Digital Telivision Conversion: Ready Yet?

[Relique du Madde]

Well are you? If not, why aren't you?

 

[Ranger REG]

Well are you? If not, why aren't you?

[singsong]
Aloha from Hawaii...
We already switched to digital...
The first state (except Kauai)...
Made the switch to digital...
[/singsong]

 

[drothgery]

Considering that if you aren't ready, then all of the following is true
1 - You don't get have cable TV
2 - You don't get satellite TV
3 - You don't IP television (most notably AT&T UVerse)

AND either
1 - You live in one of the few areas where you could get analog TV over the air, but not digital TV
OR
2 - You don't have a digital-ready TV (when all new TVs have been required to be digital-ready for a few years now) AND you don't have a $50 converter box

And considering that dire warnings have been all of the airwaves for the last six months or so... well, the only people I have any sympathy for are those who could get analaog TV over the air, but not digital.

 

[frankthedm]

[pumps shotgun]
get'cher DTV off mah airwaves and outa mah brain!
[/fires shotgun]

The transition is going to give ConCa$h Cable another excuse to increase the rapes ...err rates.

 

[Pbartender]

Well are you? If not, why aren't you?

Nope...

Because we haven't watched broadcast television for almost 10 years, and neither our DVD player nor our VCR requires a digital television.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm ready. I am one of those people who does not have cable/satellite or a newer TV. But I did get one of those converter boxes and it's working fine at bringing in the "air digital" channels.

One challenge was arranging my VCR/DVD recorder so it could record from the converter box. Because my VCR/DVD does not have its own digital tuner, I'm using the "line in" to bring in the digital signal, then passing it on to the TV. If I want to record, I actually have to tune the converter box to the right channel and leave it on, then set the recorder to record the "line in" channel at whatever time. If I wanted to tape two different programs on different channels in one night and I wasn't there to manually change the channel on the converter box, I would be out of luck. Fortunately with so much available online, there's really only one program I might need to record each week.

 

[freyar]

Nope...

Because we haven't watched broadcast television for almost 10 years, and neither our DVD player nor our VCR requires a digital television.

We have a winner! (Same here.)

 

[Shabe]

My TV accepts a digital signal, just that we don't get a good enough signal, being in England's second city is apparently not good enough.

Using a small powered ariel, not a roof top one.

So no I don't think I'm ready, unless turning off analogue miraculously makes the signal better.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm ready. I am one of those people who does not have cable/satellite or a newer TV. But I did get one of those converter boxes and it's working fine at bringing in the "air digital" channels.

One challenge was arranging my VCR/DVD recorder so it could record from the converter box. Because my VCR/DVD does not have its own digital tuner, I'm using the "line in" to bring in the digital signal, then passing it on to the TV. If I want to record, I actually have to tune the converter box to the right channel and leave it on, then set the recorder to record the "line in" channel at whatever time. If I wanted to tape two different programs on different channels in one night and I wasn't there to manually change the channel on the converter box, I would be out of luck. Fortunately with so much available online, there's really only one program I might need to record each week.

Despite having converted to digital, I rarely used my VCR these days, since I find most of my favorite shows' full episodes on respective network web sites, if not on Hulu.com.

I'll probably will pick up a DVD recorder with digital (ATSC) tuner later this year. Maybe pick up a HDTV with only the digital tuner (minus the analog tuner component so it should cost less than earlier models).

Sighs. The only reason Hawaii made the switch early is because of some stupid birds. Honestly, I can deal with one less indigenous species for better picture especially during emergency.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Not yet. Just haven't had the time. Too many fires to put out.

Hopefully next month I'll be upgrading my entertainment center components.