my thanks to afterdawn, this is a possibly invaluable resource.

i have no personal use for it, but i've taken to trying to inform any one i know who will be affected about it. i don't see why the government didn't compile this sort of list. if anyone was at home in those empty heads there would have been provisions for lists like this one written into the legislation.

I Honestly i want know who there going to sell the free'd up Spectrume band to im keeping my old tv handy just in case.

that way i can sneak a peak at whatever there doing on that band

The list of specifications for each box should include "Smart Antenna" capability. Some boxes are compliant with the EIA/CEA-909 standard that allows them to control a smart antenna that automatically adjusts to bring in the best reception for the channel chosen.

Consumer Reports and HearUsNow.org have a great information site on DTV.
http://www.hearusnow.org/tvradio/12/

And they set up a way to share your experience with the transition to digital television.
http://cu.convio.net/HUN_shareyourDTVstorypage

Consumer Reports site with all the info: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/elect...v-206/index.htm

The specifications listed for the Approved Devices includes categories that are prohibited on approved boxes, such as dvi, hdmi, component, ethernet, firewire, digital audio outputs as well as any inputs other than RF. Why even include them on the spec sheet. Only leads to more confusion.

Originally posted by blairj:

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The list of specifications for each box should include "Smart Antenna" capability.

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Thanks for the feedback, this feature has been now added to the category and we've assigned this data to all DTV converters that we could find specs for.

Originally posted by jrm01:

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The specifications listed for the Approved Devices includes categories that are prohibited on approved boxes, such as dvi, hdmi, component, ethernet, firewire, digital audio outputs as well as any inputs other than RF. Why even include them on the spec sheet. Only leads to more confusion.

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Because we list all DTV converters in that category, not just coupon-eligible ones -- if you look at the links in the bottom of the article, one leads to a quick search for coupon-eligible boxes, one for all DTV converters.

[quote
Because we list all DTV converters in that category, not just coupon-eligible ones -- if you look at the links in the bottom of the article, one leads to a quick search for coupon-eligible boxes, one for all DTV converters.

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That is the list that I am talking about. When you click on the approved list and then check the specs of any of them you indicate "information not available" for many items which are on the not-permitted list. It just seems that it would be more meaningful to indicate "not-permitted for approved devices" for these categories.

BTW, several of the approved boxes indicate they have composite inputs. They could not be approved were this true. I noticed it for the Sansonic and Homecast, but I only checked a handful.

AD is incorrect, as are many others, to report "the end of analog TV". In fact, only terrestrial (wireless) signals are required to go digital. Cable TV delivery is unaffected by the new requirements, and providers such as Comcast show no intention of stopping analog cable transmission.

However, if you have recorded episodes of cable transmissions from a year ago, compare them to current transmissions of the same content and you'll discover that cable companies are degrading (downsampling) the digital and HD signals provided to them as default by the content producers. Artifacts indicative of poor conversion are meant to induce customers to switch to more expensive digital cable plans. And in the case of HD, at least with Comcast (and just like AT&T with default telephone ID components (Caller ID)), the HD content is blocked (downgraded) (even with digital cable) unless the customer chooses to fork over an additional monthly fee for the HD which the content producers provided in the first place.

I wish we had something like this for Australia.

Originally posted by borhan9:

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I wish we had something like this for Australia.

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You mean coupons or a list of DTV boxes you could compare?