DTV Transition Discriminatory against Poor, Elderly

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kblessinggr

kblessinggr

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Sep 15, 2008
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Congress must act on TV switch, rights group says - CNN.com

...An official with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights said a delay is needed, but so is more money, after the federal government's fund to give people $40 coupons to help buy converters ran out of money in recent weeks.
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People who pay for cable or satellite TV service will be unaffected by the change.

Don't Miss
Delay of analog TV's death hits House snag
Those who will be cut off from free TV after February 17 -- barring a delay -- include "often communities of color, people who speak a language other than English, people with disabilities, low-income families and the elderly," a Leadership Conference on Civil Rights statement said.

"Though we're reaching a lot of the people who will be affected by the transition, what we're hearing is that folks are aware of the transition but confused," said Tania Maria Rosario, the group's coordinator for Seattle.

The delay passed in the Senate but was stopped by House Republicans last week.

All local stations will eventually pull the plug on the analog transmitters they've used since the invention of television. The stations have begun digital broadcasts over the past several years

Two members of the Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to Congress last month "to express our deep concern" that they were "nowhere near" ready for the deadline "to pull the plug on television service in millions of American homes."
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Christ... just how much time do they need, we been planning this shit for the last 10 years, and been pushing the DTV transition boxes (or warnings) for the last 5... IF you own/rent house/etc and couldn't afford a 40$ box in 5 year's time span, you obviously don't own/rent a house in the US.

Besides saying the transition is discriminatory is like saying the Internet is discriminatory against the poor cuz you normally have to buy a computer to get on (can't really say you have to pay for internet, cuz there's plenty of straight-dial-in free internet, course you need a phone line *doh* Lawsuit </sarcasm>) OR that Apple is discriminatory to the poor cuz their media players cost twice as much as the competitor's equivalent.

*facepalm*
 


I'm sure these elderly and poor folks have NO problem affording cartons of cigarettes on a weekly basis.
 
goddfadda said:
I'm sure these elderly and poor folks have NO problem affording cartons of cigarettes on a weekly basis.
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lol I've made the same observation several times in the past. I remember a neighbor wanting to borrow 10$ cuz they didn't have any cash til payday... what did they need it for? Food? A bill? Gas? phone card? nope... needed a 5th to calm "the nerves". (dude... if you're shaking that much cuz you haven't had a drink... alcohol isn't the solution to 'calming the nerves', but is rather the problem itself).
 
I don't know about you guys, but if they make it where I can't watch my stories, someone's ass is gonna get whipped.
 
The people that are complaining are the ones that need it the least.

And what's even MORE aggravating is the fact that when congress passed the DTV act, they allocated 20 million dollars to the converter vouchers. That 20 million lasted up until a few weeks ago. Now , they want to allocate 650 MILLION to the DTV converter boxes and other DTV related stuff....That's over 30 times more money than they've had over the past few years.

I'm telling you , people want to spend our tax money like it's water and that there's no tommorow.

I wonder what these people will do when the 2nd great depression hits due to their stupidity and carelessness.
 
"Though we're reaching a lot of the people who will be affected by the transition, what we're hearing is that folks are aware of the transition but confused," said Tania Maria Rosario, the group's coordinator for Seattle.
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I love how those commercials tell people to go to their website for more information.

On another note I steal cable so I hope it won't affect me. :)
 
I didn't read the article, but weren't there coupons distributed by the government that effectively made those converter boxes like $10? If a measly ten bucks is out of reach, perhaps its better you don't watch television.
 
"Though we're reaching a lot of the people who will be affected by the transition, what we're hearing is that folks are aware of the transition but confused," said Tania Maria Rosario, the group's coordinator for Seattle.
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It's going to be a goddamn zombie movie when all those confused old people start roaming the streets seeking Matlock, MacGuyver and Andy Rooney. I'm going to the Weapons thread...

I mean really, how is this confusing? If you've been around for a few decades you understand that technologies become obsolete. Did the government pay to buy you a CD player when tapes became obsolete? Has anyone bought you an iPod? I realize this isn't exactly the same because there is an input to make the device work, but I don't see anyone bitching about how they can't buy 2-stroke mix from a pump, they just buy the oil themselves.

If you're "confused" by the DTV transition and you haven't ever had the pleasure of being raped by cable companies thus far, then all you really need to do is buy any box that plugs into the TV at the local WalMart. DVD player, VCR, XBox, DishTV... just buy something and plug it in, voila, the TV is not worthless any more.

That said, I want to know which one of you bastards bought up all the gubmint sponsored transition boxes in order to resell them on D-Day (or T-Day, or whatever).
 
When I was a sophomore in high school (2002), I wrote a story for English class about a dystopian future where the government had become a financial and bureaucratic nightmare due to people defining things like television as a 'basic human right'.

Seriously.
 
I dunno man. Old people forget. My grandmother fucked up all her CDs the other week trying to get them to play on the turntable. Now I've got to download all that shit, put it on an SD, pop that in, and glue the fucker shut and tell her to just press play when she wants music.
Then again, she's senile...

What I find so odd is that the actual gear to process digital signal is small enough to fit in a small USB dongle, yet it's not being embedded directly in every TV. I'm still seeing plenty of Plasmas and LCDs for sale that say "analogue only", even though the change over happens this year.

Deliguy: You got a guide to that or anything?
I was stealing cable, until the digital change over a year and a half ago.
They deliver internet and TV on the same pipe here :D

Alexb: Still got it? Maybe you should post it ;)
 
HarveyJ said:
What I find so odd is that the actual gear to process digital signal is small enough to fit in a small USB dongle, yet it's not being embedded directly in every TV. I'm still seeing plenty of Plasmas and LCDs for sale that say "analogue only", even though the change over happens this year.
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There was a debate some years ago about which "Digital format" was going to prevail. Kinda like HD signals and so forth. Eventually most manufactures simply decided to resort to table top box or receiver for the conversion for four reasons.

1) If the standard does change, you won't need to replace your TV (course having upgradable firmwares would fix this).
2) The people who need the DTV decoding are ones without cable or satellite, and most who would buy a Plasma TV are usually getting it to hook up a game system, cable, computer, or satellite anyways.
3) People have been able to get Free-Over-Air digital HD signal for quite a few years already simply buying the necessary antenna.
4) More parts = more money raked in for accessories. Kinda like not having a printer cable included with a printer, or likewise an HDMI cable included with the TV or game system.
 
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