ATSC vs ISDB-T heads up

[MikeWa]

Silly me. Who would think the Japanese would do TV different? I just returned from a few weeks in Okinawa Japan where I tried to hook up a TV to an antenna. First I purchased the TV at an American military base. Much cheaper. Then I took it into town and tried connecting it to an antenna. It scanned for channels and found none. 0, kaput, nothing. After praising myself repeatedly for my brilliant plan, I tried my sister in laws store bought TV. Works fine. Turns out US televisions use the ATSC standard while the Japanese and Brazil use ISDB-T. In other words a different broadcast standard. So my base purchased TV will not work with an antenna in town or anywhere in Japan for that matter. How cool is that?

Upon returning the TV to the base exchange I learned they had never heard of this difference before. But they had sent all of their antennas back because they would not work for over the air broadcasts. They deduced all bad antennas. Base housing uses mostly cable you see. It's good to know someone is on top of all this because I talked to them about my intended use before I purchased and all was good. Finally all of this means do not purchase an over the counter TV in Japan and expect to use it in the US or visa versa unless of course you are on cable.

 

Mike

[videoarizona]

Yea and the rest of the world uses other standards as well...

 

OH...in case you are wondering...the FCC (Silly lawyers who think they are radio and TV engineers) has made he final decision on the new TV standard for the USA. It will still be NTSC but a newer digital standard. ATSC 3.0. Remember the fun we all had when we went digital? Our TV's no longer worked and we had to either buy a new Digital tuner TV or get an adapter box for a few bux.

 

That's where we are heading again. The new digital standard is NOT compatible with the current digital standard, so our wonderful 4K TV's we got for Christmas won't work without a converter box unless they already have the new tuners in them. The new digital standard will now allow many more channels in less space..freeing up more airwaves for the cable and phone companies. Of course this also means my $2,000 wireless microphones will no longer be allowed as the space they use is now being "given" to others. It will also allow cable and TV to offer a better streaming experience with 2 way communication from your house to your supplier. It's a bit of a political play as well from cable companies. But they are always on the short end of the stick as they only have so much bandwidth going through those pipes. I don't care about them since I'm over the air. it just bothers me that my little TV's that are only a few years old will need a converter box in the near future. I really don't like the politics in this...but so be it.

 

So before you buy a new TV in the upcoming year, know that unless it has the new ATSC 3.0 tuner built, (and it may have in a few months or sooner) you will need to buy a box for it to work. Time frame isn't nailed down for the conversion to start....but that should be your #1 question to the salesperson...is it capable of receiving the new tV standard?

[slowrollwv]

We just got a 60" flat screen tv for the living room last fall and we are just about to cut the cable ties and go to Dish or Sling TV. Tired of the big bills. And if we go with Dish we can get the small Dish for the motorhome also.