While the benefits of digital TV are remarkable, millions of households’ nationwide risk losing reception unless they take easy steps to upgrade by February 17, 2009.
Are you going to be affected?Illinois has over 4,700,000 households with TV’s. Almost 802,000 are Broadcast only, that’s 17% if they don’t take action before February 17, 2009 they can loose their TV reception.
Broadcast only means they are not connected to cable or satellite services.
What are the solutions to assure I won’t loose my broadcast TV?If you watch TV with an indoor or outdoor antenna, your analog TV will need a DTV Converter Box to continue doing its job after the switchover to digital broadcasts is completed.
- Your viewers can apply for up to two $40 certificates to help offset the costs of conversion. You cannot combine the coupons to buy one box.
- These can be obtained @ 888.DTV.2009 or www.dtv2009.gov
- These certificates must be used within 90 days of receipt.
- We understand there are only 22.5 million coupons available.
- The secret? Try to get a coupon as close to the transition as possible, but not too close or coupons may not be available.
- HD images offer significantly higher resolution, capable of revealing fine details, accompanied by CD-like surround sound. That old analog TV can never give you that because it lacks the necessary technology.
- HDTV is a technology that efficiently encodes a television signal as a bunch of zeroes and ones.
Are there any precautions I should take?Scams-well we always see them but since this date is next year there will probably be more later but here are a few:
- Devices that will turn your analog TV into an HDTV, don’t fall for it-No such device exists-because no standard TV can ever give you high-definition television.
- Careless merchants might label a set-top HDTV receiver as an "HDTV converter box." The name can be misleading.
If you take just one thing from this it should be:
February 17, 2009 is the changeover date. By law, television stations nationwide must switch from analog to digital broadcasts by that time.
What’s the advantage of Digital TV? - Dramatically clearer picture
- Better sound quality
- More TV programming options
- More efficient and flexible than analog
How to prepare to the changeover?
- Obtain a discount coupon
- Purchase a converter box
- A DTV converter box is an easy-to-install electronic device that hooks up to your analog television set. The box converts the digital television signal into analog making it viewable on your analog TV.
- The boxes are expected to cost between $40 and $70 and are available for purchase at retail stores that sell electronic equipment.
- Purchase a new television with a built-in digital tuner.
- Subscribe to a paid cable, satellite, or telephone company television service.
National Stats - FYI:
Who will be affected?
- 19.6 million households are analog only
- An additional 15 million receive over-the-air signals on at least one analog set
- 69 million analog sets are being used across the country.