Senate Looks to Spend $3B on Digital TV

Discussion in 'World Events' started by buffys, Oct 22, 2005.

  1. buffys Registered Loser Registered Senior Member

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    Senate Looks to Spend $3B on Digital TV (click to read)

    We know a lot of money gets pissed away but this expenditure is impressive (even for the government)... $3B... spent on tv.

    It'll be hard to argue that space flight is a waste of money after this.
     
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  3. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    This is more important than space flights.
    They should take the money from NASA to fund it.
     
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  5. buffys Registered Loser Registered Senior Member

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    nasa?

    EDIT - oh, the american space guys. They were good back in the day. I was trying to make a broader, more international, point.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2005
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  7. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    National Aeronautics and Space Administration
     
  8. Light Registered Senior Member

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    You think it's a waste? Actually, your not looking at the whole picture (pun intended).

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    The primary force driving the conversion is the saturated broadcast spectrum. At this very moment there is a serious shortage of frequency bands needed for public-service use. Fire, police, ambulances and the like. The only way to free up that bandwidth is to convert TV broadcasts to digital.

    And it's not like that money is coming out of thin air (actually, in a way it is)

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    or being taken out of people's pockets via taxation. A large portion of that bandwidth will be auctioned off and is expected to generate at least $10 billion.

    Bottom line is that the whole thing will more than pay for itself and those critical frequencies will become available which will benefit pretty much everyone.
     
  9. milkweed Valued Senior Member

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    Actually, after googling this issue, it seems there is not the pinch in communications between emergency personal that is being portrayed in this effort to convince the people of the need to switch. That is just the latest spin put out there to goad the masses into doing their "civic duty". Rather it seems the need to pay big money to switch is to accomodate the government and broadcasters, and high buck tv makers needs. The needs I see over and over, simply put are about money on every level I can determine.

    A 2 part article from austrailia that seems to point to other motivations:
    http://www.abc.net.au/http/sfist/cx980601.htm

    A clip from another site:
    How did broadcasters get so many members of Congress to sign off on this unprecedented taxpayer rip-off? Their argument went as follows: Broadcasters have historically been given free spectrum in exchange for a promise to "serve the public interest" with high-quality programming including local news, weather, and other fare. Therefore, to expand this "public trustee model" of free, over-the-air broadcasting, every local affiliate needs to be given an additional parcel of high-quality spectrum over which they can begin to make the transition to digital TV.

    Full story here: http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/011109-tk.html

    Article on communications issues during katrina. The title is misleading. When reading the article it clearly states some communications problems were software related. It also describes how many metro areas have adapted their communication issues. And this "It took only about 30 days to put in place the technology needed to improve communications. But it took about two years to get all the agencies _ police, fire, federal officials and others _ to agree to the plan, said David Boyd, the director of interoperability at the Homeland Security Department."
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/16/AR2005101600429.html

    What I do keep seeing in article after article is this: Legislation could set a date for the digital TV conversion so budgeteers can count on the billions of dollars to be reaped by auctioning analog spectrum to high-tech companies.

    Now are they saying my fire dept, the police, and the EMTs are going to be charged for using this spectrum? No, it doesnt appear that is what is going to happen. It appears they want to sell these airwaves to companies so they can charge me to use it (if I need or can afford whatever technology is being sold as a "sheesh everyone needs this". As another article points out there is much waste in the existing bandwidth that is available on the analog spectrum. The biggest problem going on there is laws that havent been changed regarding the spacing (miles) between broadcasters on a piece of this spectrum. And technological advances since the 50s have negated alot of the need for this spacing. So why cant they assign the existing openings for emergency use, even if I have to remember channel 9 is now located on channel 7. I have been through that before and I was able to adapt.

    It would be easy to relegate certain channels along the analog spectrum to emergency use only, by region or some other method. And I would have to imagine it would be less of a burden to fit various emergency communications towers with software to convert the Fed Level signal to the local level signal than to force millions of individuals to fork out additional cash for converter boxes, probably new (and huge) antennas. I know I have been looking into the switch. I have alot of obstacles for this WoW look at my great Picture!! TV viewing ability to work as advertised. Most of the solutions involve alot of extra money.

    .
     
  10. s0meguy Worship me or suffer eternally Valued Senior Member

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    It's important to invest money into digital telev... spreading propaganda to make the average American even more stupid.
     
  11. Shifty Russian International Man of Mystery Registered Senior Member

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    With Digital television, they watch their brain cells disappear with crystal clear resolution and from every different angle.

    - Shifty Russian
    www.WhoMakesYouSick.com ...tell the world
     
  12. cato less hate, more science Registered Senior Member

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    s0meguy is right. with broad band Internet catching on, and soon to be cheap for very high speed connections, the government needs a way to keep a media of propaganda open. if people start watching Internet tv with high resolution, there will be no need to turn on the boob tube and take whatever they feed you, because you can find whatever show you want. currently you can find several Internet tv "stations," and with winamp you can even find shoutcasts of specific shows (I watch the mystery science theater 3000 channel from time to time). there is no way someone is going to seek out political ads. I wonder how much money is spent nation wide every decade on campaign ads.

    perhaps I am overly paranoid, but the US government has made me quite weary.
     
  13. cato less hate, more science Registered Senior Member

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    if they are willing to spend that much on one election, imagine what they will do to keep their face in american homes.
     

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