… last day of analog TV broadcast? …

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Ok … so they extended the deadline and analog TV may stay around for a few more months for some people. I wrote a little article on Digital Television last year I thought I would re-post on the eve of the first death of analog TV here in the US.

You can read it here.

Humans are slowly directing more and more of their communications back at Earth and leaking less and less into the surrounding universe. Maybe that’s good. Maybe we’re polluting the airwaves in our Galactic neighborhood less.

Or … perhaps we’re turning the porch light off and any neighbors passing by won’t stop for a visit. Analog radio and television signals would be fairly easy to receive and decipher. I’m not so sure anyone else in the Galaxy can decode MPEG streams. What the F does a digital signal look or sound like with no processing? Not so intelligent I’m guessing.

SETI has been searching for intelligent life by trying to find intelligible signals in the cosmic static. If everyone out there has gone digital … we may never hook up the right HD converter box to figure out what they’re saying.