DTV: It's the antenna, stupid
Posted: Tuesday, January 13 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Let's review where things stand a little more than one month from DTV-Day -- the day that old-fashioned analog TVs will stop working -- currently set for Feb. 17.
• There's a waiting list for government coupons so people can buy converter boxes so they can continue to watch television on those old TVs. A waiting list! Sounds almost like a breadline. Church groups are actually being enlisted so people with unused coupons can donate them to "needy" TV watchers. Rome fell after just such a coupon shortage.
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The 'other' digital TV conversion might cost you
Posted: Tuesday, July 1 2008 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Think you don’t have anything to worry about in the switch from analog to digital television? Think again.
Consumers have been told that the upcoming transition TV changeover would mainly impact viewers with old TVs using ancient rabbit ears for reception. And those stone-aged watchers need only purchase a new set-top converter box, subsidized by coupons from the U.S. government, to continue watching. And everyone would go on their merry sitcom-watching ways.
Turns out, that’s not the whole story.
There actually are two analog-to-digital transitions going on. One, you've heard a lot about – the broadcast changeover. But the other – the analog cable to digital cable transition – could leave up to 100 million TVs in the dark, unable to display any cable TV channels at all without adding extra equipment.
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