On February 17, 2009, most TV stations in the US will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves in favor of
digital. Today I applied for a $40 coupontoward a converter box for our analog TV at our Idaho house, where we use only a set of "rabbit ears" to get reception. It is not worth it for us to pay for cable or satellite since we are there only a week or two every couple of months, and we do not want to buy a new TV. Fortunately, in CA, our TV is newer and digital so we are OK.
I am surprised at how many people say they are buying a new digital TV. This includes people I know are having financial issues as well as some who already use cable or satellite. It doesn't make sense to me unless the TV genuinely needs replacing. How are you dealing with the transition and if you have installed a converter box, is it an easy process?
October 6th, 2008 at 02:46 am 1223261186
October 6th, 2008 at 04:22 am 1223266922
October 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm 1223297524
My cousin got the conversion box. They are easy to install, just like hooking up a VCR. He said one advantage is that he now gets more channels than he did with just the antenna since some stations broadcast multiple streams digitally. For example, the local ABC affiliate, WPVI, has the regular channel 6, but also has 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 digitally. One of them has Accu-Weather all the time so you can always tune in and get the weather.
The downside is that he isn't able to get the local PBS station in one room (where he used to get it just fine) even though it comes in fine in the other room.
So it isn't perfect.
October 6th, 2008 at 02:25 pm 1223303117
October 6th, 2008 at 02:38 pm 1223303903
My dh wanted to buy a $10k HDTV in 1999, by the way. So I got him to wait about 9 years and only spend $1k. Phew.
This is a man who would not spend $10k on a car (too expensive!). LOL. But yeah, even if we hadn't entered the realm of affordable/excellent HDTV, the cable would have it covered. (Actually, we now have satellite; our cable company went under). But it also is digital I guess. That stuff is over my head, don't ask me.
October 6th, 2008 at 03:22 pm 1223306553
Since I view the TV as a waste of time (that really does waste plenty of my time) I figure I can let the govt get rid of this little addiction of mine for me.
Though I am open to a new tv, the sound is screwy on ours. But it will be a cash purchase if it happens.
October 6th, 2008 at 09:40 pm 1223329214
October 6th, 2008 at 09:52 pm 1223329921
We have this on a VERY old TV and cannot believe how great the picture is. Like Steve says, you can get extra channels along side of the regular channels. What is great is the weather channel. I really like it and don't know why anyone would have any objection to it. All we have is an indoor rabbit ears. Simple as that.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:36 am 1223339801
We have 3 TV's, and they will all need a converter box if we don't go with cable. I'm not willing to do that, so we'll probably either go with basic cable or just wait until we get a nicer living room TV.
October 7th, 2008 at 04:04 pm 1223395470
October 9th, 2008 at 05:08 am 1223528894