If you don’t like the program on TV, you can always change it. But when TV itself changes for good in a few weeks, it could leave you trudging through a blizzard of snowy channels if you don’t prepare yourself and your precious sets.
On Feb. 17, all TV stations switch from analog to digital broadcasts. It’s a move meant to clear the airwaves for public safety services and wireless, while improving your picture and sound.
“Unlike any other change that has ever taken place in TV, this one is incompatible with the past,” says Anne Elliot, vice president of communications for The Nielsen Co. “When TV went color, your old black-and-white set still worked. But this really is quite different.”
Still, close to 1 in 10 households weren’t ready for the conversion by December. According to data released by Nielsen at the end of December, about 7.8 million U.S. TV households — almost 7 percent of the national total — were completely unprepared for the digital switch, with no sets able to see the new signals. In Chicago, 6.6 percent of our 3.5 million TV homes were unprepared.
First things first: Digital TV does not equal luxury TV.
“It doesn’t have to be a mega-thousand-dollar flat-screen TV that you hang on the wall,” Elliot says. “It can be a $200 TV with a digital tuner that allows you to get the new signal.”
Since you still have time to tweak, drop that remote and fire up your laptop. The Federal Communications Commission has a Web site, dtv2009.gov, that explains the switch and everything you need to know to make your sets digital compatible.
We’ve studied that Web site to create this how-to guide for a smooth conversion.
If you have cable or satellite service, you don’t have to do anything. Your service providers will handle the conversion on their end. If you have any doubts, contact your cable or dish company.
You also may not have to do anything if your TV was made after 2004. Most of those sets can read digital signals. Contact the manufacturer to see if your TV is analog or digital.
