There are also stories of people getting a digital signal — but not all the local channels.
TALK about getting your wires crossed.
It’s now been eight days since the switchover to digital TV (DTV), and some people still can’t get a picture on their sets — even after doing everything they were supposed to do.
“I bought a converter box and tried hooking it up but to no avail,” says Annette Caldarera, a fitness instructor who lives in a Brooklyn apartment (Bensonhurst).
“I did everything perfect, like they said. I thought, no big deal, that everything would be OK,” she says.
“But I can’t get even one channel. Nada.”
There are also stories of people getting a digital signal — but not all the local channels.
Talk about frustration.
The switchover from an analog to a digital signal was finalized by midnight June 12.
Anyone with cable or satellite TV was unaffected; everyone else still relying on an antenna either had to get a converter box and digital antenna or bite the bullet and order cable or satellite TV.
“I’m not a frequent TV user,” Caldarera says. “Why should I have to pay for it?”
Caldarera’s tale is shared by others, according to Nick DeVita, a home theater supervisor at Best Buy Midtown.
“We got a lot of customers coming in [since the switchover] having a lot of issues with their products,” he says.
“We get customers saying, ‘Well, they never told me we needed a new antenna.’ We have customers who get all the right products but aren’t hooking it up correctly.
“And sometimes we get customers who have converter boxes that aren’t quite working. There are a lot of reasons why — occasionally, it may just be a malfunction of certain products.”
Since June 11, the day before the switchover, 1,400 people have called 311, the city’s non-emergency hotline, requesting digital-related technical assistance, according to 311 spokesman Nick Sbordone.
A 311 recording tells you what you need for the switchover. If you need more assistance, you’re switched to a “DTV Hotline” affiliated with the FCC.
The other major problem — getting a signal but only select local channels — could be easily solved, according to the FCC.
It recommends the “double re-scan” method: disconnect the antenna from the converter box, re-scan the box, unplug the box, reconnect the antenna, plug the box back in and re-scan.
“It’s a nuisance,” Caldarera says. “Why should people be hassled over TV — something we’ve had for over half a century?”