I was on the Local News Tonight

[highquality]

This reporter from the local ABC news station popped in out of the blue and asked if he could interview me concerning the new HDTV and digital format changes we'll all see in the future. I actually have a degree in acting and have been in dozens of productions, but boy was I nervous.

I was so unprepared!!

Thank goodness he edited out most of the parts where I was rambling on and on. The whole interview actually looked pretty good and I got LOTS of free promotion for my store.

Kind of a cool and unexpected day.

[saildog]

I'm sure you were great!

What kind of store do you have and what do I need to know (basically) about the change over?

I was talking with my folks yesterday and they seemed surprised by the whole HDTV/digital mandate.

[highquality]

The FCC has issued a mandate that ALL TV broadcasts be digital by Feb 17th, 2009.

Anyone who already has some sort of digital cable or sattelite box will not be affected. Also, anyone who already has a newer TV with a digital tuner is OK too. The government has plans to issue vouchers to cover the price of converter boxes for those few people that will still have analog tuner tvs.

You can buy a TV that has a digital tuner, but is not High Definition. Not sure why you'd want to do that though. HDTV will definitely be riding the wave of the digital revolution.

The mandate states all broadcasts will be digital, not High Definition. Those two are often confused. All HD is digital, but not all digital is HD.

My store sells HDTVs, Home Theatre and the like.

[saildog]

Thank you. I appreciate the info.

There is a lot of confusion about the whole thing and it is nice to have someone break it down for the layman.

Everything I (and my folks) have is connected to satellite. However, I found out during certain weather events it is good to have a good old fashioned antenna (which will be worthless after the change over).

I think their Christmas gift from me will be an HDTV antenna installed. (If rain/snow are heavy enough, the satellite signal gets blocked). Gotta' have access to local weather!

Come to think of it, will heavy rain/snow block an HDTV/Digital Signal? Surely a line of sight wouldn't get washed out like satellite signal. (I'm assuming, I have no clue in actuality).

Durned gubment should do a better job of preparing the citizenry.

[palitoy]

Cool Heath, I've been on the news a couple of times for work and I don't think I've ever gotten the hang of it. Great to hear you pulled it off.

[Dave Mc]

And here I thought they had finally caught up with you when you said you were on the local news. I hope you wore sunglasses and a hat when you did the interview. You really need to keep a low profile.

BTW, you should ask the station for a copy, they'll give it to you, then you can post it on youtube or something so we all can see.

[mitchedwards]

Sounds fun. If you et a copy of the interview post it on youtube so we can see it.

[toys2cool]

Awesome Heath I've never been on TV

If you get a chance and find it let us know so we could watch it

[highquality]

I saved it to DVR. I should be able to burn it out to DVD and then possibly post to Youtube.

I called the reporter today and told him what an awesome job he did considering all the babbling I was doing. There's lot of me that got edited Thank God.

[JDeRouen]

I've never been on television but I've been interviewed on the radio several times, and I tend to ramble too! Sadly radio is usually live, (especially call-in shows, of which I've done many!) so my rambling ends up out there for all to see!

[Marvelmania]

Sounds like a fun time and thanks for clearing up the FCC mandate. Look forward to seeing it!