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| Yes | 32% | 202 votes | Total: 631 votes | |
| No | 68% | 429 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesDigital TV is an advancement in technology, and a great one that is able to benefit many.
Often, many people simply like to stay where they are. At this rate, the world would be at a halt for improvements. Forcing digital only TV means people will start considering digital TV and the benefits of doing so. Just as how black and white production moved to color, in exactly the same move, we are going to digital. It is for the better of everyone that watches TV and not just the individual. Considering the cost of managing both analog and digital networks and all, it would benefit and individual too. If a company can spend more resources on other things than backwards compatibility for certain users, they can spend this on better shows and what people want. For a little cost of purchasing a new TV if you don't already have one, you can do a greater good of moving the world forward. It can, perhaps be considered as a sponsor to research and improving our entertainment opportunities.
Digita l TV improves reception for one, which many people might complain about. However, these people simply complain and refrain from moving to digital for one reason or another. Sometimes, as they say, we need to be pushed to move along. There is also the benefit of HDTV and more channels. It is about realizing these benefits and accepting them and we can't discover them until we actually try it.
Although it may be wrong to suddenly force people to switch to digital TV, which may result in too many to flock to buy TVs all at once and costing everyone money - the idea is to set a reasonable time frame for the switch over and allow people to gradually change their TV sets. Forcing should occur, but not with an unreasonable time and help from the parties involved. Perhaps better advertising about its features and benefits and better still to help sell these TVs at more reasonable prices. One of the main reasons many fail to move to these new technologies is the cost. If there is a desire to force people to move on, perhaps there can be some incentive besides the said benefits, such as government support, even if for a minor part of the cost.
In the end, even if forced, perhaps not all of the population will move to the digital era. Some will simply leave without TV as there are those against digital, but as an individual we should support this and move on. The entire population cannot always be catered for, and we can only look to suit the majority.
Learn more about this author, Th Chan.
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No
The change to digital in my mind is harming the poor and those who only want a few channels. These people now have to decide between spending more money so they can keep the channels they now have or just deciding to no longer have television at all. I'm sure many people have heard the saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it." That's the case with analog television. Those of us who have been enjoying analog our whole lives do not see a reason to switch to something else. This is coming from someone in my mid-20s, so it's not like I'm old and stuck in the 20th century. I'm more than willing to make changes as long as they are changes that are beneficial.
Recently my family purchased the converter box that we will have to have by February. It wasn't a choice we wanted to make, but we figured there was nothing else would could do about it. The change was going to happen whether we wanted it to or not. We were told the picture would come in better and that we might even be able to get some stations we weren't getting before. I guess that's partly true. Using the converter and our old antennae, we got ABC with a basically a perfect picture. Then we got some random Spanish-language music video station and a weather station, neither of which we had gotten before. Unfortunately, those were the only stations we would get on a regular basis. Most of the time, we ended up just turning off the converter box to watch NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX, and CW (previously WB) all of which came in with different degrees of quality without the converter, but all of which would not come in at all with the converter. After a few weeks of this, my family eventually purchased a better antennae. It was more money that we had wanted to spend on the conversion, but it was needed if we were going to keep the stations we wanted. Now, we are able to watch two different Spanish-language music video stations, and we have three choices in PBS, but we are still unable to get CW or FOX to come through the converter. Yep, with the change to digital, it actually looks like we'll have less of a choice in television programs.
It has often been pointed out that the digital format gives you better picture quality. That's true, when it's actually working properly. Living in a fairly windy area, I often find myself trying to watch a show only to have the picture start to become a bunch of little boxes (I think it's called pixelating). Along with that, the sound will start to go in and out. Then we get the message on the screen informing us that there's no signal and to adjust our antennae. The picture might come back on for a few seconds, and then the process starts all over again. This gets annoying really fast. For right now, I can just turn off the converter, and sometimes that's what I end up doing, but a few months from now, with digital only, that will not be an option.
Right now, it seems that even if you do make the change to digital, the digital world is not ready for the change. Sure, on a perfect day, the picture's better, but on a day with less than perfect weather, I'll take the analog signal, which might get a little fuzzy but is at least there, over the signal that comes and goes, with it being gone more than it's there. To me, it seems maybe they're just trying to get me annoyed enough that I'll give up on my converter box and start spending the extra money on cable even though I only want a handful of channels (not all of which will even be there with the conversion).
Learn more about this author, Shilo Dawn Goodson.
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