HIgh Def televisions??

[BLACKJACK]

Our old TV went out so last night we went looking for one. Aside from the fact that its hard to find a plain 27 inch anymore, they're all these big honking screens with big honking prices, a couple of sales people were trying to tell us that we needed to get a High Def (HD) tv, that soon we won't be able to use our old tv's, that we'd need a convertor box? Is that true? Whats the scoop? Whats the timetable? By the way, we live in the country, we don't have cable or a dish, we just have an antenna - and we just want a TV to watch the news and maybe a DVD on.

Any info would be appreciated.

[18 inch Crappie]

I heard the same thing by 2009, but think about all the people that have the tube style TV's none HD, all the poor people down south. Best buys stock would go up if all those people had to upgrade. Walmart and Sears both sell a 27 tube tv for $140. I 2 was looking at a new Tv and bought mine there. Kare 11 is in HD and I get it fine with a pair of rabbit ears. So I do not know maybe a sales hype..

[SteveWilson]

You will need a digital tuner in a few years or buy an outboard box. Analog broadcasting will end. The sets that come standard with digital tuners now tend to be the more expensive HDTV sets.

[311Hemi]

Once everything is converted to HD they will be selling adapter for non-HD TV's. From what I have heard it will be priced around $50 or so.....eventually this will happen.

[Valv]

Shop around many stores, look for clearance or scratch and dent. I had same situation last year and eneded up buying a 35" HDTV display model for $ 425.00 instead of $ 850.00

II visited at least 8 stores (actually my wife made me do it, I would have settled for 1st TV at 1st store, instead NO we had to travel around the cities for the whole day, then found a good deal, of course she had to rub it on me....)

Anyway, you don't need a special antenna for HDTV, a standard aerial ( what you already have) is enough (that's what I have, and I live in the country too).

The difference between HD and standard is HUGE you won't be disappointed.

BEWARE of HDTV TVs and Monitors, the later are just...monitors, they need a HD box receiver to work, if you want a complete unit get a TV

[Walleye Guy]

The analog signal goes away in 2009. I believe the government will be providing each family with one converter and you will have the ability to buy more. Your current analog TV's will work with the converter.

If you buy a HDTV, buy one with an integrated HD tuner. If you don't you will need to get a set top box for your set at some point in time.

Valv is correct you can gets some great deals out there. Don't be afraid to look at Sam's Club and Costco. Also don't be afraid of some of the "off" brands. If you do some research you will find that many of these lesser known manufacturers actually make TV's or screens for for some of the big names.

[Whoaru99]

Quote:

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...I believe the government will be providing each family with one converter...

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I heard that some senator or representative proposed this, but not sure that it got approved or will get approved. I sure the heck hope not.

We have much bigger problems to spend the tax money on than STBs for millions of households.

Oh, yeah, about the TV. If you don't get a TV with a digital tuner (and no, that's not in reference to merely the channel display ) then you will need one of these converters when the signals go digital in 2009, regardless if you have a HDTV or standard definition.

[Jim Almquist]

Blackjack if you can get the Twin Cities channels that are broadcast in UHF then you would be able to get high def with a ant. otherwise you will have to get sat. or cable. The High def signal is uhf so it will be everything above channel 13.The time frame for a switch over keeps changing but it will happen cause there is billions of dollers to be made by our goverment when they sell that bandwidth.

[LMITOUT]

I see you live in Willmar. That's going to be tough to get any channels out of Shoreview with an OTA (Over the Air Antenna, or Off the Air Antenna). Range is typically limited to 60 miles. I'm in Hutchinson and with an antenna on top of my 2-story roof I'm just on the fringe of the signal area. If you're lucky you live on a tall hill without a taller hill to the east of you, but I'm not sure how many channels you'll get if any at all.

They are shutting down the analog signals so you will be affected if you don't have satellite or cable TV service where you live. The only signals flowing over the air waves will be digital and you'll need a HDTV or a SDTV connected to a special converter box to convert the digital signals to analog. The govt has agreed to give out subsidies to pay for these boxes since there will be so many people without television. I don't recall how much every household will recieve, might be $100 or something like that.

Now, even though there will be a mandatory switchover on that magic date, that doesn't mean you'll need a HDTV if you have cable. The only thing they are shutting off is the over the air analog signals which hardly anyone uses anymore except those who live in rural areas and don't have a dish, which I assume is very few anymore. Eventually cable and Dish will only have HD channels, but that's a LOOOOONG time away.

[Whoaru99]

It's more than just OTA transmissions that will stop analog distribution.

Cable and satellite distribution of analog signal will stop as well.

Every TV not having a built-in digital tuner will need some type of converter box come the transition day.

The reading I've done on the subsidy plan says households that can receive ONLY analog service are elligible for the subsidy, and that it's on first-come, first-served until the money runs out.

So, if you are cable subscriber (and maybe even if cable is available, but you don't subscribe), you'll likely have to pay for your own converter if you don't already have one for the digital channels.

[LMITOUT]

Quote:

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It's more than just OTA transmissions that will stop analog distribution.

Cable and satellite distribution of analog signal will stop as well.

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Wrong.

Cable and sat can do whatever they want because they aren't using the airwaves at those frequencies that your local TV station is using. Those are the freq's that the govt wants to use for emergency response, etc and the reason behind the shutdown of analog OTA transmission. The key word is OTA.

Cable and Sat will most likely be sending analog signals for many years. The only thing pushing them to digital is competition amongst themselves, not govt mandates, although with the push to digital they eventually may be forced to changeover due to the number of customers with digital TV's.

If they remain somewhat analog like today they would have to convert the analog to digital for the customers who have digital TVs and vice versa for customers with NTSC TV's. This law will definitely have an effect on cable co's, but they are not required by law to stop transmission of analog signals.

[LMITOUT]

I also wanted to point out that you do not need a HDTV in 2009....a Digital TV will work as well. They are not the same thing and sometimes confused. But, with the amount of HDTV programming increasing all the time it would make good sense to get a HDTV initially and skip a step.

[Whoaru99]

Ah yes, tricky wording in the article I was reading. I re-read it and see your point now about the cable companies.

However, the part about the coupon still appears to be correct. The way I read it is if you have the option for cable, then you won't qualify for the converter box subsidy program. It appears too they are considering whether or not the subsidies should be tied to income.

[fishonnopeoff]

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