Here you go... sending again.

Mary/WGBH

At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting. Digital broadcasting promises to provide a clearer picture and more programming options and will free up airwaves for use by emergency responders.

Congress created the TV Converter Box Coupon Program for households wishing to keep using their analog TV sets after February 17, 2009. The Program allows U.S. households to obtain up to two coupons, each worth $40, that can be applied toward the cost of eligible converter boxes.

A TV connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service does not require a TV converter box from this program.

To learn how to get DTV converter boxes and coupons, necessary to continue receiving over-the-air broadcasting after February of 2009, please visit

www.dtv2009.gov

or call 1-888-388-2009 (That's "DTV-2009") or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).

Video Description and Converter Boxes

WGBH's Media Access Group has tested two of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration/NTIA-certified coupon eligible converter boxes and has determined that you can indeed receive and hear video description from a broadcast digital TV signal that properly includes it.

This morning we tested two boxes:

- Insignia from Best Buy
- Digital Stream from Radio Shack

We tuned in two different PBS kids programs broadcast on WGBH's digital channel and heard the descriptions coming through.

Even better news is that both boxes have both CC and SAP (or audio) buttons on the remote controls that allow you to access the various caption signals and alternate audio channels without having to go through the set-up menus.

You will find discrepancies in the on-screen menus when you use the two different methods for controlling the alternate audio:

- both boxes display "English 1" and "English 2" in the on-screen menu when you use the SAP or Audio button on the remote control. Use English 2 for accessing the video description (or Spanish if you are looking for that).

- in their set-up menus, both boxes display "English/Spanish/French" as the options in the pick list in those menus.

And, of course, neither of the boxes have audible/talking menus for control of the set up and control of the boxes.

The broadcaster must be properly tagging and sending the alternate audio in order for the boxes to pick up those signals and present them to the viewer.

But, all in all, good news!

-- 
Mary Watkins
Director of Communications and Outreach
Media Access Group at WGBH
[log in to unmask]
http://access.wgbh.org
One Guest Street
Boston, MA  02135
617 300-3700 v/fax
617 300-2489 TTY

WGBH Boston informs, inspires, and entertains millions through public broadcasting, the Web, educational multimedia, and access services for people with disabilities.


On Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:19 AM, Butch Bussen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I am needing to get a couple converter boxes so our old televisions an get 
>the new high-def stuff, and am particularly interested in ones that make 
>it easy to get the s a p channels used for descriptive video.  Someone 
>mentioned an article in a note the other day that told about a couple 
>boxes, but didn't say what article or where it could be found.  Aparently 
>wgbh found a couple models that worked well.  I have tried looking on 
>google and wgbh and had no luck finding any more info. Can  anyone help?
>73s
>Butch Bussen
>wa0vjr