interesting article about cable transition

according to the article cable must continue some level of analog content until 2012.
note it is also a year old. but that should be ok, I mean how much could things change in one year.

 

Dr. C,

I'm part of the 20%. I bought the DTV converter four months ago.

We live anywhere from 15 miles to 50 miles from our TV sources, and I have a high gain UHF antenna in my attic. I am really impressed by the video and audio quality and we really like the extra channels. However, under certain atmospheric conditions, like gusty winds or even high humidity, the signal strength drops, sometimes causing pixelation and sometimes intermittent total signal loss. All in all, I will still take the DTV over analog.

DTV is pretty much "all or nothing." There is no snow, ghosting, wavy pictures; contrast and color saturation is excellent. But when it craps out, it's gone. One of our daughters lives in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn -- five miles from the Empire State Building, and her set top bowtie antenna is not sufficient.

My $0.02.

 

Just one more thing, all televisions sold new by large retailers in the US today whether they be lcd,plasma,led,or crt are required to have digital tuners in them.

I said large retailers as im sure some shady mom and pop stores out there are still peddling analog tuner tvs somewheres.

 

I recently saw an RV ad that showed that it came with an analog TV and antenna. I hope they aren't charging much extra for that feature.

 

Maybe they will throw in a converter box

 

OK, I finally got the dope on what's going on. I bought my parents a new flat-screen 15" LCD TV for their kitchen on Sat in anticipation of the Feb conversion to digital. Got it online at Best Buy and the +1 went to pick it up and take it to their house. It's to replace their rabbit-ears analog TV. The cable company is coming tomorrow to run the cable to the kitchen and hook it up. BUT...I found out after I ordered it that my parents have analog cable to their house for their other (older) TVs. Should have known that, but my mind was so confused. Found out today that their company (Cox) is going to continue with analog transmission for two years. THEN I got worried that the new TV wouldn't receive analog, since it's digital. Turns out, no worries there. Whew...they have four other TVs, all of which will have to be dealt with when analog finally dies, since none is digital ready. But, for now, they are good to go. They love the new one. It's so thin and weighs only about four pounds.

 

We bought one of those for our kitchen counter and love it.

Rick likes TV when he cooks, and we like to have it on for the news in the AM as we get ready for work.