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Save your Television
As I'm sure most of you frightfully well-informed readers know, broadcast analog television is supposed to end, oh, 2009, I think. It was 2006, but a stay of execution has been granted. But, it's coming. This is being done because the world is going digital, and these new HDTV digital feeds are replacing the broadcasts of the old, fuzzy analog signals. What this means for millions and millions of people (my own cheap ass included) is that our old crapbox TVs will suddenly stop being able to receive free, analog signals and programming.
On one level, you might see this as a blessing, akin to the closing of an open sewer behind your house. But, even though 90% of TV is abject crap, it's still an incredible machine, and, I think, has lots of potential. And this new ruling, this killing of the old analog TV, seems like a great opportunity.
So in 2009 all of a sudden there will be about 20 million ¨obsolete¨machines in the US capable of receiving full-screen, full motion audio and video, far better and easier than anything that big stupid Internet does. Wirelessly, too. And (so far) no major companies will be interested in using them. Though lots of the broadcast spectrum is currently being auctioned off, there are still some interesting opportunities. Like local, indepedent TV stations. Stations with a broadcast range of just, say, Brooklyn or Silverlake or some other neighborhood-sized community -- or the broadcast TV equivalent of zines in the early 90s.
How would this be done? I'm not certain yet, but I'd bet it's possible to handle many of the broadcast TV functions in a very stripped-down way via some clever interfacing of modern PCs and perhaps some modification of existing radio-frequency generators, as in all that Bluetooth and 802.11 stuff. Or hell, maybe lots of cheap old broadcasting equipment will show up on eBay. Some geek'll figure something out.
20 million recieving sets all over the place just seems to big to ignore; I can't imagine people are going to just chuck all their old TVs in the trash at once -- they've got at least a few years of closet-sitting to do, I'd bet.
Anyway, I'd be curious to hear what others think of this possibility. Especially the many, many others smarter than me.
Posted by Jason Torchinsky on 07/18/2005 | Permalink
Comments
I've heard this argument before. I think however a far more likely, higher quality alternative will be easy-to-make amateur web-based television.
Wired Magazine just featured an article on the simplicity of Popcasting (www.popcast.com).
I believe televisions will end up being used in much more bizarre ways.
Posted by: Steve Pareidolia | Jul 18, 2005 6:54:00 PM
Pirate Television. Low Power TV. Nice. Actually Pirate Cat expanded their pirate radio empire into television in San Francisco just last year or so.
Posted by: Steve Lambert | Jul 18, 2005 7:53:46 PM
I don't see why people would need to throw out their analog TVs when everything is digital.
In Germany they've already stopped sending analog signal. To watch tv you need a cable hookup or satellite feed.
In other parts of the world, many people have already converted to digital -- they just need a box to "decode" their digital cable, or satellite signal.
Also, I don't think you can buy a TV that has a proper vhs/uhf tuning thing anymore.
Posted by: Jason Moore | Jul 19, 2005 12:55:00 AM
why does an image of the old sctv lead-in come to mind? all those clunky tv sets flying out of windows and crashing to the ground, the announcer braying 'sctv is now on the air!'...
Posted by: mike janson | Jul 19, 2005 10:28:06 AM
Videodrome?
Posted by: Zach | Jul 19, 2005 12:33:13 PM
Pirate TV is the way to go. Stephen Dunifer of Free Radio Berkeley fame has already developed an inexpensive system, which is probably what Pirate Cat TV is using. I interviewed Dunifer about his plans for my radioshow.
Here's a link to my response and that interview:
http://www.mediageek.org/archives/002675.html#002675
Posted by: Paul Riismandel | Jul 19, 2005 5:42:43 PM
Hmmmm.... Government is mandating digital TV, because the world is going digital, because....
Must be a circular argument in there somewhere.
Reminds me of the memos I'm always getting from HR justifying some new ass-brained policy, because it's the "industry trend"-- because it's being implemented by ass-brained management everywhere, based on what they hear ass-brained management is doing everywhere else.
Posted by: Kevin Carson | Jul 21, 2005 12:15:11 PM
It's sp funny... I'm launching a two-prong (he, he) non-commercial community media venture that will 1) visit homes and interfaith/community centers and play otherwise unaccessible movies and videos (including the original ones I'm slowly getting together myself) and 2) alternately make them available on DVD-R, SVCD, and DivX for a small "request" fee. I might jam Cablevision's "You just need iO" digital cable PR campaign and let folks know that there IS life (!) beyond HGTV and SciFi...(besides I could do showings in Japanese and other tongues Cablevision won't give the suburbs...!) Yum.
Posted by: Philip David Morgan | Aug 3, 2005 1:28:30 PM
