[I had been thinking about this digital transition issue for a couple of months. I have 2 small battery powered B&W portable TVs that will be useless in the next hurricane emergency. Also, the very useful Ch2-13 TV sound tuner on my portable radio will not function after the transition. So far I have not seen any consumer-grade portable radios with ATSC sound tuners. Having TV sound via portable radio is very important in weather emergencies. In Houston our TV stations have local staff and put on continuous news & weather information during a storm. In contrast, very few "local" radio stations have any live, on-air studio staff; they are pretty much useless in a weather emergency. Everything is voice-tracked canned content off the station server or a satellite/broadband syndication feed from some distant location.]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-portabletv7-2008jul07,0,84190.story Portable analog TVs may be lost in digital transition Battery-powered hand-helds may be rendered useless when broadcasters switch to digital-only signals. By Jim Puzzanghera Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 7, 2008 Barry Spadoni first bought a battery-powered TV after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when his Chatsworth home was without electricity for 10 days. He later upgraded to a color model to stay on top of news during power outages -- and follow USC and UCLA football games from high in the stands. "Having that little TV stuck in the drawer, where you just have to put in batteries . . . that's very important if it's a prolonged outage," said Spadoni, a Wachovia financial advisor. But come February, Spadoni's hand-held TV and the millions of others in U.S. homes will face their own permanent outage. Almost all the battery-powered televisions stashed in drawers, closets and garages in case of emergency will be rendered useless when broadcasters switch to digital-only signals. And right now, there aren't many options for replacing them. Congress has mandated that all broadcast TV stations transmit only in digital beginning Feb. 18, making old analog sets obsolete. The federal government is offering each household https:// www.dtv2009.gov/ "> www.dtv2009.gov/ to buy converter boxes so those sets can pick up the new signals. But nobody manufactures a battery-powered converter box. And the few battery-powered digital TV models on the market start at about $200 -- a costly option for replacing portable sets that have become increasingly inexpensive in recent years. The loss of all those analog portable TVs removes an important way to communicate with the public during an emergency, said Keith Harrison, assistant administrator of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management. "When we get information out to people, we like to get it out by every means possible," said Harrison, who also is president of the California Emergency Services Assn. "A lot more people watch TV than listen to AM radio." But the digital TV transition isn't a major public safety issue because broadcast radio is still available to deliver important messages, he said. "In preparedness kits, we tell people to have a battery-powered radio," Harrison said. "While some people have battery-powered TV sets -- I know I have one -- not everyone does." Spadoni and others said there's peace of mind in knowing they can watch TV when the power goes out, particularly in areas such as California, with its wildfires and earthquakes, or the hurricane-prone Southeast. "We've been hearing a lot of concerns," said Gary McNair, general manager of WECT-TV in Wilmington, N.C. People in that coastal city are more attuned to the digital transition because broadcasters there will be turning off their analog signals permanently Sept. 8. In Wilmington, the test market for the Federal Communications Commission, the switch takes place in the middle of hurricane season. McNair and general managers from three other Wilmington TV stations wrote to local retailers last month expressing "significant concern about the availability of portable digital television sets" and asking that more be stocked. WECT also formed a partnership with a local FM-radio station to simulcast its TV news coverage in the event of a hurricane to compensate for the loss of portable analog TVs, McNair said. About 7% of households, or 8 million homes, owned hand-held TVs in 2006, according to the latest data from the Consumer Electronics Assn. With such a low figure, and more options for watching video on cellphones and laptop computers, it's no surprise there are few battery-powered digital TVs on the market, said Tim Herbert, senior director of market research for the trade association. Radio Shack is selling a battery-powered digital TV with a 7-inch screen for $199.99. And LCDDigital, a small manufacturer in Newport Beach, offers a 7-inch model for $249.99 and an 8.4-inch version for $349.99. "They've been selling like crazy," sales manager Peter Mamakos said. He said the company had sold thousands on its website, but he would not give any detailed figures. Still, those prices are much higher than what many people paid for their portable analog sets, which start as low as $30 and often include other features, such as a radio or flashlight. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which oversees the government's converter box coupon program, said it had not certified any battery-powered boxes. The FCC is warning consumers on its digital TV website that analog portable TVs won't work after Feb. 18 and that the only way to attach a converter box during an outage is to find an alternative power source. One converter box maker, Winegard Co., of Burlington, Iowa, is trying to fill the void. It plans to offer a $20 to $25 battery pack for its two models sometime in August, said Grant Whipple, national sales manager for the company's digital antennas and receivers. "A lot of people have these portable TVs," he said. "Those TVs are not going to work, and it's something that was a little bit overlooked at first." Spadoni, the portable TV owner in Chatsworth, said he would probably buy a digital model to replace his faithful old Casio. "Mine will just be trash," he said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ******************************* * POST TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ******************************* Medianews mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
