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A bill has just passed the US House of Representatives, which will require TV stations to broadcast in digital only beginning in February 2009. Which means that if you have an old style TV it will not receive anything over the air after that date. Congress is planning on offering vouchers to help purchase converters to keep our old sets running. But apparently the converters won't be free.
I have no idea where this is going to leave Canadians.
I have no idea where this is going to leave Canadians.
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[Emily Latilla] Never mind. [/Emily Latilla]
There is going to be quite a lot of hoopla about this A to D transition over the next while, but I personally have to wonder just how much of an impact it will really have. The price of digital sets is plummeting, including HD sets, and I tend to think that three+ long years from now, most folks will have already converted. This whole thing could turn out to be much like the big scary Y2K disaster scenarios that ultimately never occurred.
The other question to be raised is that by 02/09, how many people will be watching TV via satellite, or even the internet-- all of which have their own proprietary transmission protocols.
I'm now making my own prediction here: There will be far greater consternation in the near future from viewers who now own widescreen sets and find that they have to put up with 'pillarboxing' bars for the 50+ years of old 4X3-shaped program material that's still out there, and will be for a loooooonng time.
There are solutions for this, but all involve some degree of expense, and greater expense than even a currently priced converter box for digital broadcasting.
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I've been watching the prices since then, so I know they've started to collapse. I'll probably get an HD next year sometime, depending on my finances.
The VHS recorder in my TV died amonth ago. I decided it was worth it to go out and buy a recorder to be able to play my dwindling tape collection till the new techonologies settle down.