How do I watch Digital TV (NOT HDTV)

[Sportymonk]

Situation: Old TV in bedroom is dying. Need to buy a new one. Have heard that everything will go to digital signal by 2009. After that point, older TVs will require a conversion box. I don't want to buy a TV that will be non-functional in two years (if the date isn't changed again!)

Facts I have been told by Best Buy and Cox Cable (now SuddenLink in NC).

1. The signal to the cable company is digital.

2. The signal from them to my house is analog (they change it to analog).

3. To watch channels 2-99, I simply turn on my old TV. To watch anything above 99 I must subscribe to their digital service and get a converter box.

(This sounds like they are changing the digital turned analog signal back to digital with their converter box and then back to analog to watch on my old TV.

4. To watch TV on a TV with an ATSC tuner (digital tuner) I STILL need a converter box to change the analog signal sent to my house to digital for my TV.

5. To watch TV on a LCD HDTV Monitor, I don't need anything to watch 2-99 since they are analog but will need a converter to watch digital above 99 since the monitor has no tuner.

NOW IN TWO YEARS when everything supposedly goes digital, the tech rep thought

6. Maybe in 2009 they won't change the signal to analog but it will be digital all the way. IF that is true then:

7. My old TV will still need a converter box to change the digital signal to analog to watch.

8. IF I get it, my HDTV monitor will still need a converter box since it has no ATSC digital tuner but only the NTSC analog tuner and there will be no 2-99 analog signals.

9. If I have a digital TV with an ATSC tuner, then I won't need a converter box since it can receive and tune digital signals.

10. All TVs made since 1999 or 2000 are digital (but apparently do not have digital ATSC tuners)

11. I don't know when the TV in my living room was made since I got it from my father but I suspect it was made before 2000.

12. All I want is a small TV to watch the news in the morning and maybe a movie at night. I don't want to buy a $150 TV that I have to buy a $300 converter for in two years.

NOTE: I am not talking about HDTV in this except for the monitor I looked at today which was labeled HDTV which I assume is digital. (Then again, the cable lady said all TVS since 2000 are digital!) Oh my aching head.

[jdeanski]

Originally posted by Sportymonk
9. If I have a digital TV with an ATSC tuner, then I won't need a converter box since it can receive and tune digital signals.

The tuner in the TV is for signals from an antenna. With an antenna you can receive HD and digital signals from local stations. This is called OTA (over the air). If you subscribe to digital cable you will still need a converter box unless your TV is DCR (digital cable ready) then you will need a "cable card" from the cable company to receive digital signals.

This article from CNET may help a you understand a little better:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7608_7-1016109-3.html

[whizmo]

As I understand it, this conversion to all digital is happening very slowly and the deadline has been extended numerous times.

This event will be a big problem for only one type of viewer - those that watch TV on current NTSC analog OTA broadcasts - their TV's are going to stop working because the broadcasts they receive are going to end as OTA is mandated to go digital.

For cable folks, this event may require them to finally get a cable box if they currently are using the NTSC analog signal on the cable directly. But this is going to happen anyway as cable companies do away with analog cable and switch everybody over to digital boxes so they can sell movies, pay-per-view, etc.

IOW, just ignore all this crap. But whatever TV suits your needs and budget. You'll be able to hook it up to your cable one way or the other and their are going to be millions just like you so. It may run you $5/month rental for the box that you're not paying now, but in the overall scheme of cable fees, it's unlikely to be enough to matter much. (I can think of one exception - folks who have many TV's all over the house and are happy with analog cable - each TV is going to require a box and associated rental fee.)

- Mark

[robottik]

To throw another wrench into the mix... TVs with QAM tuners can tune unscrambled digital cable channels from cable, but to view scrambled channels a CableCard or cable box is required.

My LCD HDTV has a QAM tuner and I can plug my cable directly into it (no cable box) and receive the basic unscrambled digital channels.

Overall though for cable viewers the 2009 digital mandate is not an issue, as you can always use a cable box to receive the digital signal and pass it to any TV (digital or analog).