The Switch to Digital (why is the gov't in on this?)

[Bloodshot Scott]

Is this another way for the United States Government to pry? It seems odd that the US government is in the Television business. From link:

This had me start thinking about the possibility of the Government, CIA, NWO using this as a new way to Spy on the US and beyond.

Most of all the DTV boxes are made by Motorolla and that started me thinking of the possibility of cell phones already being used to do this. Then I thought about Apple and the iPods, iphones, but thats another story.

what really bothers me is the government control of the media/programming. How much easier it'll be for NWO or anyone else to control what goes into our pitiful little minds (SOME people in this country are easily swayed, unlike most of us here) They'll have the majority focused on Brittany Spears and her antics while they are able to get away with whatever they want. The "dumbing down" of the masses is what it's all about to me.
The signs are all there, from schools teaching kids to be good little workers, to government control of spankings, smoking, etc. The more they chip away at what we listen to, what we watch, etc, the less we can adequately participate in democracy.
To take it further, they will be able to slip in subtle mind control, messages. It isn't voodoo -- simple suggestions are all it takes.
When they take away free, public television and local channel access, they CONTROL completely and utterly everything that gets on the air. Period. There will be no way at all for any sane voice to intrude on their plans.
BTW, tied into this is the fact that they are REMOVING emergency radio channels -- primarily 121.5 the UNIVERSAL radio emergency channel. How better to eliminate ANY way at all for us to communicate the deeper we get into their ugly future.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread310740/pg1

We all are forced to switch to "digital" on June 12, 2009. So-long old TV set in the garage. :crash: Will radio be next?????? To be continued....

 

[Legzman]

I've never understood why the government is pushing for the digital transition.

 

[afkallthetiem]

Not that odd, media dominates public opinion, it's the GOV's best bet to stealthily invade it and influence it, its the same reason they took over religion long long ago, but now that it's out of fashion they have to take over ('lie'beral media aka television) since being demo is cool again.

The NWO quip is funny though, did you get it from Alex Jones' website?

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Not that odd, media dominates public opinion, it's the GOV's best bet to stealthily invade it and influence it, its the same reason they took over religion long long ago, but now that it's out of fashion they have to take over ('lie'beral media aka television) since being demo is cool again.

The NWO quip is funny though, did you get it from Alex Jones' website?

Nah. Juust ran a search. This has bothered me since it first became pursued by the Crooked Hill cats. It just bothers me that our medium of television is now finished because of the government. It's one of the oddest things that have occured in my life, IMO. (I'm 20's, btw). I'm actually very surprised that internet has not been censored yet. The New World Order is real, IMO, and I don't think that people that believe such should be vilified or wrote off as wackos.

 

[jewelcity]

They want to be able to watch themselves talk about meaningless shit but look good doing it...but with better quality.

 

[METAL HEAD]

becuase cable is now a dead format. but cant we find one format too put everything on finally so we never have to re-buy or re-connect anything ever that would be great.

 

[Fairchild]

Just don't watch the crap. I kicked my TV set out years ago, and I haven't missed it once.

 

[Mr. Daystar]

Since digital is two way, I have friends that have speculated it's because the Government wants to listen in on our lives. If I am to understand correctly, the only people that have to get the boxes, are people with older sets, so if you DO NOT have cable, or satellite, but your television IS digital, you're good, and your antenna should work. As far as the government using it to spy, or influence...they've been doing it without the conversion boxes anyway, and with the aide of the patriot act making it easier, they don't need it anyway.

 

[Hot Mega]

Is this another way for the United States Government to pry? It seems odd that the US government is in the Television business. From link:

Get some sleep "Bloodshot..". I wouldn't lay awake at night worrying about this.

Shortest version I could come up with (I promise). Let's start with the premise that the nature of rf (aka radio) spectrum communications are such that there needs to be some governing authority to regulate US non governmental use of them. So the g'ment created the Federal Radio Commission which was later replaced by the FCC. The FCC eventually took over regulation of all wire communications too from the Interstate Commerce Comm.

The FCC licenses terrestrial tv broadcasters to operate on free over the air analog frequencies (or channels). When the digital channel spectrum was developed the FCC issued digital channels to broadcasters instead of auctioning them. The condition, the licenses for their analog channels would not be renewed.

If their analog licenses won't be renewed then they would need to convert to digital by some predetermined date.

Why this is important to the FCC is most likely because over time the rf spectrum has become over crowed and the move is aimed at freeing up rf spectrum channels for other uses.

Keep in mind, this only applies to a minority of channels since most of the channels everyone typically watches are not free, broadcast channels but delivered directly to subscribers via cable or satellite. Since cable and satellite operators also deliver free channels over their networks there were mandates place on them as well.

The creation of the FCC is consistent with the creation of other independent g'mental agencies like the SEC, FTC, etc.

 

[Hot Mega]

Since digital is two way, I have friends that have speculated it's because the Government wants to listen in on our lives. If I am to understand correctly, the only people that have to get the boxes, are people with older sets, so if you DO NOT have cable, or satellite, but your television IS digital, you're good, and your antenna should work. As far as the government using it to spy, or influence...they've been doing it without the conversion boxes anyway, and with the aide of the patriot act making it easier, they don't need it anyway.

Digital has nothing to do with "two-way" (simplex or duplex) communications. In order to get a signal with any intelligence on it from point A to point Bs (in this case what we say) is with a transducer for detection and a transmitter that sends the signal back.

Unless television or converter boxes are being set up these mechanisms (which are easily detectable) the suggestion doesn't sound reasonable IMO.

Now the case could be made that free channels are only one way because they are broadcast, transmit only. But as I said, most people view these channels as delivered over digital signals already by their satellite or cable carriers which is already full duplex.

 

[D-rock]

They constantly talk about how switching to digital was to improve performance or to have space on the spectrum for more reliable emergency services, but the dominate reason in my opinion for it is so the government can auction off parts of the spectrum that analog television was on to business both to bring in some cash for itself and to cozy up to and give it to their friends in business that will use it. It's never really been about what's best for the populace as a whole. If we are lucky we will see at least some benefit for it.

 

[Jagger69]

Ooooo-eeeee-oooooo. It's Big Brother calling. 1984 25 years overdue.

If the government wants to spy on us, they don't need a fucking box just for people still using rabbit ears instead of cable or satellite.

 

[Skyraider22]

Ooooo-eeeee-oooooo. It's Big Brother calling. 1984 25 years overdue.

If the government wants to spy on us, they don't need a fucking box just for people still using rabbit ears instead of cable or satellite.

Enough said:thumbsup:

 

[ChefChiTown]

I've never understood why the government is pushing for the digital transition.

It makes sense if you think about it. They are basically just setting a standard for television formatting. Just how there is a standard format for CDs, DVDs, floppy disks (etc), the same will happen with the formatting of television.

 

[D-rock]

It makes sense if you think about it. They are basically just setting a standard for television formatting. Just how there is a standard format for CDs, DVDs, floppy disks (etc), the same will happen with the formatting of television.

A standard format for all those other things wasn't just set by anybody. There was a lot of competing things and they are just what won out when people chose that over the competing products.

 

[ChefChiTown]

A standard format for all those other things wasn't just set by anybody. There was a lot of competing things and they are just what won out when people chose that over the competing products.

Yes, but it's still regulated. CDs aren't all the same format and same size for no reason; it's all regulated and controlled, just to make it easier for everybody that's involved (manufacturers, retailers, consumers). There is no confusion as to what people are dealing with when they own a CD or have a problem with a CD. If your CD player is broken, the standards and regulations that have been set in place are what make it easy for almost any technician to help you. There aren't any competing formats, since everything is regulated, which takes any almost any confusion that one might have when maintaining CDs/CD players, making it a less complicated and easily accomplished process. The same goes for the digital transistion with TV. It will all be the same format, so confusion is much less likely to occur with maintainence.

 

[Hot Mega]

Yes, but it's still regulated. CDs aren't all the same format and same size for no reason; it's all regulated and controlled, just to make it easier for everybody that's involved (manufacturers, retailers, consumers). There is no confusion as to what people are dealing with when they own a CD or have a problem with a CD. If your CD player is broken, the standards and regulations that have been set in place are what make it easy for almost any technician to help you. There aren't any competing formats, since everything is regulated, which takes any almost any confusion that one might have when maintaining CDs/CD players, making it a less complicated and easily accomplished process. The same goes for the digital transistion with TV. It will all be the same format, so confusion is much less likely to occur with maintainence.

That's an example of an industry de facto standard when industry self-regulates a market extinction of one product, format or practice in favor of another.

In other words, one industry product, practice or format is so widely accepted it doesn't make any business sense for anyone to pursue the other.

It happened for example with Sony Minidisc versus the 4.5 inch disc...the 4.5 inch wasn't even the superior technology but because the 4.5 inch format was so widely integrated in things like automobiles, audio components, computers, etc., Minidisc went the way of the dinosaur.

Manufacturers won't support multiple platforms that do essentially the same things.

Having said all of that, this has nothing to do with free over the air analog to digital conversion. Which is simply about the FCC not renewing analog, terrestrial broadcast licenses. If they're not going to renew those license then certainly a condition of keeping the new digital license is contingent on broadcasting digital by some date.

That happens all the time. In particular when cellular carriers were awarded their licenses. They only had so many years to provide coverage (or signal) to the edges of their CGSA defined in their license, otherwise they would have lost the license to provide coverage in the areas they didn't.

 

[hedonis]

The government is in on this because of the same reason that the government is in on anything:

M O N E Y



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