In about one year, in mid-February 2009, the Federal Government has mandated that analog TV signals must be turned off and go digital. Evidently, Americans aren't distracted enough by analog signals and Congress is afraid we may lift up our heads and look their way if we don't go digital.
If you have an old TV that uses an antenna, you won't be able to watch off-the-air programming any more unless you have a converter box. Always thinking ahead, the Federal government is willing to give you a $40 coupon toward the purchase of a converter box. Hey, $40 cash doesn't buy many votes, but keeping 'American Idol' online... They do care.
Click here to order up to two coupons
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2 comments:
Dan:
I remember when a car passing by would screw up the old ANALOG signal, as would a low flying aircraft or (especially) a HAM operator in the area.
Since then, it's been pretty good. Any device which can cause interference has been better shielded to prevent signal disruption to out TVs.
What I DO find weird, is that we're going to DIGITAL to (supposedly) "free up" the ANALOG signal bands for LAW ENFORCEMENT and FIRE comms.
And the last time I checked, they all just spent a ton to "upgrade" to DIGITAL bands.
SO who's BSing who now?
Something smells rotten in the state of the FCC.
Nothing new there, eh?
;)
B.G.
Yeah, I was disappointed when the police and fire went digital... it was too expensive to follow them.
I don't know about the signal bands, I though the govt. was going to auction the frequencies off toward paying the national debt... I hadn't heard any freqs were needed/wanted for police and fire.
The HDTV picture's better, but I missing those old days of carefully tuning and seeing the ghosts of distant cities.
And remember tuning to an unused channel to check for nearby tornadoes? I'm sure twisters won't go digital.
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