Extra Extra: Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide is on sale

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It may be a tad early to start your holiday shopping, but there’s a good chance you’ve at least been thinking about it. Maybe you’ve had a big-ticket gift—like a new TV or home theater—in mind for a while now, but are putting off the purchase till November or December. If it’s sales you’re waiting for, you probably know what you want and how much you’re willing to pay. On the other hand, you might just a teeny bit leery of throwing so much cash at something you know very little about. Which is better: a plasma or LCD TV? Should you upgrade to a Blu-ray player or stick with standard-def DVDs?

If you find yourself in need of expert advice, consider the newest edition of the Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide. Inside you’ll find a wealth of information on everything from televisions and computers to smart phones, GPS units, and much more. For each product, the Consumer Reports editors walk you through the basics, explaining what’s available, which features matter, brand profiles, and offering tried-and-true shopping tips.

In addition to product information, the guide offers advice on how to shop smarter, including:

• Netting the best deals online, and protecting yourself when you shop on the Web


• When to repair and when to replace a broken item


• How to haggle effectively


• Finding the best electronics retailer based on our comprehensive annual survey


• How to save—and what to be wary of—with refurbished or open-box products on store shelves


• Where to get free office software, free computer security programs, and more useful freeware

FCC to probe competition in wireless service, and other issues

With concern rising among legislators of both parties over a range of issues in the wireless industry, the Federal Communications Commission today decided to launch a broad investigation (PDF) into the competitiveness of wireless service. They also approved two additional inquiries to address other consumer issues in telecom service—including one in which they cited a study finding by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

The Commission is interested in how the level of competition between cell-phone carriers may be affecting their customers and the level of investment in the industry, including the entry of new carriers to the market.

At today's meeting, the first with its new roster of commissioners, the Commission was responding to petitions that asserted that a lack of competition in wireless has resulted in some unwelcome developments. Those include a rise in deals that make certain cell phones available exclusively from a particular carrier, the continuation of often-hefty termination fees when consumers end their cell-phone contracts early, and the blocking from certain phones of software to allow consumers to make calls outside of their carrier's cell-phone network. (The concern about such blocking is now extending beyond merely voice-calling applications, as our advocacy colleagues at Consumers Union, the parent company for Consumer Reports, recently covered.)

The Commission also launched an inquiry into other ways in which telecom consumers might be empowered and protected. In doing so, it cited results from the most recent report on bundled phone, TV, and Internet service by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. That survey showed a high incidence of complaints about billing, support, and fees with the so-called "triple play" packages offered by some telecom providers. The Commission cited the study because it wants to further establish how widespread are the complaints it highlights, according to FCC staff member Lisa Boehley.

The Commission also confirmed a third inquiry, into wireless innovation and investment, including such issues as the use of the wireless spectrum in ways that benefit consumers and help "solve real-world problems in areas such as health care, energy, education, and public safety."

Blog on free DVDs at library saves me money

We don’t rent that many DVDs in my house, so I’ve never gotten around to signing up with Netflix. I can usually find something to watch at the DVDXpress kiosk in my local supermarket, which rents recent releases for just $1 a day. If there’s a specific movie I can’t get there, I can generally find it on my cable company’s on demand service. But at $4.95 a pop, I try to use that as little as possible.

What I can’t get from the kiosk or cable on demand are compilations of TV series, like Showtime’s Dexter and The Tudors. I toyed with the idea of subscribing to Showtime, but that would run me $16 a month with the on demand option, which I’d need to catch up on previous seasons. I could also rent those series from Netflix, but that would cost at least $8.99 a month  I kept dragging my feet, reluctant to take on another recurring entertainment expense--I’m already paying about $125 a month for my cable TV with DVR, plus phone and Internet triple play.

Then the light bulb went off. I remembered that we ran a blog on borrowing DVDs from the public library. I reread it and noticed that one reader said his library carried TV series. I checked, and so did mine. In fact, it had both of the series I wanted to watch. 

Better late than never. Now I’m looking forward to enjoying many hours of mayhem with Dexter’s sympathetic serial killer and the randy royals in the Tudors.

The moral of my story: If you haven’t checked out your local library’s video section in a while, give it a once-over. You might be happily surprised by what you find. Some libraries are even starting to carry Blu-ray discs, noted one reader of our previous blog. We've also seen some with video games for the Wii and Xbox 360. Others are likely to follow suit, so dust off your library card and hit the stacks! —Eileen McCooey

Photo Courtesy of Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bchai/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Tip of the Week: Be on the lookout for new HD channels

[ Photo courtesy of Sanja Gjenero ]

If you’re like me, you’re thrilled when a new high-def channel is added to your lineup. TV providers have been beefing up their HD offerings regularly over the last year or two, and many now offer dozens of stations. I get about 60 channels in HD, and if I subscribed to the premium channels, I’d get many more.

My cable provider, Cablevision, recently added HD versions of USA and FX, so I can watch shows like Psych, Burn Notice, and Damages in all their high-def splendor. Sometimes I’ve stumbled across these new offerings by accident, while idly surfing with the channel up/down button on the remote. Though the discovery gladdens my heart, I can’t help but wonder how long I’ve been missing out, unknowingly settling for their standard-def counterparts.

Cablevision does announce new HD offerings, but it’s usually in small type down the side of my monthly service bill, or in an occasional pamphlet listing the full channel line-up. But when I’m rushing to pay my bills, I don’t always read the fine print or flyers. Now, I make a point of doing so. I also check the onscreen program guide to see if any new channels have materialized in the high-def tier. And there's always the Web: Like most companies, Cablevision provides a full lineup of channels for my area on its Web site.

If you’re not regularly searching out new HD options, I recommend you start doing so. You might be happily surprised by what you find. – Eileen McCooey

“TV Everywhere” brings cable shows to the Internet

If you’ve been thinking of ditching your cable service, your local provider is hoping a new online streaming TV service in the works will leave you feeling like Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part III—“Every time I try to get out, they keep pullin' me back in.”

The TV Everywhere service—offered exclusively to subscribers, free of charge—will stream cable TV shows and movies to your computer from nearly two dozen content providers, including HBO/Cinemax (the first time viewers can catch shows such as True Blood and Entourage online) and CBS. The effort, proposed by Comcast and Time Warner, is a way for cable companies to remain relevant even as more viewers look online for TV shows and movies.

While Comcast and Time Warner are spearheading the initiative, it’s not exclusive, and could eventually be offered by any subscription-based TV service provider, including other cable companies, DirecTV and Dish satellite, and Verizon and AT&T as part of those companies’ TV services. And at some point, it's likely the TV Everywhere concept could be expanded from computers to mobile devices, such as smart phones

Cablevision's "remote" DVR: Will it be a better option?

With the Supreme Court's decision, "Remote DVR" may be on the way, but when that will be and how much it will cost remain to be seen.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision not to hear a final appeal by broadcasters and movie studios seeking to block Cablevision’s proposed “remote DVR” technology opens the door for the company, and others, to offer such a service.

Unlike a conventional DVR, which stores programs on a hard drive in the cable box in your living room, Cablevision’s planned remote DVR service lets you store programs on the company’s servers. Because the technology resides within the cable system’s network, subscribers can use their existing cable boxes instead of renting new equipment. This would free consumers from the storage limits of their hard drive (often about 30 hours of HD video). It could also theoretically make the service cheaper, since the cable companies don’t have to deploy and service separate boxes.

So when will we be able to get this new service? Unfortunately, no time soon, since Cablevision says there’s no timetable in place for a rollout of its remote DVR service. Instead, Cablevision’s first application of the technology will be far more prosaic: Subscribers with standard cable boxes will be able to pause live TV when the phone rings—something I (and Cablevision subscribers with DVRs and cable-phone service) can already do with my DirecTV DVR service, which displays Caller-ID information on the TV screen.

As a result, many questions remain as to how the service will really work.

Commentary: Goodbye, my old friend – Analog TV

The switch over from analog to digital TV signals on June 12, 2009 marks a definite end to the familiar, decades-old way television programs arrive into millions of American homes.
[ stock photo courtesy of: Kenn Kiser ]

June 12, 2009. The day analog television died. We all knew this day was coming, but that doesn't lessen the pain. Allow me to offer a eulogy for my dear old friend.

Given that I'm a Gen-Xer and a native son of New York City (media capital of the world), it's no surprise that TV was a big part of my life growing up. I spent a lot of time (maybe too much) in front of that glowing screen. Ask me my favorite happy childhood memories and I can immediately list: The Sesame Street gang teaching me my A-B-Cs (PBS, Channel 13); watching School House Rock on ABC Saturday mornings. (Who knew that catchy ad-like jingles could teach you stuff and be fun? "Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses..."); and watching movies at 4:30 weekday afternoons instead of doing homework. (Thanks, WABC Channel 7—especially for the many “Godzilla” weeks!)

Maybe I had a sheltered childhood, but over-the-air TV opened up a wonderful world of entertainment (and learning)—all for free... using just a simple antenna. It captivated millions of others, including the nearly 106 million Americans who watched the finale of M*A*S*H, the more than 90 million who discovered first-hand, who shot "J.R." on Dallas, and the nearly 53 million who watched Friends go for that one last cup of coffee at "Central Perk." Truly free TV was indeed powerful in its day.

DTV countdown: The antenna dilemma

On June 12, 2009, television broadcasts in the U.S. will switch from analog signals to digital. Ensuring that your television set will receive those digital broadcasts may require some adjustments to your television's antenna.
[ stock photo courtesy of: Agata Urbaniak ]

The DTV transition that culminates this Friday, June 12, is putting antennas back in the spotlight. But getting good reception with digital broadcasts can be a tricky business, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. It depends on your location, the topography around your home, and the distance to the TV station's transmitting towers.

Getting the right antenna for your situation is the first step. (See our previous post, DTV Tips: Choosing and using an antenna for our advice and read the tips and comments from other readers.)

You'll also find very useful info at:

• The FCC web site about antennas: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/dtvantennas.html
• The CEA and NAB web site: AntennaWeb (http://www.antennaweb.org)
• HDTV Antenna Labs (http://www.HDTVAntennaLabs.com)
• Antennas Direct (http://www.AntennasDirect.com)

A set-top antenna is the simplest and cheapest solution and should be your first try.

If you're lucky, an indoor antenna will get you all the channels available in your area, with a clear, continuous picture and sound. But it's possible you'll encounter some glitches, because the UHF band is more directional than VHF and more sensitive to obstacles that lie between your antenna and the broadcast tower. About 20 percent of DTV adopters we surveyed said they had trouble with reception.

Here's a recap of our advice on adjusting your antenna.

Last-minute DTV tips: 7 days to go

Click on the image above to download a PDF version of the DTV Made Easy brochure.

When analog broadcasts end one week from today, the vast majority of stations will be broadcasting in the UHF band, not the VHF frequency range that’s been home to many analog broadcasts over the years. That’s not just techno-babble you can gloss over. It means you might need a new antenna to keep getting free TV over the air.

We’ve been hammering home this point for months, but with only days left to go, we want to say it one more time. Set-top rabbit ears with only two arms are not designed to pull in UHF signals. You need a UHF/VHF antenna to get all the free TV programming available in your area. Many existing rooftop antennas may be able to get both UHF and VHF broadcasts, but you’ll have to try yours out to see. As we reported earlier this week, our survey of 38,000 Consumer Reports readers found that nearly one in four of the households receiving free over-the-air broadcasts had to purchase a new antenna to get digital signals.

After the transition on June 12, 73 percent of full-power stations will be broadcasting in the UHF band, with 27 percent in the VHF range, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, which has lots of useful information online. Most of those stations already broadcast digital signals (in addition to analog, at least for the next week), so you can try out your setup right now and resolve any problems you encounter. Be prepared for some wrinkles. Our survey showed that 20 percent of antenna users had trouble getting all stations.

Also remember to rescan for channels on June 12 or 13; check our video on setting up a DTV converter box for pointers. Some 600 stations will move to a different channel location than they were on June 11, NAB reports, so you’ll have to get in sync with all those new channel assignments. Stations will be making the switch at various points during the day (they may be alerting you to that timing now with messages scrolling across your TV screen), with many of them going all-digital after 6 p.m. on June 12. That’s why we recommend a rescan on June 13 to capture all the shifts.

For a step-by-step guide that can help you with setup and fine-tuning, download the free PDF file of the "DTV Made Easy” brochure (Adobe Acrobat required) Consumer Reports produced for the FCC and check out the other pieces featured on our DTV transition hub. You can also search through our blogs for the many helpful hints we’ve published over the past year. (Under Categories, in the right column on this page, click on Television to see all TV-related postings, including DTV.)

What are you waiting for? The clock is ticking. —Eileen McCooey

Cable users confused about DTV transition

[Image: Sigurd Decroos]

Some cable subscribers are under the impression that they need to buy a digital TV converter box or they'll lose certain channels they now get in analog—all because of the DTV transition.

That's not the case, but an incident related by our friends at the Consumerist shows there's a lot of confusion here. Folks worried about losing analog cable channels need a digital cable TV box, not a DTV converter box, and the reason they need one is because their cable company has decided to drop some analog channels for business reasons—not because the government told them to do that. (Lest every cable subscriber reading this blog panic, let me reassure you that most cable users don't have to do anything to keep getting the stations they now get.)

The changes in a cable company's channel lineup have nothing to do with the DTV transition, though some cable TV companies' ads might seem to suggest that. A DTV converter box works only with an antenna to pull in free over-the-air TV programming, the major networks and a few other channels. You need a converter for any TV (or VCR) that doesn't have a built-in digital ATSC tuner. You have to buy one from a store such as Radio Shack or an online retailer.