Fed Up With Rotten HD Reception (connect, system, phone, HDTV)

[Editorialist]

I along with many others who cannot afford cable and have to rely on antennae boxes to receive the new HD television reception are getting absolutey livid over the lack of total reception that frequently occurs when we turn our TV's on.

They said the change was to bring an "improvement"? to TV. Well brother it sure AIN'T. In fact it is an outright disaster. Not only that but it is actually life threatening. By life threatening I mean when total loss of reception, both visual and audio, occurs you miss life saving information when a weather alert or other emergency alert is being played. THIS IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AND I AM FED UP WITH IT.

The old system was far better and superior. Even if the picture was faded you could always get the audio and get it on the FM receiver radios as well. Now that audio reception even on the FM receiver radios is forever gone.

Personally I believe the new system was set up deliberately to cause these blackouts of visual and audio reception to force people to cater to cable companies whose fees are forever increasing, but many people cannot afford these fees along with their continuous increases. If this be true those involved in such a set up to bring in revenues for these cable companies should be indicted for such unconscionable conduct.

Well, I have had enough and filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D. C. I hope many others who are fed up with this disastrous reception of TV signals will do likewise. Just type in Federal Communication Commission in your browser widow and when their site appears click "contact" and file a complaint, suggest you use their e-mail address which is simpler to handle.

In my e-mail complaint I have threatened to hold them liable for any injuries or death or destruction to property for inability to receive adequate visual or audio reception that could have prevented the above situations from occuring.

I hope many others will do likewise as this situation is inexcusable and the technology exists to correct it. If the cable companies are complicit in this situation they need to stop putting profit ahead of human life in this matter.

[plwhit]

You're going tho hold the FCC liable because you can't get weather alerts?

Good luck, if they reply to you at all they'll tell you go to Radio Shack and spend 20 bucks on a weather alert radio

RadioShack® Weather Cube Radio - RadioShack.com

Threatening to sue a government agency over something like this is beyond ludicrous......

If you have the money to sue the federal government you sure as heck can afford some type of cable/satellite service.

Get real dude/dudette..........

[thecoalman]

Have you tried a better antennae? One on your roof?

Originally Posted by Editorialist

They said the change was to bring an "improvement"? to TV.

That's one reason but the larger reason is digital transmission takes up far less airwaves. You can have more channels using far less bandwidth, what is left was auctioned off to other communication companies like cell phone providers . It's funny you are ranting about loss of communication because this move allows for more use of other modern communication devices. There is only so much OTA transmission space available.

The old system was far better and superior. .

The only thing better about the old system was if you had poor reception you'd get to at least see a snowy picture.

[Willsson]

The FCC should require any cable company with a local franchise to provide cable service of local stations to ALL known residences, free of charge. Cable has been around long enough that most, if not all, addresses have been wired for cable.

And to justify the expense to cable, I recently had my cable disconnected and use a digital antenna for local stations. I am able to hook up the left over cable line to my HDTV and receive most analog cable channels with no set top box, and many digital stations usually provided in the basic package. When returning the equipment, the counter person did comment that there was no 'block' scheduled for a cable lineman at my location. Hmmmm....

[NJBest]

Originally Posted by tofurkey

The FCC should require any cable company with a local franchise to provide cable service of local stations to ALL known residences, free of charge. Cable has been around long enough that most, if not all, addresses have been wired for cable.

And to justify the expense to cable, I recently had my cable disconnected and use a digital antenna for local stations. I am able to hook up the left over cable line to my HDTV and receive most analog cable channels with no set top box, and many digital stations usually provided in the basic package. When returning the equipment, the counter person did comment that there was no 'block' scheduled for a cable lineman at my location. Hmmmm....

I don't see how that would be profitable for the cable companies....

[bobrainman]

Lots of people try to recieve the signal with v.h.f. antennas (rabbit ears)
when the signal is u.h.f. which travels farther with less power.
Go to radio shack and buy a $4 bowtie u.h.f.antenna and a 300-ohm antenna wire to a 75-ohm input adapter and you will be golden.
Then make a little stand with a hole in it with a pencil or pen thru the slot of antenna so it stands upright and zippytwa.You now have better reception.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by tofurkey

The FCC should require any cable company with a local franchise to provide cable service of local stations to ALL known residences, free of charge.

This would increase the cost to me the paying cutomer and directly benefit another business.

[pcity]

TV is not a right. Get a better antenna or mount it in a better location.

[Febtober]

Seriously, you have no right to clear TV reception. I don't have cable either (Netflix + Hulu Plus = $16/mo for more TV than I could ever watch), but I do have the internet, a radio, and a telephone if I really need some emergency weather information.

And even if I somehow lost access to all of those, I still have my common sense. I'm not going to suddenly rush out to cut the grass in a hurricane just because i wasn't specifically told not to.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by NJBest

I don't see how that would be profitable for the cable companies....

You think it is the business of the government agencies to assure profitability to private corporations? They can assure themselves of that, without the help of the government.

Originally Posted by pcity

TV is not a right.

It used to be, though. TV uses the public airways, which belong to you and me, which we had a right to access. That was before the corporate sector took it all for themselves, and resold it to us.