I have a regular tv not HD. I cant afford a HD tv right not. I have heard all kinds of stuff about needing a box to receive a tv signal over a regular tv as of jan 2008. Does anybody know what the story is on this for sure?
If anybody knows a good web site or 2 where I can read about this thanks.
Earl

The FCC would be a good place to look. I think it's 2009.

In the U.S.A it is ( 2/18/09 )

Canada will shortly follow.


Australia it is suppose to be 2008
U.K. it is suppose to be 2012.


2012 is the target year when most analog broadcasting is suppose to stop around the globe.

You will not have to have a hdtv, but you will need something that will accept a digital signal. Be it a built in tuner that is in the t.v or a digital box. Basic digital boxes can be purchased rather cheap.

This link is for the U.S.A, but in a general sense I think anyone inquiring will get the point.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

The jan 2008 date is to get converter box coupons. They have 1.5 billion dollars set aside, to provide 2 40$ coupons to anyone that requests them. You can only use one coupon per box (so you can get two boxes, 40$ off each, but not apply both coupons to one more expensive box). No boxes are avalable yet but a few have been developed and aproved. If my math is right, thats only enough to provide coupons to about 6% of the US population so I'm applying as soon as I can (jan 2008). You are suposed to not be able to get digital signals to qualify (if you have cable, dish, or any tv's/recievers that are digital ready, HD or not, you are not suposed to be eligable). I don't think they are doing anything to verify what you have though. There is an additional 800 million dollars or something like that for after the first money runs out, but I think they are going to verify that you cannot recieve digital signals for that money (I think they are still trying to decide how to verify).

About the boxes, while none have been released yet, I have heard several speculate that the zenith dtt900 is going to be the best (made by LG with a series 5 tuner). Its suposed to cost 50-60$. Here is a little on other boxes expected to come out.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948767

The boxes cannot have aditional abilities to qualify for the coupon (pvr etc), and cannot have hd outputs (avi/hdmi), but can have s-video and composite if I recall right.

The 2009 date is the date that analog tv broadcasts will actually stop. they are giving you 1 year after the coupon program starts to become digital ready.

I wish the eggheads here would make a cut too... But they are lame and have decided to let analogue (tv) be on til 2011.

If you have a HD ready TV or a regular TV, you will need a converter box. However, if you have cable or satellite, the digital boxes are a converter box. My HTPC has a digital TV tuner PCI card and a digital satellite tuner PCI card. I also have cable and a free to air dish box and a HD roof antennae, so I do not care what they do.

The Cable company where I live are going to provide them at no cost. ( so they say)

LOL!!! alan I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on one of those free converter boxes. I've never
heard of any cable company willing to give anything away for free. If your cable provider is any
thing like ours is around here the only thing they will give you for free is a hard time. Our cable
provider has already started moving channels over to digital the channels just started disappearing
from the regular lineup and they said to either live with it or sign up on the digital package to get
the channels back and pay a higher fee per month.

The main purpose of these boxes is to provide digital to analog conversion for those channel broadcast over the air for the rural area and for the people they can't effort cable. But in order to get these boxes you have to meet certain requirement plus as far as financial status concern you have to be qualified.