DTV Reception Problems Remain for Some Well After Transition
The only remaining DTV problem for a significant number of viewers is reception of digital broadcasts because of signal propagation changes from analog and the need to reposition antennas, our survey of industry and government officials found. The nationwide end of what was called nightlight service -- broadcast of informational messages about DTV on an analog signal -- didn’t bring new problems or cause consumer confusion, said all 10 officials we spoke with. Respondents said they had heard of no lack of digital converter boxes or antennas, despite earlier fears of regional shortages.
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Problems persist with reception (CD July 2 p2). Sometimes they can’t be solved by moving an antenna outside, respondents said. The FCC has helped broadcasters with viewer reception problems in about 10 cities and is preparing more-detailed engineering work in several cities, said a commission spokesman. Chicago and New York are among the cities that may get extra attention, he said. “We're going to do some more sophisticated testing.”
“What we're looking at right now is to solve some reception issues,” which often are resolved when consumers move antennas outdoors to pick up VHF signals, said President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service Television. “The key issue really has been the high Vs in large markets.” A lesson of the transition is that “interference issues are also going to be significant in the digital world, and we have to make sure” the signals are protected, he added.
Individual stations and the NAB continue to collaborate “closely with the FCC” to “work through these reception issues,” said a spokeswoman for the group. “Reasons for these reception issues are complex” and include the need to properly set up antennas and converter boxes, she added. “It really can run the gamut. There’s no one size fits all answer as to why there are reception issues in a given market … and we hope to see those resolved very soon.”
DTV inquiries to stations, the FCC and a contractor handling calls have fallen in the weeks since the June 12 transition from analog of the remaining full-power broadcasters, they said. With no more than 10,000 calls to 888-CALL-FCC most days recently, “we're not getting the level” of contacts received during the transition, the commission spokesman said. Communication Service for the Deaf, which has an FCC contract to take DTV question through month’s end, got 350 daily on average July 6-15, a spokesman said. Most people wanted general information on the transition, and only 68 asked about signal loss or reception, he said. For WXXI Rochester, N.Y., a PBS affiliate that had an FCC DTV contract, “things are settling down,” said General Manager Susan Rogers.
“Lots of consumers are having trouble getting uninterrupted reception from some of the major broadcasters,” said analyst Joel Kelsey of Consumers Union. Neither he nor FCC or industry officials could estimate the number of people who can’t receive all the channels in their market. Some viewers are justifiably “scratching their head” about how to “troubleshoot signal-strength issues,” Kelsey said. The number of people considered unready for DTV “will continue to decline, but it’s hard to say where it will rest,” said Vice President Eric Rossi of Nielsen. It estimated that 1.5 million homes couldn’t get DTV July 12.
Some viewers in Rochester, N.Y., Sacramento, Louisville, Puerto Rico and elsewhere have had to move antennas outdoors to get DTV, re-scan channels on converter boxes or in some cases may not be able to get a channel altogether, the survey found. “The Rochester area is still a problem for some viewers -- they can get some stations, but not others” after WHEC and WHAM moved to VHF, said Rogers. That “required re-scanning, confusing many viewers,” she added. On and near mountains in Puerto Rico, some viewers can’t get at least one station from nearby cities like Fajardo, said Nixyvette Santini, a member of the territory’s Telecommunications Regulatory Board and a committee that advised the FCC on DTV. “The quality of the signal is great when you receive it right,” she added. “But for some people who cannot see the channel they could get previously, they are like, ‘Oh, my God, this is bad.”
The shutoff of analog nightlight broadcasts, which occurred in stages through July 12, caused no problems, said stations that ran the service and other sources. “The Friday shut off was pretty much a non-event” at WXXI, Rogers said. General Manager Elliott Troshinsky of KCRA Sacramento, which stopped nightlight service July 12, said, “I think it went very smoothly and it did what it was intended to do, and we haven’t had any calls to the contrary.” General Manager Glenn Haygood of WLKY Louisville said: “Calling the service that we provided in the last couple of weeks of the nightlight service ‘nightlight’ was pretty appropriate because you probably wouldn’t have noticed if it had gone out. I don’t think anybody noticed that it did go out on the 12th of July. It pretty much ended as we thought it would, and that was very quietly.”