Digital TV

[Speedbird1]

I own several Sony Watchman portable TVs. These little TVs from the 90's must have analog-only tuners. What will happen when stations stop transmitting the analog signals? How will these little TVs work? There is no way to connect a digital adapter to these mini-TVs. I think Digital TV is being forced upon us by greedy TV set manufacturers who want us to buy new TVs rather than bother to hook-up adaptors. Incidentally, won't the adapters use electricity? How is this eco-friendly? Electric bills will rise. Who needs this?

[RDU-JFK]

I agree...I don't have cable and use rabbit ears on both cable and non-cable-ready TVs. I'm very happy with it...who cares if the pic is a bit grainy? There are a helluva lot of New Yorkers who use rabbit ears...pain in the @$$...

[T-Bird76]

Ok come out of the way back machine.... Yes those little Sony TV's will be useless as there will be no over the air analog signal for them to pick up. There will be converter boxes available but I'm not sure if portable ones are being made.

As for the change its called progress. There have been many conversions and innovations that have caused parts of society to adapt, this is one of them. There are many benefits to digital only TV signals as digital can carry far more information then analog. As for the converter box, I highly doubt you'll notice any increase in your monthly electric bill. Plus you don't have to buy a new TV; you just have to buy a $40 converter box for your analog TVs, which more then likely will offer some rebate check from the Gov't. Also if you have cable you don't have to do a thing. The cable company's will handle the switch on their end.

I've have digital TV for a few years now and last year got HDTV and have to say once you have HD you don't want to go back. The picture and sound are simply fantastic. As for being eco friendly LCD and Plasma TV's are FAR more eco friendly then tube TV's. They use less power, less raw materials to build, less cardboard to package, and take up much less room in land fills. Plus they are really cool looking! :)

Here's a website that goes over the switch.

http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html

[Matt Molnar]

I own several Sony Watchman portable TVs. These little TVs from the 90's must have analog-only tuners. What will happen when stations stop transmitting the analog signals? How will these little TVs work?

They won't. Radios that are able to pick up TV audio will not work either.

At the end of the day the government had the most to gain from this. Sure, the TV manufacturers are selling new TVs but most people have transitioned to DTV and HDTV on their own for the higher resolution and they have cable or satellite anyway...they're not inspired by the switchover. The FCC, on the other hand, recently auctioned off the frequencies previously used by broadcasters on channels 52 through 69. The government's payday: $19.12 BILLION, mostly from Verizon and AT&T who will use them for cellphones, wireless data and such.