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September 20, 2009

DTV: Problems Abound

If you receive your television signal via antenna, you most likely have noticed that your ability to watch and enjoy television has changed since the switch to digital television, or DTV. When you are able to receive the channel you want to watch, and the signal is strong, the picture is significantly better than what you saw before the switch, and sound is pretty good too.

However, the problem is actually getting that signal. With analog television (the way television was being broadcast until the switch), even in the event of a weak signal, you at least received a picture, even if it might have been a bit snowy, and the sound always came through. With digital television, it is a whole different story. With DTV, it seems to be close to an all or nothing proposition. Either you get the signal or you don't. Or, if you sort-of get a signal, the picture freezes or is pixelated, and the sound either continues with a jumpy or frozen picture, or everything just stops.

According to this article, at least part of the problem may be that stations that were previously broadcasting their digital signals on the UHF frequency have been forced to move to the VHF frequency. The indoor antennas that could bring in even weak analog signals on the VHF frequency seem unable to bring in weak digital signals on that frequency. But don't run out to buy a more expensive antenna because, due to the broadcast frequency problems and the weak power of some of those signals, a more expensive antenna may not bring any improvement.

Also, according to the same article: "[A]t least 20 VHF stations have asked the Federal Communications Commission to move their digital signals back to UHF, and more would like to do so. However, the government has sold off some of the UHF band to cell phone carriers, leaving less space for TV channels. Another portion is planned to be used for emergency services, which was another reason for the digital TV transition."

This writer and viewer hopes that a solution is found soon. It is very frustrating for many in this country, who either cannot afford or have no interest in switching to cable or satellite TV, when they can no longer watch television because the government essentially took that option away.

And, by the way, there are sometimes problems with cable and satellite TV. Pictures freeze there too.

Richard L. Kuper,
Editor
The Kuper Report

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March 19, 2009

Are you watching Digital TV but listening in monophonic?

********************************************************************
This article was originally published on May 26, 2008.
Since that time the government has moved the conversion date to June 12th.
Additional information has also been added at the end of the article.
********************************************************************

The government has decided that your analog TV won't work after February 17, 2009:

"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."

That leaves you with the following choices:

-Get a Digital TV Converter Box (least expensive option) so you can continue using your existing TV

-Get connected to your local Cable service provider or Satellite TV provider.

-Buy a new digital TV (a whole other set of choices).

If you only care about "regular" TV and not about any of the many other stations on Cable or Satellite, or if your finances are such that such extravagances are not an option, then your only choice is to get a Digital TV Converter Box.

To help, the government is providing you the opportunity to get a $40 credit toward the purchase of a Digital TV Converter Box. This may explain why these boxes, in this author's opinion, cost more than they should. Be aware that the credit is only good on a select number of such boxes, and there are differences between the boxes. To learn more about the rebate and the boxes they can be used with, go to the official government website: https://www.dtv2009.gov/ . For information about how consumers feel about some of the available boxes and to find out which ones might be available at your local electronics store (you can only use the coupon in a physical store, not online), you can use some of the search tools available at http://thisismystore.com/.

Here's what you need to know once you've gotten the box:

If your TV does not have any option except to connect the cable wire where an antenna would otherwise be connected, you are out of luck. No stereo for you. Just connect the antenna to the box, and an RF cable (sometimes included) from the converter box to where your antenna was connected. Then tune to channel 3 or 4 and use the remote that came with your converter box to change the channels.

If you have a stereo TV, your TV needs to have stereo RCA jacks for stereo sound to be fed to it. So to get stereo sound from your box, you need to connect the line-out jacks marked L and R (usually color coded red and white) to the line-in jacks marked L and R on your TV. But wait -- that only gets you sound. If you want a picture, you need to connect the yellow video-out to the matching yellow video-in on your TV.

Now when you turn on your TV, don't panic when there is either static or no picture or sound. That's because your input source is now Line 1 or Video 1 or some such similar choice. You are not using the TV tuner, so you are not watching through channel 3 or 4 (depending on where you live). And, you will probably notice (if you previously were connected as described for mono TVs above), that you have an even better looking picture, and now have stereo sound. Also make sure that your converter box is set for stereo (some have that as a menu choice).

What if you want to include your VCR/DVR or other video-recording device in the loop? You would follow similar instructions for setting everything up for stereo, except that you would, in essence, be doing the same thing twice. First replace the term TV with VCR/DVR in the instructions above for connecting up the cables from the converter box. Then, pretend the VCR/DVR is the converter box and follow the instructions again. And as in the direct from converter box to TV above, you will need to remember that you are now watching through Line 1 or Video 1 or whatever it is called on your TV. Note that if you connect a VCR/DVR or other recording device in the loop, you may need to first turn on that recording device.

Also, you probably need to turn up the volume on your TV and on the converter box, and adjust both until you find a combination that sounds right. If your TV volume is too low, you may find that sound is not great. This is probably not the fault of the box, so adjust the TV volume accordingly.

And finally, you will now also need to remember to turn on the converter box and then turn on the TV in order to watch TV. Get in the habit, because after February 17, 2009, your analog TV alone will no longer be receiving any signals from the TV stations.

Some extra information:
If you encounter difficulty getting some channels with a regular antenna, don't rush out to buy an expensive antenna before first moving the antenna around to see if different positions bring in different channels. Then, before giving up, try alternate channels. For example, if you are in the NYC area and having trouble getting channel 13, go into the manual channel selector option on your DTV box and try channel 61. That should resolve to 13. There are quite a few stations, at least here in the NYC area, that are broadcasting on more than one frequency, so try every single channel number and see what you might find.

[You may want to share this article with your friends and family, who may not know that they are probably watching TV and recording programs in glorious monophonic if they didn't set things up properly or are watching through channel 3 or 4. You may also want to help them out regarding alternative options if some of the stations are not coming in.]

Richard L. Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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June 21, 2008

Privacy & Security Watch: Diebold Summer Sale Offers Used Voting Machines

This also gets categorized under: "Who wants to steal the election?"

According to this article, Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold, makers of those easily hackable electronic voting machines, (just do an internet search on "hackable Diebold" if you doubt that statement), is "selling off everything from used touch-screen voting machines ($600/each) to ballot boxes ($1,000/each), voter and poll supervisor smart cards that are used to initiate voting on machines on election day ($2.00/each), and tamper-evident security seals ($0.15/each) that are supposed to protect machines from intruders."

Richard L. Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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Privacy & Security Watch: TJX Fires Employee for Disclosing Security Problems

As readers of this newletter know, TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods stores, had a serious security breach over a long period of time. (See http://www.TheKuperReport.com/2007/03/stolen-data-from-tjx-tj-maxx-marshalls.html
and subsequent articles on this subject). Well, it seems they still haven't learned from their mistakes. According to this article, a young employee in a Lawrence, KS T.J. Maxx store tried, but failed to convince management that running their server in administrator mode and giving everyone id's with blank passwords was a very bad and insecure thing to do. So he anonymously posted about this lack of security to an online forum. TJX found out it was him and they fired him. No word on whether they address this serious security breach.

Richard L. Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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May 26, 2008

Are you watching Digital TV but listening in monophonic?

The government has decided that your analog TV won't work after February 17, 2009:

"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."

That leaves you with the following choices:

-Get a Digital TV Converter Box (least expensive option) so you can continue using your existing TV

-Get connected to your local Cable service provider or Satellite TV provider.

-Buy a new digital TV (a whole other set of choices).

If you only care about "regular" TV and not about any of the many other stations on Cable or Satellite, or if your finances are such that such extravagances are not an option, then your only choice is to get a Digital TV Converter Box.

To help, the government is providing you the opportunity to get a $40 credit toward the purchase of a Digital TV Converter Box. This may explain why these boxes, in this author's opinion, cost more than they should. Be aware that the credit is only good on a select number of such boxes, and there are differences between the boxes. To learn more about the rebate and the boxes they can be used with, go to the official government website: https://www.dtv2009.gov/ . For information about how consumers feel about some of the available boxes and to find out which ones might be available at your local electronics store (you can only use the coupon in a physical store, not online), you can use some of the search tools available at http://thisismystore.com/.

Here's what you need to know once you've gotten the box:

If your TV does not have any option except to connect the cable wire where an antenna would otherwise be connected, you are out of luck. No stereo for you. Just connect the antenna to the box, and an RF cable (sometimes included) from the converter box to where your antenna was connected. Then tune to channel 3 or 4 and use the remote that came with your converter box to change the channels.

If you have a stereo TV, your TV needs to have stereo RCA jacks for stereo sound to be fed to it. So to get stereo sound from your box, you need to connect the line-out jacks marked L and R (usually color coded red and white) to the line-in jacks marked L and R on your TV. But wait -- that only gets you sound. If you want a picture, you need to connect the yellow video-out to the matching yellow video-in on your TV.

Now when you turn on your TV, don't panic when there is either static or no picture or sound. That's because your input source is now Line 1 or Video 1 or some such similar choice. You are not using the TV tuner, so you are not watching through channel 3 or 4 (depending on where you live). And, you will probably notice (if you previously were connected as described for mono TVs above), that you have an even better looking picture, and now have stereo sound. Also make sure that your converter box is set for stereo (some have that as a menu choice).

What if you want to include your VCR/DVR or other video-recording device in the loop? You would follow similar instructions for setting everything up for stereo, except that you would, in essence, be doing the same thing twice. First replace the term TV with VCR/DVR in the instructions above for connecting up the cables from the converter box. Then, pretend the VCR/DVR is the converter box and follow the instructions again. And as in the direct from converter box to TV above, you will need to remember that you are now watching through Line 1 or Video 1 or whatever it is called on your TV. Note that if you connect a VCR/DVR or other recording device in the loop, you may need to first on that recording device.

Also, you probably need to turn up the volume on your TV and on the converter box, and adjust both until you find a combination that sounds right. If your TV volume is too low, you may find that sound is not great. This is probably not the fault of the box, so adjust the TV volume accordingly.

And finally, you will now also need to remember to turn on the converter box and then turn on the TV in order to watch TV. Get in the habit, because after February 17, 2009, your analog TV alone will no longer be receiving any signals from the TV stations.

[You may want to share this article with your friends and family, who may not know that they are probably watching TV and recording programs in glorious monophonic if they didn't set things up properly or are watching through channel 3 or 4.]

Richard L. Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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May 05, 2007

Transportation Security Administration, a division of Homeland Security, loses hard drive with personal data on 100,000

According to an Associated Press report, "the Transportation Security Administration has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees."

The privacy and security of personal information is clearly not being addressed by government agencies, as previously reported in The Kuper Report and in various news reports over the years. This breach by a division of the Homeland Security Department is just the latest reported problem. As the Congress perhaps begins to address this problem in the private sector, it needs to also address this problem in the public sector. However, unless there are severe consequences for breaching the privacy, this problem will not end.

Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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April 26, 2007

Privacy and Security Watch: Lawmakers decry continued vulnerability of federal computers

Corporate computers are not the only ones being breached. The Federal Government (and state and local governments as well) are also not doing a good enough job of protecting the data from unauthorized access. In the case of the Federal Government, some of our lawmakers are finally waking up to this problem and speaking out about the issues. Read all about it here.

Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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Privacy and Security Watch: Group calls for federal data security breach notification law

With the massive data breach of TJX (see various articles on TheKuperReport.com), several banks are suing TJX Companies Inc. over the data breach that "exposed at least 45.7 million credit and debit card holders to identity fraud." You can read more about that here.

Because of this and the many other breaches at other firms, the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) is lobbying Congress to pass a law that will require companies that are breached to notify victims. Read all about it here.

Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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March 22, 2007

Privacy and Security Watch: Stolen Data from TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores) since 2003 Used in $8M Scheme Before Breach Discovery

According to recent reports in eWeek (links below), massive amounts of data, dating back to 2003, were stolen from TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores) over an extended period of time, starting in 2005. The breach, or intrusion as TJX prefers to call it, was not discovered until December 2006.

This is just the latest story in the ongoing issue of data security. Companies need to get their acts together and ensure that they are protecting the personal and private data of their customers. It may be time for the government to step in and create financial incentives for companies to do this. Of course, the Federal government and many state and local governments are guilty of not protecting the personal and private data of its citizens either, so they would also have to fine themselves (not likely). So this problem will continue to be a major problem until the public starts making its voice heard and making this a priority for government and corporations to take more seriously.

Here are the links to the TJX story:

Stolen TJX Data Used in $8M Scheme Before Breach Discovery

TJX: Data Theft Began in 2005; Data Taken from 2003

Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com

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