This last holiday weekend, while visiting my Mom at her retirement community in Portland, I was asked by her and a couple other folks we hung out with about the coming national transition from analog to digital television transmissions. The main worry was that new HDTVs had to be purchased to continue the steady stream of Frontline investigations and Rick Steves travel adventures, and the folks who were querying me were visibly adrift in a sea of techno-babble (HDMI, component versus composite, LCD versus plasma).

While everyone from Ben Bernanke to Jeff Bezos would love to have every old-school analog TV owner buy a shiny new HDTV this year, I'm here to throw a spanner in the works (and possibly get myself booted from this blog): you don't need to buy a new telly. The transition that will take place at midnight on February 17, 2009 will cut over-the-air (OTA) transmission of analog TV signals (NTSC), with the digital signal (ATSC) continuing as the sole method of OTA transmission. This means, if your old analog set is pulling down programming through rabbit-ear antennas (which, according to this AP article, affects 13 million or so U.S. households), then you'll have some work to do.

You can certainly upgrade your TV and enjoy the crisper colors and improved audio of digital TV. Or, you can buy a digital-to-analog converter box that will enable your analog TV to view the digital signals. If you choose the latter, the federal government is offering a coupon to help you purchase a converter (with each household eligible for two coupons). The AfterDawn site has a complete list of available converters, as well as list of those converters that are eligible for the government coupon. How do you know whether you have an analog TV that will need a converter? This article from ABC News helps to spell it out:

If you bought your TV before the fall of 1998, it's definitely analog. But if you purchased it after that date, there are other ways to find out.

If you don't have the set's owner's manual, you can sometimes tell by the TV's shape. If it's rectangular, not square, it's most likely digital. Or, go through the TV's set up menu with the remote, selecting "search for channels." If you see an option for digital channels, you have a digital set.

If you do have a manual, check out the page that lists the set's specs. It will say if it has an ATSC (Advanced TV Systems Committee) tuner or an NTSC (National TV Standards Committee) one. ATSC tuners are digital; NTSC tuners are analog.

But, if you're like my Mom and her neighbors and you get your TV programming piped in via a cable or satellite service, then you've got no worries. PC Magazine explains:

Satellite television subscribers will be the least impacted by the transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting as absolutely nothing will change from the perspective of the subscriber. Satellite subscribers will continue to receive programming from the "closed" system of signals that are transmitted from orbiting satellites to compatible dish-style antennas and receiver boxes. Satellite subscribers can continue to utilize whatever TV they wish as the satellite receiver hardware will handle the decoding of the incoming signal as well as provide the necessary A/V (audio/video) connections for the TV.

Cable television subscribers will find the transition to digital (terrestrial) broadcasting almost as uneventful as their satellite counterparts. Digital cable subscribers that utilize set-top box or CableCARD hardware to tune channels are also part of a closed video delivery system that has nothing to do with analog or digital terrestrial television broadcasting. And like a satellite receiver, digital cable boxes can be connected to any type of television including the old school standard definition tube TVs as well as the latest high-definition flat-panel displays. For cable subscribers who have opted for a basic plan that doesn't require the use of a set-top box, chances are that cable providers will continue to support these "analog only" customers for the foreseeable future--cable providers are not required to transition to a fully digital video system.

Now, if you are interested in taking the next step to high-definition viewing (and I'd like to remind my Mom that PBS offers loads of great digital programming), check out Amazon's High-Def 101 primer, which very helpfully breaks down all the specs and cable tangle into a nicely understandable guide.

~Agen G.N. Schmitz

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