Bunnylady
Well-Known Member
Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, surely you know by now that analog television signals will be history as of mid-February 2009. If you're like me, you're probably sick of the commercials informing you about it! Well, Wilmington is a test market for the new format. For us, the switch gets thrown on Sept. 8th. If you've got satellite or cable, or one of the newer TV's, it's no big deal. An estimated 25% of us have chosen not to go that route, for whatever reason (my household included.) If we want to continue to watch TV, we need a converter box. The government will send you coupons to reduce the price of the boxes (limit 2 per household,) but you have to register for them.
We jumped through the hoops, and got our coupons in July. Because of the test-market thing, our zip codes were given priority over the rest of the country. We decided to do a test of our own, and bought two different brands of the converters. I can't tell any difference between the two, myself, but the difference in the signal is significant. No more "snow," no more "ghosts," that part is wonderful! Some of our local stations have more than one progam running within their bandwidth (PBS has 5!). The downside is, your rabbit ears may not be enough to pull in a good signal. We live less than 20 miles from the transmission tower, and sometimes, we can't get a signal that is watchable. With analog, if the signal's a little weak, you get snow and a little static. With digital, the picture freezes and the sound drops out entirely! One of our sets is hooked up to a rooftop antenna, and it isn't much better. It's particularly bad on windy days, for some reason. With tropical systems brewing in the Atlantic, I'm a bit concerned about what this may mean for people that use the television to keep them abreast of the news. We will see what this season brings!
We jumped through the hoops, and got our coupons in July. Because of the test-market thing, our zip codes were given priority over the rest of the country. We decided to do a test of our own, and bought two different brands of the converters. I can't tell any difference between the two, myself, but the difference in the signal is significant. No more "snow," no more "ghosts," that part is wonderful! Some of our local stations have more than one progam running within their bandwidth (PBS has 5!). The downside is, your rabbit ears may not be enough to pull in a good signal. We live less than 20 miles from the transmission tower, and sometimes, we can't get a signal that is watchable. With analog, if the signal's a little weak, you get snow and a little static. With digital, the picture freezes and the sound drops out entirely! One of our sets is hooked up to a rooftop antenna, and it isn't much better. It's particularly bad on windy days, for some reason. With tropical systems brewing in the Atlantic, I'm a bit concerned about what this may mean for people that use the television to keep them abreast of the news. We will see what this season brings!
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