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Over the next few months you will see articles, advertisings, and various notices about the switchover of analog TV channels to digital. The alerts will tell you that you will have to buy a converter box (also called a Digital Television Adapter, or DTA) to be able to watch TV on an analog TV. Don’t go out and buy a converter before you read this article. It is very likely that you won’t need to make any change as a result of the switchover, and that you’ll be able to watch TV just like you have been.
What Is the Switchover?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates all communications related technologies in the U.S., including TV broadcasts, has mandated that all stations stop broadcasting over-the-air analog channels starting February 17, 2009. First, let’s understand what all this means.
“Over-The-Air” Is the Operative Phrase
In the same way that FM and AM radio signals are transmitted over-the-air and are received via an antenna connected to a radio, TV broadcasting originally followed the same model. You needed to have an antenna (most likely installed on your roof) connected to your TV set to receive the signals. However, with the advent of cable and satellite services, rarely anyone these days uses antennas to receive TV signals. The only remnants of the over-the-air TV technology are handheld TV receivers with rabbit-ears, and, of course, TVs still connected to traditional antennas.
Who is Not Affected
As you may have realized by now, the majority of people are not affected by the switchover. The following people are not affected by the switchover.
Cable Subscribers: You will not be affected by the switchover if you get your TV signals through a cable company. This holds true regardless of whether you have a cable box or not, are subscribed to an “analog” service or a digital service, or if you have HDTV service or not. As long as you have your cable connection connected to your TV, you won’t notice a change after the switchover. Needless to say, you will also not be affected if you use a cable box provided by your cable company.
Satellite Subscribers: You are also not affected if you receive your TV service through Dish Network or DirecTV. Again, this is true regardless of your service type with these companies. So you won’t need to change anything either.
Iranian/Arab Dishes: You will also not be affected. You’ll receive signals just like before.
Who Is Affected
You need to do something only if you receive your TV signal using a traditional TV antenna connected to your TV. In this case, you need to by a Digital TV Adapter, or DTA. You’d connect your antenna to the input of the DTA, and connect the output of your DTA to your TV’s antennal input (where the old antenna was hooked up.)
The other group of equipment that will also be affected are the portable TV units with integrated rabbit-ear antennas. Unfortunately in those cases, unless the unit has an external antenna input, you will not be able to use a DTA to receive the digital signals. Of course, the newer portable units are capable of receiving digital over the air signals and will be usable as is. Check your unit’s manual to find out if it supports digital over the air signals.
Save the Headache & Beware
Unfortunately, there have been a lot of inaccurate articles and advertising done around the over-the-air analog to digital switchover. Save yourself the headache and the confusion and refer to this article when in doubt.
By the way, beware of your cable and satellite companies trying to upgrade your service (to charge you more) with the switchover as an excuse. They may tell you that you must get a cable box or must switch over to digital service. The fact is, if your TV has been working so far with their service, there isn’t anything you need to change to receive the same channels. The reason is that the cable and satellite companies deliver the signals to you off-the-air through their connection to your TV, and the over-the-air change should be totally transparent to you.
Technical Details
Just in case you’re curious about the technical details of why and how the switchover is happening, refer to http://www.dtv.gov.
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