well, sort of. You can buy a DTV converter box alternative for your old analog TV today—as long as you don’t mind paying for (and perhaps even enjoying) extra features like DVD recording.
A DVD recorder, equipped with a built-in digital tuner, can solve the “2009 problem” faced by analog TV owners who watch over-the-air broadcasts using an antenna. When analog broadcasts meet their demise on February 17, 2009, many of those viewers will switch on brand-new, government-subsidized DTV converter boxes. But new DVD recorders, starting at about $145, can also tune in digital TV broadcasts.
Some models, according to user reports, are not without problems. For a look at the benefits and drawbacks.
If you watch TV over the air, using an antenna or “rabbit ears,” you will need to get either a converter box or a digital TV by February 17, 2009.
I have cable TV service.
If you have cable service, the switch to digital TV broadcasts may be the last thing on your mind.
Despite what you may have heard, not all cable customers are in the clear when it comes to the digital TV transition. While many media reports have suggested that cable-TV households will continue to receive all local stations after the switch, the full story is more complicated.
If you already have digital cable—a package offered by most cable systems as an upgrade—you and your TV should be just fine.
An estimated 60 percent of cable viewers, however, still have analog cable, despite recent gains in digital penetration. Here’s the hitch: When the transition to digital TV broadcasts takes effect in 2009, cable operators will not be authorized to “downconvert” higher-quality digital broadcasts into lower-quality analog form.
I have satellite TV service.
If you have satellite TV service from Dish Network or DirecTV, the signal you receive is already digital. So in that sense, at least, you’re ahead of the game.
One caveat, however:
If, like some direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) customers, you still need a separate antenna to watch local stations, you may need to make some arrangements before analog TV broadcasts end on Feb. 17, 2009. Local channels, beamed from space
DirecTV and Dish Network already offer a package of local stations via satellite in many areas. If your satellite TV subscription includes local channels, your current analog or digital TV will continue to work just fine.
The DBS companies are currently rolling out packages that provide broadcasts from local digital channels, including high-definition programming, via satellite to viewers in the nation’s largest TV markets. HDTV packages require a newer, HD-capable satellite receiver. To watch in high-definition, you’ll need an HDTV. (Your DirecTV or Dish Network package may not include every local station, however, especially when it comes to the new “multicast” channels offered by some local broadcasters. An exception is Alaska and Hawaii, where multicast carriage is mandated.) Viewing local channels over the air
If you don’t get local stations from your satellite TV provider, and you plan on using an antenna to get local channels over-the-air (OTA—sometimes called “off-air”), here’s what you should know:
• If you have a standard analog TV, you will still be able to watch local stations if you get one of the newer satellite receivers (including some DVR models) that includes an ATSC tuner. (ATSC stands for the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which established the digital broadcasting standard used in the U.S. The combined receiver allows you to get both satellite and OTA TV through a single box—thereby avoiding the clutter and added complexity of adding a separate set-top converter box for OTA reception.) New receivers are available for DirecTV or Dish Network.
• If you have a digital TV, you can also go that route. Or, if your digital television includes an ATSC tuner (sometimes called a “digital tuner” or “digital ATSC tuner”), it is already equipped to receive over-the-air broadcasts.
• Also: Many OTA viewers will need better antennas. A household that gets acceptable or marginal analog TV reception with an indoor antenna may need a good outdoor one to receive digital broadcasts. Buying an HDTV? You can probably skip the tuner.
If you’re shopping for an HDTV, most Dish Network or DirecTV subscribers who plan to stick with satellite service and subscribe to an HD package will find little reason to purchase a television that includes an integrated tuner, which can add to the cost.
For continuing updates on the transition to digital TV, including details about local-channel packages from DirecTV and Dish.
RCA digital TV adapter. RCA/ThomsonA digital TV converter box hooks up to a conventional analog TV set, allowing it to receive digital broadcasts. This device, about the size of a cable box or smaller, is sometimes called a “digital-to-analog converter box,” “set-top converter box” or “digital TV adapter.
To assist consumers through the conversion, the U.S. government will take requests from households for up to two $40 coupons for digital-to-analog converter boxes beginning January 1, 2008 via a toll free number or a website. However, these government coupons are limited to an initial sum of $890 million (22,250,000 coupons) with the option to grow to $1.34 billion (33,500,000 coupons)which is far short of the estimated 112 million households in the United States. Reports indicate that 1 in 2 households already has a digital TV http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/index.html
After the switch from analog to digital broadcasts is complete, analog TVs will be incapable of receiving over-the-air broadcasts without the addition of a set-top converter box. Consequently, a digital-to-analog converter, an electronic device that connects to an analog television, must be used in order to allow the television to receive digital broadcasts.[13] The box may also be called a "set-top" converter, "digital TV adapter" (DTA), or "digital set-top box" (DSTB)
Digital TV uses a more efficient transmission technology that allows broadcast stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, as well as offer more programming options through multiple broadcast streams (multicasting). Television stations have been preparing for the transition from analog to DTV since the late 1990s, when they began building digital facilities and airing digital channels alongside regular analog broadcasts. Today, 1,609 out of 1,745 full power television stations nationwide offer digital programming, however, most of the smaller, low-power broadcasters, for whom switching to digital would be cost prohibitive, will still be permitted to transmit in analog for several years to come. [9] Since the majority of US viewership is no longer using over-the-air antennae to receive signals, but has switched to cable and satellite, the impact will be much smaller on current NTSC receivers which will continue to use NTSC content and devices after the cut-off date. Set-top boxes will enable existing over-the-air NTSC only receivers to watch over-the-air ATSC signals.
A major concern is that the broadcast technology used to transmit ATSC signals called 8VSB has problems receiving signal inside buildings and in urban areas, largely due to multipath reception issues which cause annoying ghosting and fading on analog images, but can lead to intermittent signal or no reception at all on ATSC programs.[10]. DTV broadcasts exhibit a digital cliff effect, by which viewers will receive either a perfect signal or no signal at all with little or no middle ground. Digital transmissions do contain additional data bits to provide error correction for a finite number of bit errors; once signal quality degrades beyond that point, recovery of the original digital signal becomes impossible.
The maximum power for DTV broadcast classes is also substantially lower; one-fifth of the legal limits for the former full-power analog services. A hundred-kW analog station on channel 2-6 would therefore be faced with the choice of either lowering its power by 80% (to the twenty kilowatt limit of low-VHF DTV) or abandoning a channel which it occupied since the 1950s in order to transmit more signal power on the less-crowded UHF TV band. Unfortunately, the higher frequencies perform poorly in areas where signals must travel great distances and encounter significant terrestrial obstacles.
The Consumer Electronics Association has set up a website called Antenna Web[11] to identify means to provide the correct signal reception to over-the-air viewers. The TV Fool website[12] provides geographic mapping and signal data to allow viewers to estimate the number of channels which will be gained or lost as a result of digital transition; while it estimates that marginally more stations will be gained than lost by viewers, this varies widely with viewers of low-VHF analog signals in distant-fringe areas among the most adversely affected. An estimated 1.8 million people will lose the ability to access over-the-air TV entirely as a result of the digital transition.
US markets which have presented unique problems for digital transition include:
* New York City-Newark - one of the early US terrestrial digital television pioneers with state-of-the-art ATSC facilities installed atop the World Trade Center as early as 1998, currently lacks one single point of sufficient height from which to cover the entire region without severe multipath interference issues in downtown Manhattan, New York. The 1776-foot Freedom Tower, proposed to replace the former World Trade Center, will not be completed in time for 2009's DTV transition, requiring the use of multiple booster transmitters to fill gaps in coverage from the Empire State Building. The Metropolitan TV Alliance, a group of eleven rival New York and New Jersey broadcasters, proposes to deploy twenty transmitters across the city to provide adequate quality signal. * New Orleans, Louisiana and portions of Mississippi were operating some digital transmitters from temporary locations or from towers belonging to other stations due to damage done during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in 2005. While stations are now back on-air, the coverage area often does not match that specified on the station licences due to the change in antenna locations. * Denver, Colorado faces unique multipath interference problems largely due to its mountainous location; its antennas on Lookout Mountain will need to increase in height to overcome obstacles to digital reception, but attempts to get local zoning approval have met with strong opposition.
The greatest DTV detail level currently available is 1080i, which is a 1920x1080 interlaced widescreen format. Interlacing is done to reduce the image bandwidth to one-half of full-frame quality, which gives better frame update speed for quick-changing scenes such as sports, but at the same time reduces the overall image quality and introduces image flickering and "crawling scanlines" because of the alternating field refresh.
Full-frame progressive-scan 1920x1080 (1080p) requires up to twice the data bandwidth currently available in the DTV channel specification. 1080p may become an option in the future, as image compression algorithms improve, allowing more detail to be sent via the same channel bandwidth allocations to be used now.
The limitations of interlacing can be partially overcome through the use of advanced image processors in the consumer display device, such as the use of Faroudja DCDi and using internal framebuffers to eliminate scanline crawling.
DTV has several advantages over analog TV, the most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth (and the bandwidth needs are continuously variable, at a corresponding cost in image quality depending on the level of compression). This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on the same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages, spoken or subtitled. The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source. In many cases, viewers perceive DTV to have superior picture quality, improved audio quality, and easier reception than analog.
By law, full-power television stations nationwide must stop using the old method of transmitting TV signals known as analog and begin broadcasting exclusively in a digital format on February 17, 2009. Digital television (DTV) is an innovative type of broadcasting technology that will give you crystal-clear pictures and sound, and more programming choices than ever before.
Get ready for DTV.
While the benefits of DTV are remarkable, millions of households risk losing television reception unless they take the easy steps to receive a digital signal. We're here to help you make a smooth transition.
