The Busy Life of a Single Mom

Every day I see the commercials advertising the big cable change beginning February 2009. I admit to ignoring them, but then yesterday when I noticed someone in town digging a trench and laying fiber cable something hit me, and I decided maybe I should look into this and be sure that this transition in fact will not effect me. I would hate to assume I was ok and then bam! my favorite show gone because of my ignorance. In case you too are not sure of what this big transition is, I thought I would give a short post on this today.

It appears that in the past channels have broadcast on an analog network; however, beginning February 2009 they must all switch over to digital broadcasting. What does that mean to us? It means that we must have newer model televisions with a built-in tuner capable of receiving digital broadcasts, but how do we know if our televisions meet this specifications? That’s the problem I was faced with.

Well it seems that televisions have had this capability for the last eight years, but only in the last two has it become a standard feature. The models that are acceptable come in standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), or high-definition (HDTV) versions. Well I have to admit, this little piece of knowledge doesn’t really help me. All of our televsions have been bought in the last five years, but I still am not sure how you know for sure. But here’s the piece of knowledge that tells me we will be ok - apparently satellite and cable boxes are equipped to convert digital signals to analog ones that older TVs can accept. Well I’m happy to know that as this means that even if our older televisions are not digitally capable, they will still work as we watch our programming through DirecTV.

Worried that your television does not meet specs? Apparently the only consumers who will really be impacted are those that receive their television though an antenna. If you think you meet this criteria, you may want to do more research. Also, the federal government is offering each U.S. household up to two $40 coupons that can be redeemed toward the cost of converters, which will range in price from $50 to $70 each. To participate in the program, viewers can either call 888-388-2009 (toll-free) or fill out an application at the www.DTV2009.gov Website. But don’t wait too long to take action - the DTV transition coupon program is scheduled to end in March 2009 and there are only a certain number of coupons available.