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when i bought my cheap floor model tv from Sears last year the salespeople were actually trying to persuade me to buy a flatscreen \"digital\" tv because of this whole thing. too bad they were so obviously trying to make a buck. i told them \"this is a $150 tv, do you really think it will even make it to 2009?\" another thought i had later was 'God i hope i'm not still this broke in 3 years to have to keep my $150 tv.'
When they finally shut off analog entirely (including over cable without a box), I'll finally turn off my TV sets for the last time and never turn them back on again. I'm sure I can use the extra space in the house and have no doubt that my quality of life will improve. Certainly my choices for entertainment will improve as I'll be seeing more live local performances.
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There is no reason to upgrade to digital today purely to prepare for 2009. Wait it out and let the costs decline.
I'm also now taking bets on the most popular holiday gift of December 2008.
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Right now I'm not in the market for a new tv, so I'm putting this item in my \"cross that bridge when I come to it\" pile.
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I'm thinking of buying a TV now just so I don't have to pay for a digital tuner that I don't need.
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Where's the Center for Consumer Freedom in all this? Don't they normally protest when some fat-ass federal bureaucracy tries to manipulate consumers into buying certain products for no good reason?
Why are the feds saying that consumers are too stupid to make their own choices when buying a television? I think it's because they're beholden to radical interest groups who are trying to destroy cable TV in retaliation for their DRM efforts.
so basically buy tv's that have an ATSC tuner and you are fine?
Undercover FCC agents huh? Like they have uniforms on sometimes? Like the Maytag man?
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I think some of the very few TVs to truly suffer from the change will be the smallest, portable TVs. I have a Sharper Image handheld (3\"?) unit. This is not the type of item that I'd hook a converter box up with :)
Regular TVs that stay in one place and are not battery powered will be fine by the time the change comes - I'm getting tired of \"the sky is falling\" mentality about this issue.
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By 2009 we won't even need televisions, it'll probably all be online by then. I'm saving my cash.
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Keep in mind that this is basically government mandated DRM with the side effect of looking nicer. \"Ooh shiny\", indeed.
As an aside, I quit watching TV about 7 years ago. If there is a show I like (maybe I catch it at a friends house), I'll buy the DVDs or download them, if there is a movie I like, I'll buy it or rip it from a friend's DVD.
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I saw this warning at circuitcity.com last week, on a portable TV! (I was actually looking for emergency radios, and the TV showed up in my search results).
Does anybody think that anyone would actually buy a digital adaptor for a $30 portable TV? I'm picturing a big black box duct-taped to the side of the portable.
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I would like to know what percentage of Americans have cable, satellite or some other converter box type service at this time anyway. Frankly, I'm sure I'd have fun with a new TV but my cable box saves me from any \"panic.\" (that not having TV could cause panic is a bit sad anyway...)
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@ribex: Aw crud. It hadn't even occurred to me that my little Sears Binoc (bought in '82 or '83) will finally be completely obsolete.
@Jaysyn:
\"Keep in mind that this is basically government mandated DRM with the side effect of looking nicer. \"Ooh shiny\", indeed.\"
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Just because current TVs with NTSC tuners will not be able to receive over-the-air broadcasts in a couple of years does not make them obsolete by a long shot. As stated in Kmart's consumer alert, they'll still work fine with satellite/cable broadcasts, as well as DVD players, game consoles, and (shudder) VCRs.
I work for Sears (corporate sibling of Kmart) in Electronics and recently I had the pleasure of putting up these signs next to all of our older televisions. It was corporate mandate that we get those signs up as of last week because there were some Sears stores that were cited by the FCC and their fines can run around 15k for a single incident and almost 100k for ongoing noncompliance. Our manager even had to take pictures of the signs being up and email them to corporate.
The fun part that you probably haven't read is that as of the beginning of the year, they dropped the size cutoff for televisions with tuners needing to have an ATSC tuner. Previously it was that any TV 24\" and up with any kind of tuner (NTSC) needed an ATSC tuner. Now it's that way for all devices with tuners in current production. Because of that all the DVD recorders and DVD/VCR combo units don't have cable (coax) inputs or outputs and can only record from line inputs (composite RCA). Good luck trying to find a plain jane VCR because no one wants to sell a $70 recorder with a $100 digital tuner.
I'm still waiting for the first hurricane / natural disaster to hit an area. Forget watching DTV on any of your portable sets -- they can't receive it. Additionally, DTV requires a stronger signal to get a picture than analog does. Great move guys.
I know Comcast is phasing in digital service as well. Is that something that will always require a seperate box or can newer TVs control digital cable?
I'd rather get the separate box. Just like 90% of other products out there, the \"all-in-one\" approach will work but you cut the quality and quantity of features down drastically.
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There are rumors of a TV card standard, which will allow newer tv sets to feature a plug-in digital tuner from your cable company. No more ugly cablebox, no more dual remotes or switching between remote sources to power them on and adjust the two. Good move on their part, and about time. Why they never did this when HD sets first began to appear, who knows, but I'm sure greed had to do with it.
My next set will be an LCD Monitor 'TV', with true 1080P, 8ms refresh and tunerless. Already got a candidate picked out, afterwards I'll build an MCE box to match or maybe not. I don't watch much TV these days, and mainly download the few I do.
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It says EDTV on the pic. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought EDTV (aka 480p) was the lowest form of HDTV.
I've noticed CompUSA actually prints this warning out when you buy anything with an analog tuner. I saw someone buying an analog TV tuner card one day, and the warning printed with their receipt.
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@superbmtsub: EDTV is not HDTV. it is simply the resolution of SDTV (480 lines) with a progressive signal rather than an interlaced one. It's \"DVD quality\" rather than \"high definition.\"
The importance, of course, is not the display but the tuner. You can sell a 480i television, but if it has a tuner then there has to be an ATSC tuner.
For once the FCC is doing something sensible. Good for them.