Your government has finally announced their plans to spend the money
congress you gave them to help ease the
digital transition burden on those with older TVs. While we knew these boxes
weren't going to be free, we now know that everyone who is willing to call, go online, fax or mail in to "self-certify that they rely
solely on over-the-air broadcasts", will be eligiable for two $40 vouchers that can go towards the purchase of a DTV converter box -- at least until the $850 Million runs out. The OTA STBs are expected to cost ~$70, which seems high considering they can be found for $89 today. If you are one of the estimated 20 million households that really do relay solely on
OTA, you may want to sign up on January 1st 2008, before all the unscrupulous eBayers get them all. If they do run out, NTIA plans on asking congress for another $450 mil to fill the gap.
[Via
1080eye.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
picaso @ Mar 13th 2007 5:52PM
As always the government is making this more complex than it has to be. Why can't they simply check with the cable/sat providers customer lists and send everyone else the voucher sans households above a certain income level (they have all the records).
JD @ Mar 13th 2007 7:18PM
Maybe your cable company has your information, but not mine. And if the cable was asked to supply that information. There'd be a shit strom brewing.
Bob Colby @ Mar 13th 2007 6:00PM
A small correction - as I read it, the "self-certification" provision only applies to the *additional* $450, not the original $890:
From the CNET article:
"If that initial $890 million worth of coupons run out, NTIA has the power to ask Congress to hand over an additional $450 million, creating up to 11,250,000 more vouchers. *Those* [emphasis mine - BC] coupons would be reserved, however, for households that self-certify that they rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts, as opposed to cable or satellite."
and from TWICE:
"However, if the additional funds are needed, eligibility for those coupons will be limited exclusively to over-the- air-only television households, according to NTIA rules. Consumers requesting coupons *from these contingent funds* [emphasis mine - BC] must self-certify to NTIA that they do not subscribe to cable, satellite or other pay television services."
- Bob Colby
Switchover Scenarios - http://dtvswitch.blogspot.com
JD @ Mar 13th 2007 8:08PM
You or someone esle here keeps saying that these boxes are available now for $89.00. Where?? Last post about them showed make and model numbers. I did searches, those boxes are not available any longer. At appears that the suggested RP was around $300. They didn't sell so $89.00 was to get rid of them. As far as ebay, they could be banned from selling them there.
Ben @ Mar 13th 2007 7:32PM
The box pictured above is available at newegg.com for $89.99 on sale from $99.
Keep in mind it doesn't have HD outputs only analog.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16882107049
Big Sam @ Mar 13th 2007 10:49PM
Most people who would benefit from this have no idea what is happening.
GhostDoggy @ Mar 14th 2007 5:24AM
This is nothing more than another form of welfare.
Ben @ Mar 14th 2007 7:49AM
I agree GhostDoggy - yet another example of government waste. I am so sick of our government's take from the rich to give to the poor mentality. It's sad that it now extends itself to where watching TV is a right that the gov't will help you pay for.
William C Bonner @ Mar 14th 2007 2:47PM
Its good to find at least one atsc tuner for less than $100, even if all the reviews are negative.
I want the ATSC tuner to output SD video on SVHS, Composite, but I suppose putting out on VHF Channel 3 makes sense for this sort of purpose. And since it is designed to work when all of the VHF channels have gone away, there's really no reason for it to even have an RF channel selector.
Shawn Garringer @ Mar 19th 2007 7:40AM
@William C Bonner
VHF is not going away, once the transition is complete many channels are going back to their VHF allotments.