If you get your TV signals over-the-air, with an antenna, listen up. The converters you'll need to keep your set from turning into a doorstop this time next year are finally on retailers' shelves: There are good reasons to buy one now, rather than waiting for the fall stampede.
The best reason is to make sure the box you buy actually works. Likewise, if you've already received the government's $40 subsidy coupons for digital converters, read the fine print. It turns out that they're valid for only three months - so if you don't buy converters before they expire, you may be out of luck.
But $40 may be the least of your worries. The real problem: No one knows exactly how the transition from analog to digital broadcasting will play out for the 19 million American households that rely on over-the-air transmissions - as opposed to cable, satellite or fiber-optic TV service. The same for millions more who have hardwired service for their main TV but rely on antennas for sets in bedrooms, kitchens and other areas.
The government has told broadcasters to turn off their analog transmitters on Feb. 17, 2009, in favor of a new digital broadcast technology. Local broadcasters have been transmitting both signals for about two years now, but after the cutoff, only digital transmissions will remain. Traditional analog sets - almost all sets made before 2006 and some that were sold as late as last year - won't be able to receive the new signals without a converter that contains a digital tuner.
Cable companies already provide analog signals for the majority of their customers, and they'll continue that practice for at least three years after Feb. 17, 2009.
But folks who rely on over-the-air broadcasts will need a set-top box with a digital tuner for each set in the house, plus each VCR or DVD recorder that captures programs off the air. The alternative: paying hundreds of dollars a year for cable service or emptying their pocketbooks into the economies of China, Taiwan and Korea to buy new sets they wouldn't otherwise need.
There are signs that the cabal of TV manufacturers, broadcasters, wireless carriers, politicians and bureaucrats who hatched this scheme more than a decade ago is seriously worried about the fallout.
This week, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, suggested a test run in smaller markets before the national switchover. "Broadway shows open on the road to work out the kinks before opening night. The DTV transition deserves no less," he wrote in a letter to the FCC's Republican chairman, Kevin Martin.
