What do I have to do to be ready for DTV?

You are going to have to prepare your television sets to accept the digital broadcast signal as you will not receive any analog signal after February 17, 2009 per Congresses mandate.  This means that any television in your home that receives over the air television programming through the use of a roof top antenna or television ‘rabbit ears' will no longer receive a signal.  If you have a digital television that comes with an internal digital tuner, you will get the over the air digital television programming.  If you have an analog television, however, you will need a special converter box for your television set that will change the signal from digital to analog for you, allowing you to still use your old television set after the change.  The converter box will also allow you to gain access to any additional multicast programming your local television stations offer.

The government has established a special Digital-To-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program to help aid consumers in preparing their televisions for the conversion on February 17, 2009.  The program is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).  They are a part of the Department of Commerce.  Every household in the United States is eligible to receive up to two coupons worth $40 towards the purchase of an eligible digital to analog converter box for their television sets.  Coupon distribution and acceptance began in January 2008 by the NTIA and only eligible converter boxes sold at participating consumer electronics retailers were and are able to accept the coupons.  The coupons must be used at the time of the purchase and they are good for up to 90 days after being mailed to the consumer.  The converter boxes currently sell from $40 to $70 a piece and after the coupon, the consumer pays a reduced one time cost.  For more information on the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program, visit www.dtv2009.gov, or call 1-888-388-2009 (voice) or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).

Consumers who are subscribed to cable or satellite service and have analog television sets already hooked up to their service should not be affected by the February 17, 2009 cut off date for the cessation of analog broadcasting.

What is the digital TV (DTV) transition?

The switch from analog to digital broadcast television is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition. In 1996, the U.S. Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each broadcast TV station so that they could start a digital broadcast channel while simultaneously continuing their analog broadcast channel. Later, Congress mandated that February 17, 2009 would be the last day for full-power television stations to broadcast in analog. Broadcast stations in all U.S. markets are currently broadcasting in both analog and digital. After February 17, 2009, full-power television stations will broadcast in digital only.

Why are we switching to DTV?

An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications (such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads). Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband).

Consumers also benefit because digital broadcasting allows stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, and digital is much more efficient than analog. For example, rather than being limited to providing one analog program, a broadcaster is able to offer a super sharp "high definition" (HD) digital program or multiple "standard definition" (SD) digital programs simultaneously through a process called "multicasting." Multicasting allows broadcast stations to offer several channels of digital programming at the same time, using the same amount of spectrum required for one analog program. So, for example, while a station broadcasting in analog on channel 7 is only able to offer viewers one program, a station broadcasting in digital on channel 7 can offer viewers one digital program on channel 7-1, a second digital program on channel 7-2, a third digital program on channel 7-3, and so on. This means more programming choices for viewers

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