Are you ready?

[Grace]

On February 17, 2009, the television stations will be switching the way they broadcast air signals from analog to digital. According to the Federal Communications Commission, all full power stations will be required to make the transition by this deadline. If you currently watch any television through an antenna or even rabbit ears, you will need to purchase a special converter box in order to watch television after this date. Some consumers will need to buy a new digital antenna, as well. You will need a converter box for each television you own. Don't forget about the televisions in your cars, vans and motor homes. 

The government has made available coupons to help with the expense of these converter boxes. You can go to http://www.dtv.gov/ for more information on how to obtain these coupons. You will need to hurry and apply for them, though. I ordered mine on October 6 and they are scheduled to be mailed out on October 24. I was told to expect them in one to two weeks after the scheduled mail date. These coupons will expire 90 days after their mail date. Each household is allowed to order only two coupons. These boxes are running between $50 and $80, depending on where you buy them.

The government has recommended that we go ahead and purchase these boxes and make the transition as soon as possible. However, consumers are finding it difficult to find these boxes in the store. This conversion will definitely change the way we watch television. Unfortunately, many people will no longer be able to watch television. To a large percentage of the population the television is their main source of entertainment, including; the elderly and the disabled. I am including a couple of additional links that I have found helpful; http://www.dtvusaforum.com/, http://www.tvconversionhelp.com/. Are you ready?

[esper_d]

Yes, I'm ready.  I watch TV at two houses: My own, and at my parents'.

We have cable at my house and my parents have DirecTv and TiVo.

[Narnian]

We got the converter box months ago, but the darned things keep breaking on us! The first one stopped picking up any kind of signal, and we had to bring it to the cable company to have it replaced. Our new one worked for a while, then the picture started to disappear on us. After having it "repaired," it slowly disintegrated into the same state our first box had been in. Ugh!

Currently, the cable company has no more boxes to replace our broken one with because of all the repairs/replacements they've been having to do. I was ready, but now I'm entirely boxless. I wish I'd kept ahold of the analog box so at least I'd have cable until February!