Template talk:Infobox DTV

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[edit] Request for comment: 2009 US DTV transition

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There are currently about 1800 full-power US TV stations affected by the 2009 digital switchover; most will be shutting down their existing analog television facilities and keeping existing digital channels. There are exceptions, including every digital channel 52-69 broadcaster (which must move to lower frequencies) and a few on lower frequencies which will move in order to increase power or return to their original analogue frequencies.

This means the info in a massive number of infoboxes on a massive number of TV station articles will need to change overnight at the end of the transition. Simply removing the "analog" field from the existing template won't work; there are too many other changes taking place, and there's also the problem that "height" and "power" fields currently contain info for *both* transmitters for most of these stations - info which in many cases will be utterly wrong come February 17, 2009. Categories are also an issue, as stations are currently sorted by their analogue channel frequencies (specified in MHz and by number in each category's description page).

This template does use #if: to handle the multiple channel assignments (analog, digital_temporary, digital) in such a way as to display currently in the same manner as the old template, but to be changeable to display the final digital allocation as transition approaches and to remove the obsolete channel numbering at the end of the transition. Nonetheless, the removal of 1800 analogue TV channels at the end of DTV transition is going to be no small task, at least if done manually.

There has been plenty of discussion on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Television Stations; the issue has also spilled to Wikipedia:Wikiquette alerts due to a disruptive revert war and repeated removal of information which is only pushing the project further from the objective of getting all the correct info into the encyclopædia in time for analog shutdown in 2009.

This will all be over in about eight months, but will we be ready? Is there any way any of the tasks can be automated (such as by a robot)? Finding the final channel assignments means searching FCC databases manually for construction permits, but even the removal of the 1800 analog transmitters is complicated by the fact that non-US stations and low-power stations will be remaining on-air with their analogue signals after transition. --carlb (talk) 13:08, 8 June 2008 (UTC)