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Gadgets Best Buy Ditches Analog TVs
Brandon Hill (Blog) - October 18, 2007 8:46 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 51 comment(s) - last by Fnoob.. on Oct 19 at 8:17 PM

Mitsubishi 73" 1080p DLP HDTV
Best Buy says "So Long, Farewell" to analog televisions

Over-the-air (OTA) analog TV broadcasts will be eliminated completely from the U.S. on February 17. 2009. Thanks to regulations from the U.S. government, all OTA broadcasts from that point on will be all-digital.

In order to accommodate customers who rely on analog OTA broadcasts, the government will issue two $40 coupons to each American household which are good towards the purchase of a digital-to-analog converter box. According to early estimates, the converter boxes will retail for $60 to $70.

Best Buy, however, is ahead of the game and has completely exited the analog TV business. The company has removed all analog TVs from its stores and from now on will only sell models with digital tuners included.

Best Buy also announced that it will sell the upcoming DTV converter boxes and will accept the government issued coupons to use towards the purchase price.

"We are committed to helping people understand the digital television transition, and exiting the analog video business is one way we can help avoid confusion," said Best Buy senior VP Mike Vitelli.

"Customers can now be sure that any television they purchase at Best Buy will be fully compliant with the digital television transition. And for customers who aren’t in the market for a new television, we can help you find the best solution to meet your needs."

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How many does this effect?
By Souka on 10/18/2007 11:08:09 AM , Rating: 2
How many people in the US use OTA to view TV? Numbers? Percentages?

This whole "drop the analog" seems to be sooo overhyped, and I"m sure the TV manufacturers are kicking in $$$ so that people run out and buy new TVs

my $.02




RE: How many does this effect?
By imperator3733 on 10/18/2007 11:16:42 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
How many people in the US use OTA to view TV? Numbers? Percentages?


I do when I'm at home. Even though my college has cable, I only watch the channels that are available OTA. Also, not everyone has cable or satellite TV. This is a BIG deal.


RE: How many does this effect?
By phattyboombatty on 10/18/2007 11:24:51 AM , Rating: 2
I use an antenna placed in my attic to pick up OTA HDTV signals of all my local networks, which supplements the channels I obtain through DirecTV. Although the networks are all available to me through the satellite, the quality is better OTA.

The vast majority of my television viewing is primetime network programming, so I've been tempted many times to just ditch the satellite tv altogether and have completely free television viewing.


RE: How many does this effect?
By Oregonian2 on 10/18/2007 1:21:46 PM , Rating: 2
Us too. Not upgrading directv to hd service until our "main" TV is upgraded (in the process...) and in the meanwhile, our bedroom HDTV is what I use for OTA viewing of the local HD channels, like an NFL game last Sunday... Watch broadcast TV very little, but do sometimes! :-)


RE: How many does this effect?
By omnicronx on 10/18/2007 12:22:16 PM , Rating: 3
Are you joking? If you live in a rural area and you don't have satellite you have two options, run a cable line to the city with your own bare hands(underground of course), or watch OTA stations.

I don't see why anyone cares anyways, you get free HD channels by law! Most of the time with a higher bitrate than what you get from your cable or satellite company(meaning it could look better depending on your tv). I live in Canada and across lake Ontario I am still able to retrieve a good 10 local HD channels from buffalo. Just imagine if you lived in NYC, for some, (my grandma included) there would be no reason to have cable or sattelite at all, as all the big stations are free.


RE: How many does this effect?
By Oregonian2 on 10/18/2007 1:29:42 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
If you live in a rural area and you don't have satellite you have two options, run a cable line to the city with your own bare hands(underground of course), or watch OTA stations.

Or get satellite. May be easier than the digging.

quote:
Just imagine if you lived in NYC, for some, (my grandma included) there would be no reason to have cable or sattelite at all, as all the big stations are free.


Might not go quite that far. HBO, Showtime, Skinemax, FNN, ESPNU, Food Channel, etc probably aren't on broadcast stations, even in NYC. Those are the BIG stations. :-)


RE: How many does this effect?
By omnicronx on 10/18/2007 2:19:49 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Or get satellite. May be easier than the digging.
Some people can't afford it, others don't need that many channels. Why should you be forced to have satellite if all you watch is on the free stations.

What i meant when i said 'big station' is the big networks, as in the big four (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). Channels like HBO and showtime in which you have to pay extra for on top of your normal cable/sat bill are not a must, and most people don't care for them at all.

This maybe news to you, but the majority of the US does not have more than basic cable. If you can get most of the channels you watch on basic cable for free and in HD, whats the point of having cable?

I for one subscribe to everything you mentioned, because i like sports and movies and HBO series, but for those that have no need, OTA HD is a really good solution


RE: How many does this effect?
By Oregonian2 on 10/18/2007 8:57:03 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Some people can't afford it, others don't need that many channels. Why should you be forced to have satellite if all you watch is on the free stations.


Still cheaper than the digging as WELL as easier. Sorry I didn't say it properly.


RE: How many does this effect?
By Nanobaud on 10/18/2007 12:32:34 PM , Rating: 2
Also, cable companies are already converting channels in the analog bands to digital. Comcast in our area int the last couple of weeks converted channel 11 (and one other analog channel I don't recall) to digital. No doubt before long there will be no place for analog tuners in the cable systems either.


RE: How many does this effect?
By softwiz on 10/18/2007 12:44:33 PM , Rating: 2
I've got a small RCA AC powered indoor antenna which was purchased in the late '90s. It still works today. It works fine for both analog and digital brodcasts and both VHF/UHF.

I find that analog stations are nearly impossible to tune with any kind of watchable quality while digital (HD and non-HD) stations come in with near perfect PQ and audio. There is ocassional artifacting or drop out but it's quite an improvement over analog broadcasting.

The HD OTA broadcasts received like NBC are better than that of cable (likely to overcompression of the signal on their end) but I've never had satellite so I don't know how it compares to that.


RE: How many does this effect?
By mindless1 on 10/18/2007 9:27:41 PM , Rating: 2
While analog is inferior in many regions, it's more a matter of location and your small indoor antenna than anything else. Many who extensively watch analog do have an outdoor antenna on the roof, they used to be quite common.


RE: How many does this effect?
By nowayout99 on 10/18/2007 1:23:40 PM , Rating: 2
Estimates are in the neighborhood of 10-12% using OTA.

It's definitely a minority impacting the VERY rural areas the most.


RE: How many does this effect?
By omnicronx on 10/18/2007 2:29:28 PM , Rating: 2
Pre FCC shutdown numbers mean little if nothing. Right now the only(mostly) people using Digital OTA are enthusiasts with HD-TV's. And how many people have HD-TV's in the United states? 10-15%.. maybe? Until the analogue shutdown occurs and people currently using the old analogue OTA system are forced to go and get digital boxes, those numbers are quite useless.

Remember, there are going to be a lot of people who currently use OTA with their CRT analogue TV that will be forced to get a digital box, let alone the amount of people living in the city that want free HDTV channels. It won't be until the vast majority of these people switch that the real usage numbers become apparent.


RE: How many does this effect?
By mindless1 on 10/18/2007 9:30:54 PM , Rating: 2
Did you realize that most of america is "rural areas"? Granted, cities have large populations but since the conversion to digital wasn't just in the cities...

Plus, I suspect the 10-12% estimate is on the low side, as those better connected will be more apt to participate in such surveys, and those with the disposible income for such luxuries tend to have more time to participate in a survey.


RE: How many does this effect?
By SonicIce on 10/18/2007 1:38:10 PM , Rating: 1
me!
i quit tv tho


RE: How many does this effect?
By bunnyfubbles on 10/18/2007 5:29:36 PM , Rating: 2
you might be right about non HD and cable, however I'm sure there MANY people like me who have cable but use OTA signals for at least the primary networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc...) as other HD sources simply don't match the quality (or at least not yet)


By snowcat on 10/18/2007 9:05:58 AM , Rating: 3
TVs with only analog (NTSC) tuners will no longer be sold at Best Buy. Analog TVs (CRTs are all analog) are still being sold and probably will be for years to come.

NTSC only TVs are already illegal to manufacture or import to America. The few that are in other stores have to have a warning label prominently displayed by the TV.

I imagine all other major retailers will follow suit pretty soon. There is no good reason to sell an NTSC-only TV except to get rid of old inventory.




By Locutus465 on 10/18/2007 10:05:15 AM , Rating: 2
I'm pretty sure what they're referring to is "analog" broadcasting v. digital broadcasting, which is the important part... How the signal is handled inside your TV really doesn't matter to anyone.


By h0kiez on 10/18/2007 10:29:27 AM , Rating: 2
True...but major retailers stopping the sales of analog TVs seems obvious. The demand for them has to be very minimal. It just doensn't make business sense.


By omnicronx on 10/18/2007 12:16:01 PM , Rating: 2
Not only that, we are getting to the point where a big heavy picture tube costs more or is on par with an LCD of the same size. Not only does it not make good business sense, it just doesn't make sense for the consumer to buy something that is inferior for the same price.


By mindless1 on 10/18/2007 9:35:32 PM , Rating: 2
Why imply it's the same price? Seems far more likely that old, soon to be obsolete tech would necessarily be lower priced just to get rid of it instead of having to throw it away and suffer inventory loss.


By Spivonious on 10/19/2007 3:09:57 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, most HD CRT TVs are quite a bit cheaper than their LCD/DLP/Plasma counterparts.