Letter: Digital TV problems have been ignored

Just a follow up on the letter from Claude Smith about the switch to digital TV ("Digital TV brings technical problems," Saturday). In all the advertising about how wonderful this transition was going to be, I don't remember reading anything about the fact that, after sending for coupons, hooking up the conversion boxes and thinking you were all set, you were only going to get a picture and conversation that was acceptable only part of the time.

When watching with an antenna, if the wind blew a little, you got a fuzzy picture for a minute or so. With the conversion box, you apparently get a perfect picture or no picture and sound at all. So much for technology.

I also never read that, after the switch, you will not be able to record any programs without buying a new VCR-DVD recorder. So, I am guessing that, to continue watching TV as we have been used to all these years, everyone will have to buy a new TV and a new VCR-DVD recorder. So much for government mandates that require certain things to happen without fully explaining the consequences that will affect millions of people who had no say in the whole thing in the first place.

Maybe this will help the economy and help the fortunes of TV and VCR-DVD manufacturers, so some good may come out of the whole thing, even though the people most affected by the whole thing were probably pretty happy before somebody thought he had a better idea.