Should the feds delay implementing digital TV? A UW researcher weighs in. UW Madison Professor Greg Vanderheiden is at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and he says while manufacturers and retailers are leery of a DTV delay, TV viewers might be better off. "There's a lot of confusion between people who are on cable or satellite and people who are receiving over-the-air, into what this means," says Vanderheiden.
And Vanderheiden says viewers who rely on closed captions may already be experiencing problems with the new DTV converter boxes. "And a lot of older people rely on captions. Actually, a lot of people who aren't older depend on captions."
Earlier this week, the government announced it had run out of the coupons that can be used by consumers to buy converter boxes. "It probably is a little bit better to not turn off all those (analog) signals quite until we've gotten more people moved over," says Vanderheiden. At this point though, there's no decision on whether to delay the anticipated February 17th switch to all-digital television signals.