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Entry bubble Making the Digital TV Switch

By: Jake | December 15, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

A friend has ruined me with his huge digital TV. I won't go into the gory details, but let's just say I'm saving up for a huge digital TV.

DTV TransitionSince I have digital television on the mind, it's a good time to remind you that all stations in the U.S. will be transitioning from analog to digital-only broadcast on February 17, 2009. If you live in Wilmington, NC you already have digital-only broadcast and Hawaii will go digital-only on January 15. The rest of us have two months prep time. My post from August talks about the difference between analog and digital TVs and the chart below outlines what you need to do:

Do you own: Get your programming from: By Feb 17, 2009 you’ll need:
Analog TV Over-the-air or an antenna A Digital-to-Analog Converter box or to purchase a digital TV.
Analog TV Cable, satellite, or other paid service Contact your service provider for information.
Digital or High Definition TV Over-the-air or an antenna Do nothing.
Digital or High Definition TV Cable, satellite, or other paid service You Do Not need a converter box.

If you have an analog TV and need a digital-to-analog converter box, you can apply for a coupon to get one and you can go back and check the status of your order. Be sure to test your converter box after you install it.

We had some great discussions the last time I posted about this and since then I've found this PDF paper that answers some more detailed questions. If you have any questions or issues with the transition, let me know in the comments. Suggestions for a new large screen digital TV are also appreciated.

| View Comments [4] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: digital_television   digital_tv   digital_tv_transition   jake  

Comments (4):

blue comment bubble Posted by hunmanik on December 15, 2008 at 10:17 AM EST

"all stations in the U.S. will be transitioning from analog to digital-only broadcast on February 17, 2009."

Except for the 2,100 low-power television (LPTV) stations, the 600 Class A TV stations, and the 4,700 TV translator stations.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/DTVandLPTV.html

Where I live, 3 of the 7 local broadcast stations will still be broadcasting only in analog after Feb. 17.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Nancy on December 15, 2008 at 10:31 AM EST

Got my coupon. Got my converter box. The setup was easy and now I'm getting all these secret digital channels in between my regular channels.

Woo hoo!

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blue comment bubble Posted by Couch Potato on December 15, 2008 at 11:01 AM EST

I got my converters box a while back it is't great. i went from having 5 stations to 22, 11 of which are PBS affiliates. 2 are dedicated weather/news repeaters. It's not always perfect, but i definitely enjoy having the onscreen guides and the added selection.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Jake on December 16, 2008 at 01:53 PM EST

Thanks for the clarification humanik. That's an interesting piece of information, but everywhere else I read it says all. I'll explore these stations that are exempt and see if I can get a good post out of it in the coming weeks.

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