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When traditional, analog television signals cease on February 17th of 2009, there will be three choices for dealing with the new digital television environment.
With the government's $40 vouchers thrown in, the converter boxes shouldn't cost you much more than $20 or $30. These vouchers will expire after 90 days so make sure you are ready to buy before ordering your voucher. It is important to note that digital television reception is very different from analog reception. When an analog TV gets poor reception, it is often possible to watch the snowy picture, listen to the scratchy audio and follow the program anyways. The digital TV screen, on the other hand, is either 100% on or 100% off. When the digital signal is interrupted the entire picture may freeze or drop out, and all sound will disappear. Following a program can become very difficult when chunks of the image and whole parts of the dialogue go missing. Frequently readjusting the digital TV antenna could become an annoying fact of life if you live in an apartment building or busy urban environment where the digital broadcast signal can be interrupted by the movements of people and vehicles. An HD "directional" indoor antenna may provide better reception than standard "rabbit ear" sets can. Visit antennaweb.org for more information about indoor and outdoor antenna options for digital TV reception. Digital cable, on the other hand, will provide an uninterrupted signal to your digital TV or your digital-to-analog convertor box. Whether or not cable services are worth the monthly charges for the way you watch TV, I can't say. If you are considering signing up for cable, make a list of your regular TV viewing habits and see which service packages best match your needs. There is no ignoring this transition to digital TV, so this is the time to plan ahead. Unfortunately, no matter how you decide to react to the end of analog TV, money will pass hands. For those of you considering a new, digital television, I've done some informal research at local electronic stores that I hope will be of interest. Most of the salespeople I spoke with hadn't considered the effects of hearing loss, but were willing to think it through when I explained what features would be useful for hard of hearing and Deaf people. Just like buying a car, if you don't understand the basic technology, you could get taken for a ride. I've also noticed that most stores have their display models optimized to provide an eye-popping visual experience. This can be amusing the first time, but unless the characters in your favorite program always wear lime green jackets with shocking orange hair, you are going to want to look past the bright colors and pay attention to what any specific television can do for you. I'm going to break this down into a kind of check list that I hope you will find useful. AUDIO OPTIONS Unlike the often disappointing speakers found in many older TVs, the new digital units often have very good speakers built into them with internal menus that allow you to adjust the high (treble) and low (bass) frequencies for better clarity. There are even some digital TVs that offer a "voice enhancement" feature which automatically turns down the background noise and turns up the frequencies in the speech range. You can reproduce this effect in other TVs by reducing the bass levels and turning up the treble until the voices sound clearer. At the heart of things, hearing aids and CI processors are designed to focus on one person speaking in front of you in a quiet room. Think of your TV as that one person. Ask the sales person to walk you through the audio menu, and if possible, listen to the same program with the factory preset levels and then adjust the audio settings to try to improve the speech clarity. Another option is an external speaker system that combines the various elements of a surround sound system into a single wall unit that can be mounted directly in front of you under the TV. This puts all the sound you want from a surround sound system into that ideal listening position for your hearing aids or CI processor. Again, some adjustments to the TV's audio menu may be necessary to make this kind of speaker successful. People who prefer to use assistive listening systems will still have that option. Digital TVs come with a plethora of audio output connections. This is a good option if the TV will be shared by others who don't have a hearing loss because the assistive listening system operates independently of the TV volume. It may be necessary to use splitter cables to connect an assistive listening device to the Audio Output jacks if you are setting up surround sound at the same time for the rest of the family. These audio output jacks may need to be activated by turning them on using the TV's audio menu. The sales person can walk you through the menu and demonstrate how to activate these outputs if necessary. Plasma TVs are based on chemical reactions in the screen that produce infrared light as a by-product. Infrared listening devices can pick up this background light as an annoying static or buzzing sound. Manufacturers are aware of this problem and are working on ways to filter out or block this unwanted infrared signal. If plasma is the technology of your dreams, you should consider using a radio frequency listening device such as the Direct Ear 820 series. These radio frequency systems connect to the TV just like their infrared counterparts, but without the sensitivity to the infrared light produced by the plasma screen. They also offer the benefit of being able to walk around the home or to go outside to the porch or garden while listening to your television program. Home Theatre Systems Besides stunning visual content, digital TVs promise a wide range of audio options ranging from simple stereo to surround sound with any number of extra speakers. There is more to it than buying a TV and a box of 4 speakers. Serious audio/video stores offer a range of sound systems for that "theatre" experience in your home. When you see systems described 5.1 or even 7.1, this indicates the number of speakers involved with the .1 referring to the sub speaker that provides that rumbling bass sound you can feel as much as hear. These speaker systems can be alot of fun to play around with, but bringing a hearing aid or CI processor into the mix raises questions that are not addressed directly by the manufacturers. Think of the last frustrating time you had at a movie theatre and then imagine paying your hard earned money to reproduce the effect in your own home on a daily basis. Your hearing aid or CI processor should be considered part of the sound system you are buying. Standard hearing programs tend to make the hearing aids or CI processors act like little directional microphones that filter out environmental noises and emphasize the speech sounds in front of you. Without careful adjustments, home theatre systems can scatter this speech and other important environmental sounds. For instance, when an actor starts speaking from the left side of the screen and then walks across to finish speaking on the right side of the screen, the chances are that it will seem like two different people are talking. If there is a home theatre in your future, talk to your audiologist about creating a "TV" program for your hearing aids that would be omnidirectional with a low compression factor to reduce any distortion of the music and sound effects from the home theatre speakers. You will want to find a salesperson you can trust to help you build a home theatre. It will take a fair amount of experimentation to design a system that successfully accommodates your hearing loss. CLOSED CAPTIONING Like any televisions sold in the US, digital TVs must have closed caption decoding ability. You will want to have the sales people go into the TV's control menu and preview the captioning options for you. I have noticed a wide range of captioning styles in the standard captions offered by the various brands. Some are large and clear, others are fuzzy and some are too small for comfort. Most digital TV's offer some control over the caption display, allowing you to adjust size, letter shape and the background color of the captions. If you are a routine caption reader, you really want to test drive these features before making any purchase. There are a few technical problems related to the use of closed captioning that you will want to investigate before making a purchase:
Plasma TVs have a problem with their screens called "burn in" that you need to be aware of. Burn-in happens when there is an image shown repeatedly in the same place on the screen for long periods of time. This can cause a permanent "ghost" image to remain on the screen no matter what you are watching. For example, watching mostly widescreen, letterboxed movies can cause the "black bars" to burn into the screen. Some people have complained that their captions have also burned into their plasma screens leaving one or more gray stripes at the bottom of the screen even when the captions are turned off. The next generation of plasma TVs are said to be resistant to this problem. However, I would take this resistance with a grain of salt. When asked about it, most sales people will recommend that you try to balance the amount of widescreen and full screen programming you watch to prevent burn-in damage over the years. If you rely on captions, you will want to discuss this burn in problem with your salesperson who should be able to suggest non-plasma TVs for you to look at. If you already have an older plasma TV, check to see if the caption menu allows you to move the position of the captions from the bottom to the top of the screen. Changing the caption location on a frequent basis should protect your existing plasma screen from burn-in damage. Projector TVs Those of you considering a projector TV system will also need to be proactive when it comes to closed captions. Projectors are not exactly televisions, so a captioning function isn’t guaranteed. External caption decoders are still available if needed, but finding a unit with a built-in closed caption decoder is always preferable. You will want to preview the captioning options available with the projector just as you would a standard TV. HDMI and CC signals HDMI is becoming a common technology for connecting video equipment such as DVD players to a digital TV. Unfortunately, it is being reported that the HDMI connection strips out the closed caption signal from DVDs and cable programming. As a result, the TV's built-in caption decoder becomes useless. It is possible to reroute the DVD player and cable box into the TV using the component (Audio/Video) connectors (these are the round, multi-colored plugs on the side or back of the TV). However, the quality of component video is lower than HDMI, so this may not be a long-term solution. The current advice for enjoying the benefits of HDMI technology is to purchase a DVD player and request a cable box that has its own closed caption decoding ability. These merge the captions into the video signal where the HDMI technology doesn't interfere with them. Internet and On Demand cable services Another issue related to closed captioning is not so much a television issue as it is an internet regulation problem. Digital cable companies are able to offer additional features such as On Demand programming by merging high-speed internet into their standard cable signal. When you order your favorite film these days, it is usually not coming from your local cable company directly. Instead, the program is being sent over the internet and channelled into your cable connection. Standards for internet captioning are not set yet, and what you are watching may be an internet entity, not a pre-recorded tape or DVD which is covered by existing captioning legislation. Talk with your cable company about closed caption availability in the various parts of their service packages to avoid paying for extra features that you can’t access. The coming change over to digital television is nothing to fear, but it will take some planning to get the most out of it. This page will be updated as more information becomes available. Also, please contact us with any questions you may have.
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