I dont care if there is a thread for this or not. But I was talking to my Grandpa today and he brought up the point Why is the government making people buy converter boxes?

Anyone know why or have ideas on it?

My theory is that with the implementation of HD signal TV stations can now track what you are watching. Homeland Security is very interested to know what people in the USA are watching. Gives them a lot of incite as to what type of a national threat you could be. If you're muslim chances are you subscribe to Arabic programming. This can easily be tracked.

ya tracking is probably true
and also they can tell what shows are popular

i was thinking something along those lines

haha as every one pretty much already knows i dont buyinto alot of the consperiacy stuff. not saying its not true just i dont buy into it...

the reason is because cable and satilight providers were screwing people over by charging way more to get hd when it cost the company almost nothing more to send it in hd... and the government is not making you buy any thing, they will actually give it to you, for starters most people have a tv that can pick it up any ways, its the tvs from like 10 years ago that cant, and back to the giving it to you thing, you can get a coupon for the converter box and for the basic one its free but if you want one that will set you up for more than one tv its like 20bucks more

with the advent of HD tv they cant use the same signal as normal tv. So instead of using 2 diffrent sets of bandwiths they are just going to use the HD one and probably change the old one to somthing else. Im keeping of my old tvs without boxex cause i wouldnt be surprised if they let people start using the bandwith for close circuit security or somthing else like it. I bet in the first 3 mounths its going to be a stupid message but with all the equipment and antennas they will use it for somthing.

hmm thats an interesting thought, i would have to aggree with you, i mean what better way to send information than on something that is thought to be outdated and not in use, idk it kinda reminds me of a movie i once saw, where there was a signal bouncing around in space and it turned out to be an outdated hitler speech...

The hitler speech is the first ever tv signal ever sent out, in theory our tv signals bounce through out space and they might have listening antennas like us and see hitler

Or this shit I have on tv is from another planet. Fuck man, that's how the alien zombie bunnies are gonna take over!

the law requiering that TVs convert to digital serves 2 puposes for the government # 1 being that it will free up the bandwidth needed for the F.C.C. to implement the nation wide wireless network plan that has just been fast tracked by the FCC earlier this year proposing a free nation wide wireless network specifically controlled by the federal government which will be "filtered" for any material they specifically deem inappropriate for you to access the FCC just signed a multi billion dollar contract with Google (conveniently because they already have almost the entire inter net indexed)and the plan would call for 95% of the nation to be under the network blanket within the decade.the main reason for this is ,If you pay for the internet through a privet telecom then the government cant tell you what kind of information you can access this pisses them off so the way they loophole this is by building their own nation wide network and making it free so every one will want to use it ,this will allow the government to control what you surf and what kind of information you have access to this means no more ACB no more torrent sites ,porn,or independent media (i.e. loose change)that they feel may go against public interest or that hasn't already been approved for you to access on their network and because most people don't use the internet for anything besides my space and email they probably wont notice the fact that the internet they now have access to is completely censored . reason #2 converting to digital will further their ability to control the media, fine tuning the propaganda machine imagine turning on the TV and no matter what channel you go to every one of them is showing the exact same presidential speech or what ever it also allows them more control over the already bias news you get from the mainstream media