Thursday, April 10, 2008

“Television is called a medium because anything good on it is rare” Fred Allen

The picture you see is of a TV that is two years older then I am (35 Years). This TV lives at my father’s house where he changes the channels using a pair of pliers and has to adjust the rabbit ears plus tin foil contraption used to get a signal. Amazingly he still gets great reception with it. The problem here is the date Feb. 17, 2009. Once we pass this fated day analog reception and broadcast TV will die and be replaced with a digital signal. This means for my father to still be able use this ancient television he must get a digital convertor for this TV. Thankfully he can get a coupon from the Digital TV Transition and public safety site. The US government has put aside money for all those that need these convertor boxes. You can either click the link on the right side of the site, which was down when I clicked it, or call the phone number. Once you get the coupon you can head to most electronic resellers and get the convertor box at quite a discount. Now there is potentially good news and bad news here. With the new box installed you will not have to try to watch a TV show through snow or white noise. If it can pick up a signal it comes in perfectly. The downside is that if the signal is not perfect it will reject it and you get nothing. According to what I have read it is mostly going to be good for the TV watcher. If you are not using bunny ears or antennas for your signal then most likely you do not need the convertor. If you have an older set you have two choices get a new one or get a convertor. I am of the mind that if it aint broke don’t buy a new one try the convertor first. If given a choice of watching what is on TV (American Idol) today or doing something else (surfing the net, read a book, anything) I will take the latter.

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