The Big Switch

The Digital TV Countdown Continues

We're now 99 DAYS from the new digital transition date of June 12.   If you haven't done it yet, now is the time to get your converter box and make sure you will still be able to receive over the air television after June 12.

Latest DTV News:

        If you ordered your converter box coupons in the past few months we have good news today.  The National Telecommunications and Information Administration now has access to funding to send out backlogged coupons.   Much of the money is coming from the economic stimulus package.  $650 million has been set aside to get coupons out to people who had been on a waiting list.   Earlier this year funding ran out for the converter box coupon program despite the fact that millions of television viewers still had not purchased their boxes.  The NTIA says coupons should arrive in a few weeks for those on the waiting list.

Antenna Selection

A lot of people ask us, which antenna is best for receiving digital television.  The truth is, if you get a good analog signal on your existing antenna, you should get a good digital signal as well.  If you have trouble though, you may need to look into a new antenna.  There are lots of models out there from antennas that look like picture frames, to rabbit ears and larger external models. 

The newest antennas we've found are the Clearstream antennas from Antennas Direct.  They can be mounted on the outside of your house, on a poll or even inside your attic.  We're in the procss of testing these antennas for ourselves and we'll let you know how they work.

Bad news for expired coupons

"What do I do if my converter box coupon expires?"  We've been getting a lot of questions like this in the newsroom lately.  If you have not used your coupon in the first 90 days and it expired, you're not alone.  Nearly 9.5 million converter box coupons have expired.  That's about 40 percent of all coupons requested.  Here is South Carlolina about half a million coupons have been requested.

Now the bad news.  Although there have been rumors of some legislation to extend the Converter Box Coupon expiration dates it does not look like that will happen.  We checked with Congressman Spratt's office and were told there are no hearing scheduled right now to consider any bill to amend the original law.

So it looks like you may be out of luck if your Converter Box Coupon has expired.  But, don't throw them away, you never know what might happen between now and February 17th.

Finally... a battery operated converter box

So many people have been asking about what to do with their portable battery operated television after the big switch.  Up until now, there has not been a battery operated converter box on the market.  The other day while digging around the internet, I found the Winegard RCDT09A.

From what I've read, this box is eligible for use with the converter box coupons.  It works on either standard AC or 4-D cell batteries.  According to the manufacturer specs, the batteries will last for about 18 hours.  We have not tested this box ourselves to back up any of the information I found online, but there is a review on the C-Net website.

As always... there is a catch.  Converter boxes only work with external antennas.  Many portable or handheld TV's work off of internally mounted antennas.  This box will only work with an external set of rabbit ears and a TV with an external antenna jack.  It may take some experimentation with adapters to make it all work.  If anyone tries this out before we do, please leave a comment on your experiences.