digital television

This week, the House passed a bill delaying the digital TV transition originally planned for February 17 to June 12. President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which would give your grandparents and Gossip Girl-addicted luddites another four months to ensure a broadcast signal by purchasing a digital television or government subsidized $40 convertor box.

The delay has been heralded by consumer advocates as a necessary measure to ensure that every American has the opportunity to make the transition from analog to digital broadcast television. 6.5 million households have still not made the jump and there have been problems with the government’s digital converter voucher program.

But not everyone is supportive:

Sean Captains extensive guide last week to next year's nationwide digital TV conversion featured some interesting comments from the vice president of Centris, a company that recently published a study suggesting the upcoming switchover to digital-only television broadcasts may leave millions of people across the country without a TV signal. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is offering people who have an analog TV a $40 coupon to put toward a converter box. Unfortunately, Centris VP Barry E. Goodstadt says, in certain pockets of the country, using a converter box still wont give you a signal if you dont have a powerful-enough antenna.

Today’s Global Positioning System is great for tracking tanks in the desert, but turn on your Garmin in New York City or inside virtually any building, and you’ll be staring at satellite static—GPS doesn’t perform well indoors or in urban canyons. Now a new technology is poised to pick up where GPS satellite signals cut out.

Developed by Rosum Corporation in Redwood City, California, TV-GPS, as the system is known, triangulates positions using television signals that are 2,000 times as strong as GPS satellite transmissions.