Digital TV Carries a Price
Last week the FCC sent out more than $6 million in fines to retailers who were not complying with FCC regulations regarding the sale of analog TVs.
The FCC requires all retailers selling TVs to specifically label any analog TVs that will not be compatible with the February 2009 switch to a digital signal without requiring extra equipment. You might recognize some of the retailers being fined, like Sears, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Fry's Electronics, Target, Best Buy, and CompUSA. If you're looking to buy a new TV now, be wary of those stores, although that doesn't leave you with many retailer alternatives. It looks like nobody was really paying attention to the FCC regulations regarding labeling analog TVs.
But labeling incompatible analog TVs wasn't the only cause for fines. The FCC also fined Syntax-Brillian and Precor Inc. for importing and selling outdated TVs. That practice goes against the 2002 FCC regulation requiring all imported TVs to be compliant with digital signals. For good measure, the FCC also fined Polaroid and Proview Technologies for failing to include V-chips in their TVs so users could control what content is shown on their TVs.
Is it really the retailer's responsibility to label TVs that won't be compatible after the switch to digital signals next year? Typically I'm wary of the FCC's actions, but I have to agree with it this time. Retailers should be required to label incompatible TVs. Retailers already separate TVs in stores based on features like standard definition versus high definition, and I believe that analog and digital signal TVs should be similarly separated. From a quick (and unscientific) poll, I can say that most people are either unaware of when the switch to digital TV signals occurs, or unaware of any switch at all. Several of these people are tech-savvy people, too, so it's not solely the average Joe consumer who's out of the loop.
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@PDX57,
With sincerest regards:
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While most of these fines were levied not on TVs but on VCRs which had TV tuners or analog PCI/USB TV tuners for capturing and recording video.
To slam all the retailers for this - is crazy!
My first computer was an Apple IIe clone in 82's. My first Apple games are Autoduel, King Quest, Sundog, Monkey Island, Ultima, and etc.. The copies could be bought from almost all the game store in Hong Kong. Those are the good old days to play cracked game.
I am still a fan of Apple clones.