we wanted digital TV only? No, our representatives voted this through for us. Just another way to appease big business and the TV business is big.
Who needs 250+ television channels any way, really, do you watch all those stations? It's bad enough there is not a lot of decent shows on TV now without adding hundreds more of the same or 10 sports stations or more. It's like do we have a life any more, or are we all just zoning out in front of the television set?
Going digital is suppose to give us better quality television and sound, but what difference does it make if you have nothing decent on TV to watch? And it is just another way to get dvd's to cost more and to get you buy high defition recorders, and TV's. To some it is a blessing but to those of us on disability, social security, laid off, jobless, etc., it is anything but. The cost of going digital is going to effect more than just television in the long run, and those who can not afford it will be without a source of entertainment, and that is unfair.
I do not feel the Government should force something unto the whole nation unless it was voted on by the people since this is not a matter of national security. I feel they are doing the poor and elderly a great disservice by this and television as it is to now is just fine.
Television was a source that only the elite could afford when it was first made, then the price came down and after World War II television became more common place. Then color TV came out and again only those with money could afford it until the price came down for the common man to be able to afford it. But we still had a choice, color or black and white. Cable and satellite came in and we still had a choice to buy it or not. But now, with digital we have no choice. It is something that the TV's may come down in price but cable and satellite will not, they will keep going up in price and that is unacceptable. So, now we are the stage where our choice is taken away, we have to get a converter box if we want to view limited television after February 9, 2009. So for the first time in history the choice is taken away, and I find that very unsettling. For everyone who has a small television to travel with, it will need a converter box, if you have a palm television you will need a converter box, so a lot of televisions will be obsolete and unusable once the digital TV takes affect. But there are still plenty of places selling these TV's and that bothers me too, since they know the changes are coming but yet they are not really telling the consumers what they need to know in regards to the fact their television will not work without a converter box. Example, I have a small black and white set that can run on batteries, good for when we have no power, but it will not work without a converter box come February 2009.
The coupon from the government is only for one converter box, so one set will not work, and when you have no power, disconnecting one to hook up to the other can be hard to do.
I am not against change, but change that is forced on me is something I do not like, and I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way.
Learn more about this author, Samantha Pratt-Tyler.
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