Friday, June 12, 2009

Analog shut-off, for real this time

You know I had to chime in regarding today's place in the history of television broadcasting. For now, though, I have just one thing to share. After my normal routine of getting up and showering, I went down to the basement and turned on the DirecTV. (Because we live in the middle of nowhere we are able to get the New York and Los Angeles network affiliates on the dish as DirecTV doesn't provide this area with the Wichita channels.) Since the NY stations were already into the national morning news shows I just went straight to the LA channels, who were starting their local news for the day. Couldn't find any news items regarding the switchover but I acknowledge I didn't have a lot of time to sit, watch, and wait. However on KABC there was the crawl saying "If you are seeing this, your TV is not ready for the transition..."

Does DirecTV take its national network feeds directly from the stations' over-the-air transmission? I guess so, although I hope they give the Los Angeles market viewers the digital signal of KABC and the other locals otherwise some viewers in the Southland will be mighty confused.

Yes, I set the DVR to record KABC's analog shutoff at noon Pacific time. If I am indeed getting the analog feed it should be an interesting view.

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