D-TV TRANSITION NOT A SMOOTH ONE
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 -- 11:19 AM
There was sure a lot of hype leading up to the transition to digital television, but there?s been much less follow-up on the process, which hasn?t gone smoothly.Most TV stations around the state made the switch one month ago.
If you weathered the transition just fine, you might be surprised to know many of your neighbors didn?t?and, in extreme cases, there might be nothing they can do to get a signal.
Sara Chitharanjan (sahr-ah chit-ah-rahn-zhan), Audience Services Manager for Wisconsin Public Television, oversees what has become a statewide call center for D-TV concerns.
The center is still receiving dozens of calls everyday from people who are struggling to pick up local digital signals. Viewers were led to believe, if they had the right TV or a converter box, they should be set for the transition.
That wasn?t the case.
"Some people are just confused. Others, you know, they have a 30-foot outdoor antenna and live 10 miles away from the station, they've never had any trouble, but now they can't their favorite station," she says.
Some fixes are easy, such as a simple move of the antenna. "That's been a huge mind-shift for a lot of people. It worked fine for the past 30 years, now they have to move it to make sure it works," says Chitharanjan.
But, many fixes have been very difficult. Especially in the Wausau market.
"They have just been riddled with issues," she sighs, "They switched from UHF to VHF. That switch in spectrum has caused unexpected loss of signal for a lot of people."
VHF travels further than UHF, but has difficulty penetrating walls. Engineers have told Chitharanjan virtually no one outside the city limits of Wausau can pick up the local stations unless they have an outdoor antenna.
And the problem might just get worse when the leaves appear on the trees, she warns.
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