On June 12th, the US will finally make its transition to digital TV (DTV). Originally scheduled for February 17th, but delayed due to a lack of funding in the government’s converter box coupon program, the new transition date is now less than 3 weeks away. The DTV transition has been fraught with confusion, from poor consumer education to cable companies using the situation for their own gain. We’re going to break it down very simply.
The first thing you need to do is decide if you need to do anything at all. This flow chart prepared by The Consumerist tells you what you need to do. To summarize the chart, you don’t need to do anything if:
- You don’t have a television
- You don’t use an antenna to watch TV because you subscribe to cable or satellite service
- Your TV has a digital tuner (new televisions sold after March 1st, 2007 are required to have digital tuners)
That means that if you use an antenna and have an old television without a digital tuner, you’ll need to get a converter box. Otherwise, you’re fine right now and don’t need to take any action.
Converter boxes are available now from most electronics retailers both on and offline, and you can get $40 coupons to defray the cost. Consumer Reports has a page with detailed information about the DTV transition, as well as reviews of converter boxes. Wikipedia has a page all about the DTV transition as well.
One more thing. The broadcasters in your area are already broadcasting in digital, so if you use an antenna and you already have a converter box or a television with a digital tuner, you are probably watching digital channels already. On June 12th most broadcasters will change frequency. You may find that some or all of the channels you were watching don’t come in any more. To overcome this, just have your television or converter box scan for channels again and it will find them. Mark your calendar.
You can see which stations are broadcasting in your area, and which frequencies they’re on now, and where they’ll be after June 12th, on AntennaWeb.org.
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