In early 2009 all NTSC broadcast will end in the US. (NTSC stands for National Television Systems Committee, or as we jokingly called it Not The Same Color, but just think of it as the analog broadcast system used by the US as well all North America, some of South America, and some countries in Asia) Standard televisions will have to be replaced or incorporate an HDTV tuner.

In a nutshell a HDTV tuner (HDTV digital terrestrial receiver) can be purchased for less than $200.00 and installed in a few minutes and will receive local broadcast HD signals. You do not have to replace your TV. It uses your current antenna (there is no reason to replace you antenna, in fact, a pair of rabbit ears or a well positioned wire coat hanger, or split wire will work just as well).

Feel free to read more, it gets wordy, but I want my viewpoint to be clear and I don't have time to be concise, nor do I want to be. Anyway, you have been warned. Further, if, after reading this, you would like assistance on installation, I will be glad to do my best.

For me, local broadcast TV stations are fine when traveling. I will hook up to cable when available and if it is 'free' or, more accurately, 'included' in the price at a campground, because the picture is usually better and I don't have to stop when pulling out because someone is waving arms overhead and pointing to my roof. While I think that in motion satellite TV is as cool as Christmas, it is also expensive. Playstation is in the bedroom for the kids to play and watch movies while traveling. Then, while parked, the antenna goes up and is adjusted to find a local station. When traveling we want the destination to be the entertainment.

To be clear, I am not opposed to technology, quite the opposite. One of my two adult jobs was selling ultra high end stereo. I have a DLP theater projector with in-wall a/d/s speakers for the theater, as well a small 42” DLP television for the Playstation and Wii in the kid's room. 8mm, Hi-8mm, mini-DV, and DVD recorders. Martin-Logan CLS speakers with various preamps and amps for the tweak stereo. In addition I have older technologies still in working order, cassette decks, laserdisk player, turntable (which I still refuse to admit is not better for musical re-creation than cd). I have Direct TV and Cable Internet with a wireless hub. I run various Linux operating systems, currently Fedora 7 and 8. I love technology.

The expense keeps satellite TV out of our coach, not some purist attitude; in fact, if it were cheaper and not such a pain to install and it would be a part of our travels, it could serve as a indication of the success of the trip, sort of a formula where the percentage time of satellite TV use while at the campground would be the success meter in that the lower the percentage the better the trip.

For those of you who, like us, use broadcast TV the bad news is also the good news. Standard NTSC broadcast will end on February 17th 2009. If you have a standard TV you will have to either replace it with one with a digital tuner or you will have to buy a digital tuner to still use it. Digital tuners are available now for less than $200.00. For example, Best Buy has a Samsung for $179.99.

Samsung tuner at Best Buy

These tuners are called HDTV digital terrestrial receivers. They have two coaxial inputs, one for antenna and one for cable. They decode the digital signal convert it to an analog signal and send the signal to your TV via coaxial, standard RCA video output (usually marked video out and yellow in color), S-video output, RGB composite output (the red, green and blue video outputs), or HDMI output.

The major advantage of this little box, aside from the necessity of it in or a new TV with the digital tuner built in a little more than a year from now, is that the picture is amazing. I use one at home to receive local channels (in my area I have to pay Direct TV even more to get the local programing and used a standard antenna for local reception, now I receive local HD TV for 'free').

I wonder what congress is going to do when all the little old grey haired ladies discover their TV just quit working. My guess is that you will see the deadline extended for a few more years. I may be wrong but those grey hairs (me) vote.

The wrinklies, wobblies, and droolies can get a converter box coupon here. So can those of use who are studly, vigorous, and, uh...uh...(I'll get back to you on that...).

I can 2nd that, I already signed up for my "coopins" and they will be sent as soon as the converter boxes are available in late Feb, early March.

The end transmission date of 17 February 2009 is part of the “Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005” which is a section of the “Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” a bill passed and signed into law 8 February 2006.

The reason that it is part of the Deficit Reduction Act is that currently broadcast TV stations use frequencies for both analog and digital transmission of their programs. When the analog transmissions end the frequencies used for analog will be returned to the government and mostly reassigned to other TV stations and some of the frequencies will be sold for other uses, in addition stations in the high UHF range will be auctioned for other uses (Google may be our new mobile phone company). With this bill is the voucher program and almost a billion dollars available to assist low income individuals purchase boxes.

Cable and satellite TV will not be affected by the change, only broadcast TV.

My point in writing the original post was two fold. One: So that one of us does not wake up one morning in February and not be able to see the local forecast over morning coffee (or Diet Mt. Dew in my case). Two: If we have to buy the product anyway, buy it now, enjoy it longer. It yields a better picture than satellite and a much better picture than cable without the payments.

You won't wake on that February morning with no reception because you didn't know about the change, you will be aware of it. Later this year the ads will start and demand will go up. The price will stay the same, except on Ebay, but, the product will be as hard to get as the right toy for Christmas.

I'm signing up for a coupon, but I have a satellite dish for StaRV II, which needs only my getting a "roundtuit".

Hey Rusty. I resemble that remark!
Don (..holed up in Black Canyon City Az. for the winter.)

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
The wrinklies, wobblies, and droolies can get a converter box coupon here.

It is my understanding that if you have or use a digital recorder or vcr, that you do not need the tuner. We have sattelite in the coach and it is not a major expense to us as we have it at home and so it is just $5.oo additional for the coach. sky

Yes, you are correct.

Be careful with product wording. Electronics manufacturer's marketing departments are anxious to attach the word 'digital' or the acronym 'HDTV' to every product their company produces.

Before high definition when in a store to buy a VCR the product could purchased with and without a tuner. The phrase 'with built in tuner' meant that it had a NTSC tuner and if it did not have that phrase, or something similar, it did not have a built in tuner. As another example, TV's did not and do not always come with tuners. They are referred to as monitors or TV monitors and these devices need an outboard tuner or other video source. More accurately, if it looks like a TV but has no tuner it is a video monitor; a television has to have a built in monitor.

If by 'digital' the manufacturer means that the product has a HDTV tuner, then yes that is true. Be careful if the product claims to be digital with no indication of reference to the tuner within the device. 'Digital tuner' should mean HDTV tuner, but be sure. Also, if you have a TV with a HDTV tuner built in (not just HDTV 'ready') you do not need another outboard HDTV box. The simple way to tell without reading the literature for the product if the product has a HDTV tuner is if you get displays of channel numbers containing decimal points like 8.l, 5.2, then you have a HDTV tuner.

Additionally, if you need a new VCR, DVD recorder or TV, just make sure that it has a HDTV tuner. All TV's 25 inches or larger manufactured after March 2006 are required to have a HDTV tuner.

HDTV tuners are more accurately referred to as ATSC (Advanced Televisions Systems Committee, like NTSC named for the standardization body that adopted it) tuners. The phrase 'with built in HDTV tuner' or 'with built in ATSC tuner' is the meaning of 'digital' desired on video equipment if one digital tuner built in.

The word digital used with electronics can mean, and is used to tout the numeric readouts on car radios or the D to A converters in CD players among many other applications.

Before you just order your coupons to beat the rush, thinking you'll use them when the time comes, see faq 9.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/faq.html