Are You Really Ready for Digital TV?
You have probably seen all of the public service announcements warning you that as of February 2009 you will loose your over the air TV reception unless you have cable or satellite. What you probably don’t know is that only cable will provide your local channels for free as part of all packages BUT if you have a satellite system, you have to pay for a “local channels” package and would only include a small number of the closest network channels costing $5-6 per month.
In order for you to receive the “free” on-air channels you have to either purchase a Digital TV converter box (if you have an older TV without a ATSC (digital) tuner) or purchase a new TV with a digital tuner. In addition, you will also have to have an antenna to receive the new channels. The new digital channels are located in the UHF band (where the old channels 14-83 currently are located) so if you have an antenna that can receive UHF channels now, you are all set for receiving the new digital channels. I personally have one of those circular, flying saucer shaped antennas that were originally designed for RVs and mobile homes and have tested it with a digital TV converter and works perfectly! Located approximately 30 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts, I have a hard time receiving stations from that area with a current TV, but with the digital converter, I receive every Boston station (some transmitted in HD) like I was hooked up to cable. In fact, when I first plugged in the converter and did the auto channel scan, I was surprised to find that I was within range of 27 digital channels. And everyone came in in all its digital picture quality and stereo audio (some in 5.1 surround). What a huge difference.
Now some advice. If you haven’t already signed up for the government’s offer of the $40 coupons to buy a digital converter because you either forgot or figure that because you get cable or satellite, do it anyway. What happens if your cable goes down (due to storm or malfunction)? How about because of a severe storm, you can receive satellite? You will be without TV, period. You know all of those little portable TVs that you probably own (or 2 or 3)? They won’t work either. No standard TV will be able to receive a digital TV broadcast with out one of those converters. So do yourself a favor and sign up for at least one of those $40 coupons (many digital converters are going for $49.95, leaving you to pay about $10 after using the coupon). The link to get one (or two) of those coupons is: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/index.html . Just remember that these coupons expire in 90 days. So don’t just stick them in a drawer somewhere and forget them.
Which converter should you buy? Doing some research, I found the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT (only available at Best Buy) the best of the low-cost ($49.95) converters. Independent tests showed it to have the best picture quality. Other features are that it has a analog feed-through (so you can use it now along with regular (analog) TV and an on-screen program display.