There are two areas where the DTV converter coupon program has failed over-the-air TV viewers: people using Post Office boxes and residents of nursing homes. Neither has been able to take advantage of the program because of the way the law was written. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is now addressing these shortcomings. The NTIA has started the process of making this right and is seeking comment from interested parties to correct the law.

As is stands now, nursing home residents are not considered heads of households and therefore disqualified from the program. The new guidelines would change this and also allow persons other than the applicant to obtain the coupons. Currently, people can apply only on their own behalf. This would help those in nursing homes.

The proposed ruling would also tackle the issue of PO boxes and allow proof of residency from a utility bill, for example, to verify home addresses and allow these residents to receive coupons.

Did you apply for your converter coupons yet? As of today, May 21st, there are slightly over 272 days left to the analog shutdown.

Stayed tuned, we’ll pass along more information as we get it.

If you recall we recently praised the promise of better HD displays with sets using the organic LED (OLED) technology. It turns out that the accolades may be a bit premature for at least one manufacturer. Tests by an independent research firm called DisplaySearch have revealed that the Sony XEL-1 model has some problems.

There is noticeable degradation of brightness after about 1000 hours of use. This projects to losing about half of the original quality by 17,000 hours which is about five years of typical use. Sony says that the brightness issue has been addressed in its latest version of the TV.

Given the current high cost of the technology, it’s pretty safe to assume that these won’t be finding their way into local family rooms anytime soon.

In a full scale test of Digital Television readiness, it was announced recently that the Wilmington, North Carolina market will make an early transition to all digital TV. The analog shutdown will occur on September 8, 2008 instead of next February. The only circumstance that would prevent the early cutover would be weather. September is in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Wilmington is one of many markets where all stations are on their final channel and at full power. The area is heavily promoting the coming DTV transition so the public should be totally aware of the coming changes.

One aspect of the early transition will be to reveal any unforeseen problems in the cutover. We will all be watching closely to see how it goes in Wilmington.

We are hearing from a lot of viewers lately who are having difficulties receiving WIVB or WNLO with their new DTV converter boxes. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Depending on your proximity to our transmitter towers, you may get away with an indoor antenna but in a lot of cases you’ll need to install an outdoor one. Obviously, if you live in the city or immediate suburbs, an indoor antenna will most likely suffice. The farther you get from our towers, however, the more likely you’ll need an outdoor antenna. An antenna professional can help with this.

I’ll pass along an interesting story. I had a viewer call recently where the caller had trouble receiving WIVB-DT with an indoor antenna in an area where reception should have been solid. I went down the list of likely remedies but nothing worked. I finally handed off the call to our transmitter engineer and he discovered that the caller lived in an aluminum sided house with a steel roof. There was no way the over-the-air signal could penetrate that kind of shield!

The moral here is to be aware of what you are trying to achieve. If you’re 30 miles or more away from the transmitter an indoor antenna may not work well enough.