Digital TV

Tomorrow is it. Are you ready? Analog television goes away.

I don't have anything to worry about. I have cable. However, I did buy two converters with the $40 coupon cards the government supplied. I was curious to see what stations I would get over the airways.

Until recently, all my televisions were still analog ones. The main one had to be replaced as it must have known that it's analog days were numbered and decided to go whack-o. So, I put it out of it's misery and bought a new one.

I decided to try the converter on my oldest television. This was the first one I bought over 26 years ago, RCA 19-inch. I don't think it's the TV but the antenna I used and the placement of the TV which was in the basement. I was unable to get any of the local stations. I did get some interesting ones. When I have more time, I'll hijack a home-made antenna from my brother to see if I get better results.

As I was discussing my station findings with my brother, he explained the downstream impact to our analog video equipment -- DVR and VHS machine. If you're hooked up to a converter, you can only record one station and that is the station that is set on the converter. The channels on the video recorder machines are worthless. The converter is what controls what is recorded. You cannot watch one station and record another. This made us wonder how many DTV converter people understood this. WOW! What a way to kill analog video recording equipment. For those that understood this, there are a couple of DTV converters out there that will save your video recording equipment. Don't remember what they are but my brother found it and I recently read about them in Consumer Reports.

I also discovered that I might need to use the converters as the cable company is moving some of the premium stations to digital. This requires an adapter from the cable company and they only provide 3 for free. Yes, I have more than 3 TVs. The only rooms that do not have a set are the bathrooms :) I paid the cable company enough and do not see why they should get anymore from them. I cannot wait until FIOS gets here so I have a choice.