HDTV conversion and old tv sets...?
I have a year and am starting to try to understand it.
I've not been able to find anything online at the retail websites for a converting box for HDTV to watch on my old tv set.
Please don't tell me it will cost hundreds of dollars, if it does I just won't watch tv anymore after the transition. :(
On an aside, personally, I think this HDTV stuff is just a conspiracy to get people to buy new tv equipment. Do we really need to know what Jerry Springer's guests had for lunch, by getting a good look at their teeth? Nah. lol
Answer:
I heard on the news yesterday, talk of the government issuing $40 credit vouchers for people to buy these conversion boxes. Funny thing is, the news source couldn't find anyone selling them!
Do you get your tv reception from the cable company or from an antenna? If from an antenna you will eventually need a box - but I guess the demand isn't there yet so they must be hard to find. If from cable I wouldn't sweat it. I'm sure the cable companies will take care of you and the thousands of other customers that might need a new box.
It is a totally different technology which make TV viewing , natural way or real life type. Bea cause of the technology gap, it is not possible to convert old TV to HD TV.
Dont think it as watching hdtv on your old tv because thats not what you need to be looking for. What you need is a digital to analog converter. They are going to stop the analog signal which is what your tv uses.
Converter boxes do exist that take the digital over the air (ATSC) signal and convert it to either Channel 3 analog (NTSC) or other signalling your old TV can handle. It won't be HDTV quality on the old set, but at least it's TV. Unfortunately, for now, those boxes are expensive. But the gov't plans to issue coupons for lower income types to take the sting out of the conversion.
Actually, you have until Feb 2009 to make the change, so you have less than two years from now.
If you really want a conspiracy theory: one of the reasons for making the change is to get commercial TV broadcasters out of the VHF band (ch2-13) and solely in the UHF band (ch14-69). Then the FCC will auction off the VHF band to wireless providers (i.e., cellular).
Check out this site from the government.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2...
It is a conspiracy in a way, there are so many people who can't afford to upgrade to HD.
What are we going to do with all these all tube tv's that we throw out. The tubes contain hazzardous waste.
We're getting screwed on this one.
The problem is all because of big business, currently they want the rights to the air wave frequencies currently used by the tv stations, much like when channels 69-83 were reallowcated in the 1980's to the cellular telephone compnaies.
When tv first came out, the movie companies were scared that they would lose business to tv so they got the government to convince the tv compnaies to change the aspect ratio of tv to the 4:3 that we currently have instead of the 16:9 that was used by the movie compnaies. If that had not happened we would not have as big a problem today as everything would always have been if a 16:9 ratio. and we would only need a minor update rather than this big mess we are in.
There are going to be so many low income, especially seniors who can't afford or understand this conversion. It's not right and just goes to show how big business can do anything they want.
I went a cheap route. Brand new set top boxes run between 175 and up.
I checked Goodwill stores for electronics and found stacks of old satellite boxes. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but some models have a "atsc" tuner built in. Even if the satellite part isn't working because you haven't subscribed you can still pull down free "over the air" (ota) hdtv or digital tv signals. Turns out that because you're not pulling down a satellite signal these boxes "act broken" and take a while to warm up or switch over to local signals so the layperson would assume the box no longer works for anything.
I found a first generation hdtv (atsc) tuner but it didn't work, probably due to the original owner's meddling. I discovered that the mainboard part replacement was only $136 or so... but I thought I would continue to shop around.
I actually found a Samsung hdtv tuner at a pawn shop. It was complete in the box and it was sold to me for $40 plus tax. I hooked up the shvs video output to the svhs video input on my vcr. Even though I currently have a crappy little analog tv, the picture quality was amazing. Mind you, it is only 480i and not true HD quality since I don't have that kind of television or monitor (yet). Still its pretty decent for simply pulling free signals out of the air.
You do have to ding around with your rabbit ears to get the best reception and sometimes have to turn *off* the powered or amplified part if you have an amplified antenna. The picture will get all blocky if you walk in front of it sometimes.
For whatever reason it is difficult to find these set top boxes in retail stores. I suspect it isn't as profitable.
Get a used box to determine what stations you can get before plunking down any money on something huge.
This site will help give you an idea as well:
http://www.antennaweb.org
Error_601
PS. I would like to repair the first box I bought as it doesn't have much of that copy protection nonsense on it. It has a firewire out port.
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