American households have until the February 2009 deadline to ensure that their televisions are capable of receiving digital broadcasts.
According to congressional estimates, less than 15 percent of households rely exclusively on over-the-air broadcasts. According to estimates by the Federal Communications Commission, that number will drop to 7 percent by 2009.
But advocacy group Consumers Union said that will still leave an unconscionable number of individual sets--many of them operated by elderly and low-income viewers--ill-equipped to meet the changes.
Households that already rely solely on cable or satellite broadcasting should not have to make any changes. Satellite services, such as DirecTV, are already capable of converting signals, and most cable companies intend a seamless transition, such as re-engineering their signals at the source, so that no extra home hardware is necessary.
As an owner of two analog TV's, a DVD recorder, and a VCR/DVD combo deck, I'm a little concerned. If each of these needs one of these converter boxes to get a signal, this could turn into the "leaning tower" of electronics quite quickly. Think you're safe with that new HDTV ready TV? Unless you have an integrated digital tuner, you'll be shopping for one of these tuners as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment