I’m interested in sending for the coupon and getting a converter box. How will I make sure it works - are any stations broadcasting digital signals now?
Thanks in advance.
All of them. Well, all the ones that matter.
And you just plug it in to your antenna and TV, and it just goes.
If you told us where on Earth you live that would help. From the sound of your question it’s a pretty sure bet you’re American.
But the broadcast situation differs if you’re in a major city versus 75 miles outside Topeka.
And if you presently use cable or satellite to receive all your channels, none of this matters & you have no need for a converter box.
I’m outside Pittsburgh. While I have cable, the box would be for the one tv that isn’t hooked up to the cable.
Get the coupon, get the converter box, hook the box up to an antenna, follow instructions on how to program the box for your local stations and you’re off and running.
Not really any more complex than hooking up a videogame.
There are two things to consider, first of all most, but not all TV stations broadcast their digital signal on UHF and map to their analog Channels
For instance WGN-TV is on channel 19 but maps to channel 9, it’s analog channel. So if you enter channel 9 on your converter you get channel 9. But if you enter channel 19 on your converter it changes the channel automatically to channel 9.
Not all digital is on UHF some are still on VHF. The reason you need to know this is you may have to get a UHF antenna.
Channel 52-69 will go away after digital transition. But the channel will still map to it’s analog channel. So Channel 66 in Chicago will still be on channel 66 because it’ll map there.
But WLS-TV is on channel 52 and maps to channel 7. So right now you need a UHF antenna to get WLS. But since channel 52 is going away after digital transition, WLS will return to channel 7 for it’s digital signal. So before the transition you will need a UHF antenna to get WLS. AFTER the transition you will need a VHF antenna to get WLS.
Digital signals are trickier than analog. I have an apartment without a master antenna so with an indoor antenna I get 16 analog TV stations. With digital even with the inside antenna I only get THREE TV stations. So after the transition I will need to get cable to get TV. So some people will lose TV stations after the transition. Because digital sufferes from things multipath. An analog signal can get through and produce a picture, but a digital signal can’t get enough signal through to get a picture.
Also your coverter matters. I have a neighbor who get’s only three channels with a converter, but with her digital TV set she gets 10 channels. So the brand of converter and the type of digital tuner matters in additon to the antenna as well.
For me obviously the change to digital is a bad thing as if I want TV I now have to pay for what was once free to me. Others won’t have that problem
Many of the latest tuners do a much better job of dealing with multipath, which was a major problem for earlier tuners. I have a $60 digital converter box that beats analog by a substantial margin, and also outperforms a previous generation HDTV STB that was much more expensive.
We do not have cable nor digital TVs.
We got the coupons and have already purchased two of the $60 boxes. We hooked one to the main TV in the livingroom. The picture and signal is much better most of the time. We have one station that seems to vary on the digital signal and at times it is completly lost. If we want to keep watching we have had to turn the box off and relay on the analog signal. I hope that station boosts it signal come the cut off date.
There are also two channels that are not digital so we lose them while using the converter box.
When the signal is weak it is not like analog were you might see ghosts or it may get grainy or snowy imagines. The picture looks like a bad DVD is playing. It gets all pixeled out and it skips or freezes. Again we only have that issue on one channel and usually it has been on very windy days with bad weather.
Not directly on topic, but can some kind soul fight the ignorance of a Brit: What’s this “coupon” thingy?
The US is switching to digital TV signal for over the air television next year. Older analog TV’s need a coverter box to receive the signals. You can read about it here.
All high power TV stations in the U.S. are switching to digital Feb 17, 2009.
People with older TVs who get thier stations over the air will not be able to get service.
To help these people the government will mail coupons (actually a credit card type dealie) good for $40 towards a coverter box.
official site: www.DTV2009.gov
Brian
Thanks for the responses, interesting that in a country as “free market” as the States it will all happen on one day and the government is helping everyone to make the switch. Under a Labour government in the UK the switch off of the analogue service will be done region by region between now and 2012 and only the very old and the disabled will get help.