Personnel at channels 7, 9 and 20 have been hoping against hope that the conversion from analog broadcasting to the digital kind would go off without a hitch -- but my inability to get through to 9News' DTV help line after twenty or thirty tries yesterday morning was an indication of bumps on the information superhighway of the sort predicted in the January Message column "The Digital Conversion Will Leave Some Coloradans in the Dark." And indeed, there were enough problems to land a story about them on the front page of today's Denver Post. More telling, though, is the comment thread attached to a Channel 9 piece entitled "DTV Transition: Still Not Seeing a Picture?" Some people were happy with their digital signal, while others who initially had troubles were able to resolve them. But a good many others were shocked to discover that they'd lost all or part of the free-TV service on which they'd come to depend.
The contrast between the haves and the have-nots is exemplified by a poem offered by one poster called "Ode to DTV:"
DTV is for MeIf you turn on your TV
And Fuzz is all you see
Then you don't have DTV
Hahahahaha. Thank you.
To read more comments, pro and con, click "Continue."
Comments:
esievers wrote:
I installed the converter earlier this month. I did enjoy having the additional nbc & pbs channels, but the downside was that the sound was weaker (for example, if I disconnected the converter, I would have to immediately turn the volume down due to the difference in sound quality), and there were many skips and freezes in the picture. I assumed this would all be fixed when the digital went into affect, but now I see thick, slightly transparent vertical lines scrolling through the picture. My picture was crystal clear before installing the converter. It's worse now. Not happy.
4/17/2009 12:01 AM PDT on 9news.com
DENDude wrote:
KUSA-DT 1 DT 2 & DT 3 on regular Comcast cable are not coming in, and the regular channel 9 on Comcast is very snowy, and not clear anymore, what happened?
4/16/2009 10:31 PM PDT on 9news.com
agentdad wrote:
We have had two years to get ready for this---you're missing a lot more than the picture if you weren't ready----
4/16/2009 7:36 PM PDT on 9news.com
Dan303 wrote:
I presumed that the signal strength was increased to either 1MWatt or 10-MWatt. We are experiencing heavy snow is the south side of town and many of the DTV channels have disappeared!
I also had trouble scanning channels 7 and 9. I repositioned the indoor antenna and was able to successfully scan the new channels.
4/16/2009 6:56 PM PDT on 9news.com
GonzoCSU wrote:
Its sad, 9news was one of the few stations that actually had a northern news room and reports stories and weather for Fort Collins...but now we don't get a signal here and lost 7 and 9. We gained quite a few stations but lost the one I watched the most. Goodbye 9news :(
4/16/2009 6:51 PM PDT on 9news.com
Seanchai wrote:
>> pipermarbury wrote: I am thoroughly disgusted.<<
Me, too. People are going on and on about TV problems during a depression. It's not as if TV is a necessity of life. There are worse problems a family can have these days than not being able to get a couple of channels...
And, if you really can't afford a converter box even with a coupon, there's probably something more productive you could be doing with your time than watching TV anyway... - John
4/16/2009 11:09 AM PDT on 9news.com
9netre wrote:
It's not just northern Colorado that has issues. Parker has issues too. And living in a condo doesn't allow for an outdoor antenna. My $60 HDTV antenna just ain't good enough for 9news, only good enough for 7 & 20. "improve your antenna. " -- ha! Improve your signal!
4/16/2009 5:28 PM PDT on 9news.com
jmfay wrote:
Well; the number to call for 9; was useless!!! NO information on what antenna to buy for CO; just some snobby lady telling you go to the local store so gee the same no signal we got before without the $21.61 we spent for an indoor antenna still give us no signal. We asked the snob why there was no recoomendation for antennas for the millions of apts / condo residents and she had no answer!!! and then she hung up on us and told us to call back as if the phone line was going to be answered tomorrow!!!
There is no coupon for the antenna either!!! so now we have to waste more of our time and go return it and get another one that may or may not work. This is nonsense and analog worked just fine so why do we need digital??? and frankly we dont care about all the wonderful channels we would get when we cant get the basic of 4, 7, 9, 6, 12, 20, etc!!! We are left with now 14 which is Spanish; 59 and maybe a few others!!!
4/16/2009 4:49 PM PDT on 9news.com
gregfred wrote:
Like many other people here, I now can't get 9.1-9.3 on my new digital tv when I had no problem yesterday. If NBC is smart, they will move their programming over to 20.1 to retain at least some of their viewership. Now instead of watching The Biggest Loser, maybe I will get out and actually excercise on Tuesday nights. I take this as a reminder of how many more productive things I can be doing with my free time instead of watching tv (or posting here for that matter).
4/16/2009 6:54 PM PDT on 9news.com