DTV Conversion

[yorkiesmiles]

Well, my biggest thing is I hate being told what to do - hate that if I want to watch tv, that it's going to cost somthing.

I know there has been plenty of warning - I just hate spending money for things like a new tv, when the one I have works fine. I only need one TV.

I don't do cable, or I would never turn the tv off

But some friends of my parents were just visiting my parents in Florda - and my mom sent a converter box that she couldn't get to work at her house back with them, so I'm going over tonight to get it. We'll see if I can get it to work here. If not, I guess I'll be making a different decision.

I started this thread because I'm just irratated that our congress spent time debating what to do with this conversion - they decided to push it back to June - but then you have tv stations able to ignore that. I just don't get why congress wasted time changing the date -- but that is US politicians - pros at wasting time & money

Also, I'm irrated at the tv station here that decided to change their signal early. One of the other stations is advertising we are waiting utnil June - because we care about the community -- which I believe they do, as this is a huge expense for these stations to run 2 signals for 5 mths. But at this point, all the stations might as well have changed over

[Erin]

Originally Posted by Sunnie

This wasn't true in our case. Our cable company requires a digital convertor box. I have had cable from this company (the only one in town btw) for over 20 years. I have never needed a box because I had basic cable without the movie channels etc. NOW I need THIER converter box. The only thing this box is for is to convert the analog to digital and our cable company converted to digital in November. And the cable company made it hard for us because the boxes ytou can purchase with the coupons will not work for us. We had to have the box that was designed specifically for our cable company and of course for 5 TVs I pay and extra $8 per month for the boxes. I got 2 coupons in the mail too and used them to go in the motorhome so I can get digital on both tvs.
I only had to pay $9.99 each for them.

OK that still stinks but they are two different things. The $40 converter boxes are for over-the-air signals. Your cable company is probably switching to digital cable and requiring you to buy their digital cable box, which is different. The digital cable box is used to unscramble their digital signal.

We have a dish but we also hooked up our HDTV to our antenna because of the cool extra channels.

Our cable here is outrageously expensive. They are our *only* option for internet (no DSL in our area) so we are stuck with them and I pay three times as much as I should for internet and it's down all the time. Their TV service is twice as expensive as a dish for half as many channels. We had Dish Network but they raised their prices so we are switching to Direct... their 200 channel package is $29.99 a month

[MindieRose]

I was very annoyed that they changed the switch over date. People have had time to plan for this (no offense) and it isn't the end of the world if you dont get a few stations for awhile if you didn't get it switched. We don't have cable or dish, and figured that we would need the boxes, so we got them, and it turns out we had digital tuners in our tvs even though we don't have plasmas. So we blessed others that didn't have them.
I really could not believe there was so much of a governmental interference with the switch being postponed. I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore though

[MindieRose]

Originally Posted by yorkiesmiles

Well, my biggest thing is I hate being told what to do - hate that if I want to watch tv, that it's going to cost somthing.

I know there has been plenty of warning - I just hate spending money for things like a new tv, when the one I have works fine. I only need one TV.

I don't do cable, or I would never turn the tv off

But some friends of my parents were just visiting my parents in Florda - and my mom sent a converter box that she couldn't get to work at her house back with them, so I'm going over tonight to get it. We'll see if I can get it to work here. If not, I guess I'll be making a different decision.

Don't forget that you have to plug an antenna into the box still! A lot of people didn't know that and they couldn't figure out why no signals came in. We may get a rooftop antenna just to get in even more channels, if they are worth getting anyway.

[BubblPopElectrc]

Originally Posted by MindieRose

I was very annoyed that they changed the switch over date. People have had time to plan for this (no offense) and it isn't the end of the world if you dont get a few stations for awhile if you didn't get it switched. We don't have cable or dish, and figured that we would need the boxes, so we got them, and it turns out we had digital tuners in our tvs even though we don't have plasmas. So we blessed others that didn't have them.
I really could not believe there was so much of a governmental interference with the switch being postponed. I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore though

I can't believe I have to hear about it and see the commercials for 4 more months! It's been like 2 years that I've been seeing them.

[alisonJ]

If I could get my husband to agree, I would just not have a TV. I did without it for many years when I was single, and I didn't miss it a bit. I was the last person in America to know about the OJ Simpson slow car chase (remember the white Bronco?) but I guess that's not a bad thing.

The ONLY thing I would really miss would be Mark Harmon's face on NCIS. But I guess I could just print out a photo.

[emilyann]

Hm, I understand where you're coming from even though most people don't.

My mom has had a floor model TV for forever and it still works (even been through a house fire) and she still uses it.

We could go get a flat screen mumbo jumbo for our living room and our bedroom but no my boyfriend and I are just fine with our big box in here and our little box in the bedroom. Does the job.

I also don't think you should have to pay for TV if you don't want to. There's always a "reason" for everything that the government does. I also really don't care how long they've been telling everyone about it. It's all about money money.

[wishies]

i work at best buy so i can help answer some questions...

if you already have cable/dish/directv/satellite etc. you DO NOT need a converter box.

if you have been using an antenna and only watch the basic channels you WILL need a converter box. you will need to use an antenna with the converter box. the newer LCD tv's already have a digital tuner built in so you won't need the converter box.

converter boxes ARE returnable and you do have the option of getting the $40 coupon through the government (DTV.gov). best buy has 2 different brands of converter boxes right now (insignia and apex) the insignia one is 59.99 and the apex one is 49.99. so, if you want to use your coupon with it the apex one would be 10.99 afterwards, which isn't too bad especially if you're planning to buy a new antenna with it.

as far as TV's, our store had a 32" samsung LCD for under $500 theres also a lot of good deals depending on the size you want. PM me if you want more info

OH! i forgot.. the government extended the digital conversion until june but MOST broadcasting companies have already made the change. it just depends where you live i guess. good luck!