[SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

[Bill Barrow]

I have been involved with the build out of DTV from day one. Most of the
part 73 stations are now up and running. The LPTV industry is looking for a
"cheap" deal to go digital and if you are familiar with some of the items
this industries now uses, you can see that the LPTV industry is in real
trouble.

I have one client who wants to flash cut to DTV. Throwing out all the
unreliable products I am know about, I handed the station a quote for about
$80K to go digital with an existing transmitter. This includes a new digital
exciter, filter and all encoding equipment including PSIP and the capability
to do at least two channels.

The Must Carry for cables system has ignored the LPTV group. Some have
purchased their way onto cable and others are picked up for free. Most have
no access. The main problem has been analog signal quality for LPTV along
with the cable industry complaints. Going digital can help to resolve this
particular problem.
The silver lining for the LPTV owners that if they can build a DTV facility
this may be the salvation of what will be left of the LPTV industry.

Regards,

Bill Barrow
Transmitter Specialist
Pro Service, Inc.
117 Broad St.
Hatboro, PA.
19040-3103
proservice117 at comcast.net
Phone 215 499 9104
Fax   215 672 8225



-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org]On Behalf Of
George Gonos, Leader
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:38 AM
To: 'sbe member discussion mail list'
Subject: Re: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?


Forgive me if my question is a little off-subject but I seriously wonder
what will happen to over 30% of the broadcast stations out there who do not
do local news and local origination.  Given that 85% of the audience is
receiving their signal through CATV and satellite and neither CATV nor
satellite have any legal (or business) obligation to carry the
signal......does this spell the end for these stations?  Have we actually
gotten to the point where we will allow a large portion of our terrestrial
coverage to disappear?

I know this is an old subject but I just realized that most people outside
our industry (and even some within) have no idea of the "must carry" issues
and do not really comprehend the conundrum that most small stations are
really facing as a result of this so called "transition".

I am trying to find out if there is a "silver lining" in this transition for
the small stations out there or if this transition will spell out their
doom.  Any feedback would be appreciated.

George Gonos


-----Original Message-----
From: Scherbring, Dale [mailto:dscherbring at pappastv.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:19 PM
To: sbe member discussion mail list; george at gonos.com
Subject: RE: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

Please buy one of those non-pass through DTV Converter boxes, hook it up to
your Analog TV set and then tell me how may LPTV signals you receive.
We did...zero...we needed to place an RF splitter before the box and a RF
switch after the box to make it work.

The pass through box acted like a TV/VCR switch on your home VCR, minimum
wiring for the average TV viewer...even if their VCR still has the 12:00
blinking.

If the PDF goes through the e-mailer, it shows what we are placing on our
DVT Education web page.



Dale Scherbring
Vice President-Director of Engineering
Pappas Telecasting Companies
(402) 554-4222 Office
(402) 981-3767 Mobile
dscherbring at pappastv.com


-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
McGlothen, Darryl
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 5:53 PM
To: george at gonos.com; sbe member discussion mail list
Subject: Re: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

One of my pet peeves is a television commercial that states "antenna tv's
will cease to function on Feb. 17th, 2009." The majority of television sets
have antenna inputs whether they are 'digital' or 'analog' and they will
continue to operate as they were designed. Only those analog sets that do
not have a digital converter box (STB) will be unable to pass OTA signals
broadcast only in digital. This will not impact LPTV broadcasters in spite
of the hype and scare tactics promulgated by cable broadcasters and
ill-informed but well intentioned TV broadcasters. Analog TV sets will
continue to receive and display analog LPTV signals without problem...analog
TV sets with digital tuners or STB's will continue to display OTA signals
until they die of old age.

There is no need to 'modify STB's' to accept analog RF inputs when a simple
antenna switch will allow both LPTV analog and converted digital STB's to be
routed to the antenna input of any analog TV set. There is no functionality,
however, to upconvert LPTV analog signals to digital receivers and therein
lies the only potential loss to LPTV broadcasters.
Proper (and accurate) education of broadcasters, re-broadcasters and viewers
will eliminate the dirth of confusion spawned by unscrupulous cable
advertisers.

Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of George
Gonos, Leader
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 6:01 PM
To: 'sbe member discussion mail list'
Subject: Re: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

I saw an article in TV Technology about a month ago and the LPTV guys are up
in arms.  There is a petition out there proposing to modify the design of
the government sponsored set-top box to allow for "analog TV"
RF inputs in order to service the LPTV application.

Given the first version of the box is already out (and they are still
talking about modifications?!?) I am sure they will eventually figure it out
but it may be long after they put most small broadcasters out of business.

George Gonos



-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
A9xw at cs.com
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 7:23 AM
To: sbe at sbe.org
Subject: Re: [SBE] Ready to turn analog back on?

In a message dated 3/10/2008 9:17:56 AM Central Daylight Time,
billb at khmt.com
writes:

>

> I received my first converter box call. You guessed it, she can not

> get

our

> analog signals and our digitals are still low power.


Well it is for digital TV, not the continuation of analog since analog TV
sets can still work for LPTV etc. If the converter box puts out baseband,
then use the line in on most TV sets, and if RF, add a simple
splitter/combiner to get the OTA antenna and the box output to the one
spigot on the TV marked ANT.
If your DTV is still low power, who's responsibility is that?
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