The Other Story About the Digital Transition

I picked up my digital to analog converter yesterday at Circuit City who was letting the Zenith model go for 20% off. It was a great choice. It gives you a program guide, and my only real complaint is that you have to individually set each channel to stretch to fit the screen. If you have a CRT television 30 inches or less diagonally a digital to analog converter is a great deal. You can't really feel the effects of high definition at that small of a size, and it is only $50 without a coupon.

Already I can get 16 channels; a few duplicates of the same programming in different resolutions but mostly new content. The few truly HD channels that are out there I can get as well, just downgraded to 480 i. With the bargain model LCD television I had I could only get about 12 channels. All 16 channels come in great, with tiling so rare and so infrequent you don't notice it at all. That tuner in that cheap LCD television I had was a piece of junk; only 4 or 5 channels coming in without interference.

If you are going to do this use the cheapest antenna you can find if you are within the city limits. If you are outside of the city limits in the suburbs you may want to consider a terrestrial antenna, unless of course the transmitter for your television station is in the suburbs anyway. If you are in a rural area a terrestial roof top antenna is probably going to be a must, though you may get by with a cheap antenna and a seperate amplifier. If you are in a rural area though you probably already subscribe to satellite anyway, as most rural areas are a bit too far out to reliably recieve cable television.

But again, 16 channels that come in clear; with analog I only recieved half as many channels and they were always ghosting and a few were snowy. After February 17 I expect to see even more channels being broadcast. So for some of us, getting close to all of our channels in clearly, as opposed to having to rely on cable or satellite for that same reception is a boon. But I could be the exception, I live in a metro of 1.6 million of 7 cities with stations coming in from different areas, Newport News, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, so it's hard not to get stations. It isn't the same as being in New York and having to worry about signals fight their way through high rises.

Right now most of the focus on the digital transition is on getting more television channels and who is or is not ready on February 17th. But with the spectrum up for grabs, it should open up the field for whoever has the money to pay to play at auction. Some of that spectrum will go for emergency communications, of which I'm not sure if that will or will not be digital, or if just some or all of that is digital or analog. But this should open up the door for better wireless Internet services; faster wireless Internet and maybe making communal wireless Internet a reality for some, outside of jumping on someone elses unsecured wireless router. Faster data transfer on phones, and most likely better wireless Internet through services like those offered by the telecommunications companies that allow you to get online anywhere.

Some of us will be able to see the immediate advantages of having close to 20 channels, but others will be able to do much, much more. Unfortunately, I would not expect to see all high-definition television only in the United States for quite some time. Regardless of what happens, current digital to analog converters will just downgrade the signal. If broadcasters ever take high definition up to the next level, 2160, the digital cinema standard, it may eventually give someone a compelling reason to buy a new high definition television. But don't expect to see that any time soon; people aren't going to buy 100 inch or greater televisions, and those in the market for a projector are already there. If you have $10,000 to throw away though you may want to buy that new Sony OLED television; it's only 11 inches, but the picture is better than anything you have ever seen ...