Countdown to Digital TV
With just a year and about ten days to go to D-day (Digital Day) lots of folks are still confused about what it means to them. It is simple, really. If you have a digital TV, fine — no problems. If you watch Cable (e.g. Cablevision, Comcast, Time-Warner Cable, etc.) or satellite (e.g. DirecTV or DISH) transmissions — no problems. If you get your TV from the airwaves, you have rabbit-ears on your TV or an old-fashioned TV antenna on your roof — then you will need a converter to be able to watch digital broadcasts on your current TV. Don’t worry, the government is so concerned about losing their main brain-washing medium that they are giving away $40 certificates, which will cover the full cost of the cheapest converters.
Of course, you will probably want to upgrade to a real digital TV if you can afford it, because the quality of the image will be much better. People are already visiting the great outdoors less, in order to spend more time in front of the tube — we will be able to close the National Parks once TV goes digital — the picture will be so sharp and detailed it will be much better than really being there. Those silly Park Rangers never tell you which deodorant to wear, really — TV is much better.