The End of An Era...

Remember when all you had to do was go and purchase a TV antenna from the local store to be able to watch tv? Well, that day is nearly gone. The days of Analogue TV are comming to an end!! Here are the details that i have found about this big change.

Death of analog TV in 2009 means adjustments for over-the-air viewers.

The rabbit-eared TV has less than two years to live. And forget trying to buy one from your neighborhood electronics store.

Analog broadcasts - a basic TV signal sent through the air - are set to end in 2009. That's when TV signals become a digital stream that only the right kind of TV or converter box can decode.

If that's news to you, you're not alone. More than 56 percent of over-the-air viewers have "seen, read or heard nothing" about the transition, according a recent survey by the National Association of Broadcasters, and only 10 percent of viewers knew it would happen in 2009.

Starting this month, retailers no longer can sell TVs that only have analog tuners. "The majority of televisions have had digital tuners built into them for the past two years," said Phil Murray, marketing manager of Denver-based Listen Up Audio/Video, and most retailers have sold dual- tuner (analog and digital) televisions for years, so customers won't notice a difference on store shelves.

Congress approved the switch to digital in late 2005 as part of a broader spending bill. Moving TV broadcasts to digital will free up the 700-megahertz frequency band used by analog, meaning that spectrum can be used for emergency communications and auctioned for new wireless services.

Broadcasters and TV manufacturers are starting to realize they need to get the word out so the nation's 20 million households that rely on free, over-the-air broadcasts don't turn on their TVs to find a blank screen on Feb. 17, 2009, the transition date. The switch won't affect the estimated 96 million consumers who subscribe to cable or satellite TV.

Those most likely to be affected are the poor and elderly. Congress has approved $1.5 billion for vouchers for people to buy converter boxes, which allows viewers to see digital programming on analog TVs.

Starting Jan. 1, 2008, each household can request up to two coupons valued at $40 each to help cover the cost of buying a box, which are expected to cost $50 to $70.

• What happens this month?
All new television sets designed to receive over-the-air signals must contain a tuner capable of receiving digital broadcasts, in preparation for a complete transition to digital broadcasts by 2009. Retailers no longer can sell analog-only sets.
Digital tuners already were required in sets with screens larger than 25 inches.

• What happens on Feb. 17, 2009?
Analog-television broadcasts end in the United States. That doesn't mean the end of free-broadcast television, but consumers will need either a TV with a digital tuner, cable- or satellite-TV service, or a converter box for their old analog TVs.

Here is the link to the story that i read and got most of this material from.
Rabbit ears losing their rabbit's foot





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