On Jun 4, 10:37 am, John Mayson wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jun 2007, wrote:

A few weeks ago at tvpredictions.com I read that there might not be
enough hd converters for analog tv when that big hd tv switch over is
suppose to happen on Feburary 17, 2009. (Katrina all over again)
cuhulin

I can't get over how few people I know, some of them engineers, know this
is even coming. I personally can't wait for millions of TV sets to go
dark, but hey, that's just me. :-)

--
John Mayson
Austin, Texas, USA


Wal Mart still is selling analog CRT TVs out the wazoo, they have
about a dozen different brands. Whoever is in charge of merchandising
in Bentonville doesn't know about it either. The weird thing is, Wal
Mart just remodeled the electronics sections in their stores to wedge
in flat screen TVs, and ended up with a huge section devoted to CRTs
and about six different flat screens, most of which are TFT (analog)
sets. I saw that and thought, boy are they gonna be sorry. They also
gave the heave ho to the cheap HD converter they were selling before.
Guess the profit margins weren't high enough for the Arkansas suits.

It is nearly impossible to get any HD converter at all unless you're
on the east coast. Best Buy sells a Samsung-for $180-but it's hidden
among the DirecTV boxes, on the bottom shelf. They have tons of HD
ready TVs, but what they don't tell you is that most of them need the
converter to receive HDTV. If you don't shell out extra for the
converter, you get analog TV. Same thing with cable, or satellite, you
need their special box to get HD signals. The vast majority of America
doesn't realize this, so the feds will switch off analog and everybody
will be blindsided.

The FCC promised $50 converters on every street corner when they
ordered the switchoff of analog, but that never materialized. The
price of a box has gone down only slightly from 2 years ago. The govt
is too spineless to order corporations to promote HD converters, or
sell them for subsidized prices, or even notify the public that analog
is about to be switched off. The only mention I've seen has been in
newspapers-in the columns written by the chitchatty not-real-news
columnists hidden on the inside. There has been virtually zero mention
of this on the nightly news, or on TV newsmagazines, or in Time or
Newsweek.

I'm starting to think it's deliberate-they WANT people to panic when
their TVs get switched off, then rush out all at once to pay $3000 for
a converter box and $15,000 for a TV. Sony did the same thing with the
Playstation 3-created a hysteria for the product, artificially limited
supply, then milked the frenzy for all it was worth. In the end, the
PS3 was far inferior to the Nintendo Wii. Six months later, the Wii is
still a strong seller while PS3 units collect dust. Everybody who paid
thousands of dollars for the PS3 on ebay suddenly realized that they
got ripped off big time. Sony probably lost many customers that
they'll never get back. Sony probably won't be around for much longer-
they're still focused on money losing small time consumer electronics
like the Discman. They needed a PS3 frenzy to save the company. Now
people realize that they were scammed, and Sony is in extremely deep
doo doo with formerly loyal customers who feel used. The corporations
that are looking to create a panic over high definition TV and radio
are sailing in the same dangerous waters. People will riot over the
sudden switchoff of TV and pay huge money for HD, only to realize that
they've been had. And the government was complicit. When people
realize THAT, they'll be furious at the politicians who they already
hate, and they may even start talking seriously about a revolution.

You can only pile so much on people before they snap. An unpopular war
in Iraq and an upcoming war with a very well armed Iran, the gutting
of the job base, the flood of America hating illegals, the constant
abuse by corporations, the wealth piling higher in the mansions of
billionaires while half of America goes without health care, the
politicians who just don't give a damn about the pain, and now the
elimination of analog radio and TV, making a billion sets useless,
without a squeak of notice. The ruling elite just keeps piling it on,
betting that people will just keep taking it without complaint.
Eventually, the elite's winning streak will end, and people will start
fighting back. They're preparing for it now; Bush has signed executive
orders authorizing the President to seize absolute power on the
flimsiest of justifications, and to declare an "emergency" that will
never end, along with his limitless power. The army will be sent out
to squash America's resistance to the new order and "pacify" and
"neutralize" the country forever.