Digital TV: Convert Now, for Analog Is at an End
Gary Krakow
08/28/08 - 01:06 PM EDT
Broadcast TV, as generations have known it, has less than six months to live.
On Feb. 17, all analog TV broadcasting will end in the U.S., and local TV stations will formally switch to new digital channels. Canada will follow in August 2011.
There's no turning back. The federal government has already auctioned off all the "old" broadcast frequencies. Soon there'll be all sorts of new wireless services popping up in the spaces where TV channels 2 through 13 once reigned supreme. Old analog TVs will have nothing to receive.
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In reality, this historic change will probably affect few in the New York metropolitan area. That's because most people get hundreds of TV channels when they subscribe to local cable or satellite TV services.
But a significant number of TV viewers in New York and around the country still rely solely on their rabbit-ear antennas or a communal roof-top antenna distribution system in large apartment complexes for all of their television. For those people, there's an expensive solution -- a new digital TV set -- or the simple, inexpensive solution -- the digital TV converter box.
Famous names such as Magnavox and Zenith, along with new brand names such as Sansonic and Digital Stream, are already making and marketing converter boxes. Typically, these devices, which are meant to be installed in between the rabbit ears and the analog TV set, are selling for somewhere between $40 and $100 in retailers including
Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) and
RadioShack (RSH Quote). I expect we'll see these converters for sale everywhere before the year is over.
In addition, the federal government is offering $40 rebate coupons (actually they look like little credit cards) to offset the cost of purchasing one of the new digital-to-analog converters. And they should. The Feds are about to get a windfall from selling all those old broadcast frequencies. For more information on
converter-box coupons, check out the Web site.
Also note that
Consumer Reports magazine has already begun testing converter boxes and has found differences in picture quality among the new devices.
New York's digital broadcasting system has been operating for a while now. If you have an over-the-air, digital-ready receiver (many of the new 16:9 screen TVs have built-in, ATSC, digital broadcast tuners) then you're able to watch them now. Or, if you've "converted" an old TV you can start checking out what's going on.
You might be very surprised at what you see. Digital broadcast TV can produce very high quality signals, and the channels can actually look better than its cable or satellite counterparts. My early tests have been promising. When you get the antenna just right, the digital signal locks-in and you don't have to worry about ghosts or snow.
Plus, digital broadcast signals can provide one, two or up to four TV channels on their frequencies. For instance, that means WNBC-TV can send out a digital Channel 4, a digital weather channel and a digital feature channel. Other channels offer similar "extra" programming with their new digital broadcasts.
That means a huge increase in quality and number of viewing choices for people who choose to stick with the new over-the-air digital broadcasts. Plus, the government pays you $40 to switch.
