It sure sounds like a lot of people aren't scanning for the digital channels to me.
The new tv's need to have the digital channels entered into them to work properly, you may have to scan for existing channels several times in order to get them to work.
All of the descriptions I'm reading here are very reminiscent of what my new HD digital tv was doing before I scanned for the channels. After reading the manual and actually doing the scan, like magic I now get more channels than I even want.
It sure sounds like people jump to conclusions. <grin>
Seriously, we all know there are folks who think the CD tray is a drink holder. However, this isn't a localized problem. It is a widespread problem and has been for some time. The govts own hacks have admitted they had poor study, poor implimentation, and that many people will no longer even get what they had. It's been an issue for long before the equipment was widely available. It's been on local and national news, radio, and the web. Surely one or two of them attemped to autoselect channels on their DTVs???