You would think that this DTV stuff is so new, it would be a good long time before we would be replacing equipment, right?  Nope.  Unfortunately, a penalty of being what trendy folks call an early adopter of technology is that when you jump at the newest and shiniest stuff, chances are you're going to pay, one way or another.

Right now I'm replacing a piece of equipment called a PSIP generator, plus a second device that combines this PSIP with the audio and video data for channels 9-1 and 9-2.  It's a somewhat disruptive process, and if you've been trying to watch our DTV for the last 24 hours, you have probably noticed weird things like our program guide coming and going.  The new equipment is on line now and the kinks seem to be worked out... if your receiver is having hissy fits, you might try re-scanning the channels.  For the vast majority of viewers, the change should be invisible.

I will spare you, gentle reader, a heated tirade against manufacturers of very specialized and very expensive equipment who cannot be bothered to write a manual that accurately and completely explains what the equipment does and how to make it work to accomplish its intended task.  Oh, and while you're at it, in English, please.  (If you happened to attend Nottingham High School in the 1970s and studied Latin with Mrs. Metosh, you are already smiling and thinking, aha -- praeteritio!)

What on earth is PSIP, you ask?  In a nutshell, it's a collection of data that tells your receiver all about our signal:  stuff like how many program streams it contains, what video formats they use, what flavors of audio they contain, the time of day, program ratings, program guides, show details, and the like.  Our original PSIP generators are about five years old, and while they were amazing then (so far as I know, we were the first station in town putting actual show data into the electronic program guide), they are no longer the best or most reliable equipment for the task.  And reliability is pretty important here:  without valid PSIP, your set won't know what to do with our signal, and we just disappear.  Not good.

The bottom line is, starting today you will see more information in the program guide about the shows we are carrying, and the guide will stop disappearing from time to time.  For most of you, this is mildly ordinary and about as exciting as opening a new roll of toilet paper... but it has me cranked:  I really don't like getting 3am wake up calls because the PSIP has died.

That's enough of a break... time for me to start building up the replacement PSIP gear for another station (we have five to do here).  Later!

-- Jeff