good old tuners going obsolete

Kt_88,

Although it might be "common knowledge" at Circuit City and Best Buy, here's what the FCC has to say:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-271699A1.pdf

Please direct your attention to the bullet, "Refrains from imposing a mandatory conversion schedule for radio stations to commence digital broadcast operations".

I read that to mean digital only OTA broadcasts aren't quite as imminent as widely believed. If you have evidence to the contrary, I'd love to see it.

David

Digital-only OTA braodcasts would be tough one for the radio stations to swallow since just about 95% of their listeners listen while driving. Dead silence wouldn't cut it for most drivers, and buying and retro-fitting digital receivers to millions of automobiles would probably be a slow process.

Armstrod,

Alan Iverson was sitting in a commentators both once upon a time. The commentators were speculating on what was going on between two teams and who would win. They asked Alan his opinion and he said " The only guys that know is the guys on the floor "

So is it with this digital turn over. The people directly involved know what is going on, the rest of the people can only speculate. I'm sure the folks that do the posting on the FCC web site really don't have a clue what or when. That is reserved for a few select folks that are not saying anything. Of course there is a battle of how soon this will all happen, it was originally planned that all TV networks would be digital by the end of 2006. There are many reasons why that didn't happen. Amongst them would be the networks didn't want to buy all the expensive gear to make it possible. TV manufacturers didn't want to produce so many digital tuners ( they were to busy making money off of their analog ) And of course their were enough folks pressuring their buddies in office not to make it happen. However FCC did mange to have both Congress and Senate pass the 2009 deadline in to law. So unless there is another act of congress- For sure get ready for a change in how your TV receives ( or does not receive ) a picture. Will the radio stations also need to follow suit? Time will tell, but for sure the day is coming for the conversion. And it will happen.

Oh and in case you have not bought a car lately..... Check out what type of radio they have.

I'm not arguing that digital's not coming - it's already here. I'm just trying to get clarification on this supposed 2009 "deadline". So far, you haven't cited a single piece of evidence for it, and all the evidence I've found refutes it. If Congress passed a law, surely you can find some reference and point me to it. I'm sure others reading this thread would be interested too.

Here is a start for you with the link below if you want to search further. I will also do some research on the raroi end of it. I myself hope they keep brodcasting my favorite analog station for years!

FCC tuner mandate: You may have heard that all TVs will have to be HDTVs by a certain date. That's not technically correct. The FCC has mandated that as of March 1, 2007, all new TV and video products imported into the U.S. or shipped to retailers that include an analog (NTSC) tuner need to have a digital ATSC tuner as well. There's a loophole though: if the product contains no tuner whatsoever--for TVs, this means it's a "monitor"--then the mandate does not apply. As a result of the mandate, nearly all televisions sold after that date should be ready for the analog switch-off.

Analog TV broadcast switch-off: In December 2005, the Senate passed a budget bill that calls for over-the-air television stations to cease their analog broadcasts by February 17, 2009. After that date, TVs and other gear with old-style NTSC tuners will be incapable of receiving over-the-air broadcasts. Part of the government's quandary is that the switch-off would cause thousands of TVs to go dark and would deprive many lower-income viewers of their only source of television. To address this issue, lawmakers propose to subsidize converter boxes that would allow people to watch the new digital broadcasts on their old analog TVs. The subsidy currently calls for $40 coupons to be given to households who want to buy the estimated $50 to $70 boxes. Given the slow progress over the last nine years since the introduction of digital and HDTV, we wouldn't be surprised to hear of more changes before 2009.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7608_7-1016109-3.html