DTV is Coming Soon Whether You Like it or Not

There have been many articles written about the DTV revolution which will be upon us as of February 17th of 2009. That's right, in less than 90 days. Since volumes have been written already by the FCC, NAB and various consumer groups, I'll eliminate those numerous paragraphs explaining the levels, benefits and benefactors of the new DTV system and its programming and concentrate on those of you who will be in true peril in February. This special group of TV viewers is not so much determined by whether or not you have a DTV ready TV or a DTV converter box but rather is for those of you who get your TV signals for FREE. If you are a cable TV or Satellite subscriber you can wipe the sweat from your brow, you'll be just fine no matter what kind of TV set you have today, tomorrow or well into the next video revolution.

Those who are cliff dwelling home antenna viewers need to do some evaluation. If you are one of us who is located close enough to a major city and are satisfied with the channels you can receive with your roof top or set top (rabbit ears) type of antenna, you maybe living with an assumption that will not hold true when the old analog signals leave the air forever on February 17th. Those of you who are now on the fringe edge of the reception range are most vulnerable. If you have a new digital DTV TV or have purchased your $40 off DTV conversion box and are sitting around waiting for the big day, well you better do some testing NOW! As a example, let's use the Clarksburg, WV TV market as an example. If you're using a roof top or set top antenna now and your picture is "ROCK SOLID" on channels 5, 12 and 46 you will be happy come February. Those of you who get 5 and 12 but never seem to pull in Fox on 46 are in the 50-50 group. If you have trouble getting channels 5 or 12 now, or only receive one or the other at various times say 12 only at night or 5 only during the day your going to be in a pickle. If the conditions just described are occurring on your rabbit ears antenna, then you will need to upgrade to a new outdoor rooftop antenna to make up the difference. If your rooftop antenna is giving you anything short of perfect performance on all three channels now you will be in the market for a new digitally optimized or DTV antenna. What that really means is you will need to buy ($$$) an antenna meant for primary reception in the UHF portion of the TV bands which are where most of the NEW DTV channels are. Analog VHF TV channels and the frequency bands they are on will be dark and silent in 2009. The new DTV channels are almost all up in the UHF spectrum, a TV band that was always secondary as far as antenna design and viewer coverage was concerned back when analog was king.

UHF signals don't go as far as VHF signals do, even if the TV stations doubled their transmitter power. Many have done just that and some have increased it fourfold and installed new transmitting antennas that effectively boost it again by a large percentage. And they do this just to duplicate the range that they HAD on their old analog channels.

So if you had anything but really great reception on Analog, you will undoubtedly get a lot worse reception on Digital (DTV) The $40 rebate for the converter boxes will seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of purchase and installation of a new "DIGITAL" antenna.

While I'm at it, let me throw some more water on your parade. If you evaluate your TV reception now in the post fall- pre winter lack of leaves on the trees season, and you think you'll be ok just think back to July and August. How was your reception then with everything in full bloom? If it was degraded by much then, August of 2009 will be worse with digital TV.

Don't get me wrong, DTV is a great improvement not only in visual quality but it will allow stations to offer three independent program streams at once. Wow, that means I can choose between three different episodes of Gilligan's Island or Star Trek. Not quite but the possibilities are wide open and DTV should help usher in a plethora of multi-facetted television programming if you can get the signal.

My suggestions? If your frugal and like your free TV then look into a new super duper digital ether grabber antenna and then find someone to install it if your not a do-it-yourself roof climber. Better yet maybe now is the time to finally go for one of those DirecTV or Dish Network deals. If you want to be half frugal and get a third of the selection for almost the same high Satellite prices there is always local cable (unless of course you live in Comcast Country). Or you can do what we have done for some time at my house. Get a Hi-Def monitor and a high speed Internet connection for your PC and watch FREE TV with almost as many choices as paying for cable or Satellite and supplement it with a three at a time NetFlix subscription and sit back knowing you've beaten them all at their game.