Poll: Are you ready for the digital TV transition?

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 3rd 2009 at 12:00PM

Hard to believe that next month will mark the official (though not really) end of analog broadcast signals here in the US of A, but it's true. February 17th is within spitting distance, and we get the feeling that loads of voucher requesters will be filing into retail outlets in order to get their DTV converter box soon. Our question is simply this: are you already prepared, or have you yet to become DTV ready?

Filed under: Polls, Set-top boxes, Tuners, OTA

Tags: 2009, awareness, cutover, digital tv, DigitalTv, dtv transition, DtvTransition, ready, switchover, transition

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Low Ranked

scjessey @ Jan 3rd 2009 12:29PM

The only time I use OTA is when the cable is out. I can't believe people still have TVs that don't have ATSC capability, frankly. They must be very old units.

Neutral

Mitchell @ Jan 3rd 2009 12:54PM

i own 3 tv's. Two of them are HD ATSC capable. but my "very old unit" in the bedroom works just fine. Dont really think its necessary to spend ~$300 for a new TV when the one I have now works great and only used ~1 per week. I put the Converter box on it some time ago and its perfect for watching the news at night even tho I am missing the HD its only talking heads.

Highest Ranked

cashmonee @ Jan 3rd 2009 1:45PM

@scjessey:
I would say the majority of televisions do not have an ATSC tuner in them. Recall that most manufacturers did not really start putting them in televisions until about 5 years ago. I don't know about you, but a 6 year old set is not that old, especially to those who are used to television life being over a decade per set.

As for this whole transition deal, I think most people who need to be ready are. Here they are running ads on TV and radio. I have some of the most technologically ignorant people in my family and even they knew they needed a coupon and box.

Low Ranked

scjessey @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:00PM

@cashmonee:
As far as I am concerned, a 6-year-old set is ancient. It's almost certainly going to be an enormously heavy CRT or rear projection beastie with a 4:3 aspect ratio - all but useless, unless you spend your time watching Doo-wop on PBS.

Highest Ranked

Geoffrey Sperl @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:30PM

"Very old" TVs without ATSC tuners could be as recent as a TV purchased just over two years ago. The reality is you are a geek - the majority of the American populace is not.

Furthermore, while my wife and I are ready for the transition (and we dumped cable, happily, a while ago and now have all our TVs doing OTA and/or downloads from the internet), my mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and my wife's aunt are all confused to hell by the transition. I've blown through seven converter coupons in the past few months and still have to set up another TV for my mother and one for my wife's aunt.

Your dismissal of the situation is what is going wrong with the transition. Many of those who understand it are reluctant to explain it, help with it, or come back with poorly thought-out remarks like "a 6-year-old set is ancient." It increases the burden on those of us who are willing to help those confused by the transition and it opens an opportunity for unscrupulous retailers and service providers to soak confused consumers financially.

The reality is the transition is going to leave MILLIONS of televisions showing only but snow because their owners are confused by the situation. Dismissing it out of hand won't make the issue go away.

Neutral

dejal @ Jan 3rd 2009 3:38PM

"It's almost certainly going to be an enormously heavy CRT or rear projection beastie with a 4:3 aspect ratio - all but useless, "

So what. Unless you are constantly changing addresses the TV is going to stay in the same spot until it dies.

If you aren't on an antenna, nothing changes.

When it dies, it'll get replaced. Big deal.

You sound like a snob.

Highly Ranked

HC @ Jan 4th 2009 5:05AM

Besides America, ATSC really hasn't taken off. We don't really have OTA HD in canada except for 1-2 channels where I am and so as recently as early 2007, most televisions up here were HD-Ready. Now the majority has started to come through with ATSC/QAM tuners inside.

Instead of trying to be a smartass, why not try and be more constructive? You must realize that still only 40% of american households (maybe less) own an HDTV, A great fraction of that will only be 1080i televisions, a smaller fraction will be 1080p, and an even smaller will be 120 hz etc...

If you consider 6 year old televisions ancient, then I am at a loss for words. But know that only around late 2006-early 2007 did all tv's start coming with ATSC tuners etc...

Neutral

JC @ Jan 3rd 2009 12:37PM

They need to bump the date up to January 3rd and pull the plug already.

Highest Ranked

roy gilmer @ Jan 3rd 2009 12:55PM

The friggin coupon only works for the converter boxes, and my HD-Ready tele wants a friggin HD Box. (It's tunerless). I friggin scrapped comcast HD, can't get anything else, and they wont give me friggin $40US off of a friggin HD box. I will from now on be watching all my friggin TV on my friggin notebook. TV becomes a friggin monitor for games and my notebook connection. Frig!!

Neutral

BONNIE KING @ Jan 3rd 2009 1:00PM

Now tell us how you really feel.... Besides Feb 17th is my birthday

Neutral

ryaninc @ Jan 3rd 2009 1:04PM

We've been watching OTA HD for the past seven or eight months. No cable, no satellite, just OTA. I got myself a nice digital antenna and our ATSC HDTV does just fine. Absolute perfect picture and it has yet to go down, which I can't say about cable. :-)

Neutral

Covarr @ Jan 3rd 2009 1:07PM

1. I have satellite. I don't need to be ready.
2. Even so, every TV in my house is ready except the one that is only hooked up to a PS2, a GC, a N64, and a DVD player.
3. I'm pretty sure that the only OTA channel that my house gets is PBS from a few cities over. Being ready wouldn't accomplish anything.

Neutral

Schwinn @ Jan 3rd 2009 1:22PM

My Comcrap cable prevents me from having to buy a new TV. Still, FWIW, my main TV is ATSC capable, but the bedroom LCD, and the other two CRTs are not.

Neutral

Geoffrey Sperl @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:36PM

Two ATSC sets, one NTSC. However, the NTSC is hooked up to a Vista Ultimate box and sits in the guest room (I can't stand the Windows MC interface so I banished it far away), so that's serving as its converter box (it's also running TiVo Desktop for my TiVos).

The rest of my family... well, let's just say it's going to be a very busy next six weeks and I'm going to be dealing with a lot of antennas.

Neutral

William C Bonner @ Jan 3rd 2009 4:48PM

I've got a 7 year old Samsung 17 inch LCD monitor that included a built in TV. I've got it hooked to one of the converter boxes that I got with my coupon. i had been hoping to get another converter box with the second coupon, but wanted to try a different brand. The coupon expired before I could use it.

I use an HD TiVo on my big screen, and an HDTV tuner connected to the TV in my bedroom. I went ATSC only two years ago, and have loved the broadcast quality and the no cost.

I'm the only person I know that doesnt use cable or satellite. The public service announcements that are constantly being broadcast seem to be causing fear among the people that don't need to worry about the transition.

Neutral

Carl H @ Jan 3rd 2009 7:51PM

Maybe I'm way out of line here, but could Something else = maybe some internet users don't actually live in the US? Just a thought...

Neutral

h0mi @ Jan 3rd 2009 9:32PM

My problem is that every box available is $50 ($10 after coupon) and I don't know the first thing that is different about any boxes, nor do I know of any sites (hint hint) that ever reviewed them or said X is better than Y because of ___.

Neutral

YouFaceTheTick @ Jan 3rd 2009 10:35PM

Haven't had an SDTV since 2002.

Neutral

LonnieDvD @ Jan 3rd 2009 11:09PM

I hate to sound like a jerk, but this digital TV transition has been advertised for over a year now, in every possible way. Anyone who is STILL not ready for this must be either broke, or a bonehead!! Anyway, Mediacom has got me ready, cable can be useful once in a while!!

Neutral

Roy gilmer @ Jan 3rd 2009 11:56PM

I'm friggin broke... VERY friggin broke... I just don't NEED HD or even TV at all, and I know that this transition thing will loose some tee-vee viewers which will pull the sponsership prices down and somehow down the line MAKE ME EVEN MORE FRIGGIN POOR.

Neutral

LonnieDvD @ Jan 3rd 2009 11:16PM

Ack, please forget I said "bonehead", I've had a really bad day. I meant no offense to those who have not prepared yet!!

Neutral

HC @ Jan 3rd 2009 11:23PM

I live in Canada and for the past year I have been forced to watch numerous commercials and announcements on the supposed analog switch down south. I get a handful of american channels and every day and night there are at least 5 commercials I see.

I'll be shocked if Americans complain down south that they never knew the switch was happening or that they aren't prepared, since people like me who live in different countries even know about the switch.

Neutral

Dan @ Jan 4th 2009 2:05AM

I have my box for an old Mitsubishi dating back into the 80s. I have my HD sets hooked up to Cable STBs so I'm all ready to go. I cannot wait to see a Comcast office on the 17th of next month when people who have extended cable lineups find out what happens.

Neutral

KG6YGS @ Jan 28th 2009 8:25PM

There is no point in delaying the inevitable--let's make the switch to digital and deal with the fall-out. If the February 17 deadline is pushed back to June, you will still have people who are not ready--even people who figure that the June deadline will be pushed to September, and then to January 2010, and so on. A lot of times the only way to get people to make a change like this is to force them to--much like Canada converting to the metric system back in the 1980s. (Frankly, I think the idea of making the valid dates on the coupons so short was ridiculous; nevertheless I got my two and two for my elderly mother last summer.) Bottom line: Help out those you know that are having trouble with the idea of transition.

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