For all the people happily basking in the glow of a new flat-panel,
high-definition TV, many others are puzzled by the digital-TV
transition. This may be one of the most misunderstood upgrade cycles in
consumer-electronics history.

It shouldn’t be. People coped with earlier analog-to-digital
transitions that took us from vinyl records to CDs, paper letters to
e-mail and film to digital cameras.

The digital-TV transition is the basically the same thing. You just have to ask the right questions.

What’s a digital TV? It’s not a high-definition or flat-panel
set; high-def is only one flavor of digital TV. What counts is not the
set’s screen, but what’s behind it — a digital, or ATSC ("Advanced
Television Systems Committee"), tuner that can receive the new signals.

Do I have one? If you have to ask, you probably don’t. Even
big-screen sets built before 2006 usually lack a digital tuner. Sets
smaller than 26 inches, VCRs, DVD recorders and digital video recorders
are probably analog, too, unless they were made after last March, when
a Federal Communications Commission mandate kicked in.

The easiest way to tell is to see whether the set’s remote control lets
you tune in channels with decimal points: 4.1 instead of just 4, for
example. The TV’s setup mode should also let you search for digital and
analog channels.

Does it matter if I don’t have a digital TV? That depends on how the TV signal reaches your set.

If you have a cable or satellite box plugged into an analog TV, or
if you only use the set to watch DVDs or play video games, you don’t
need to do anything.

If, however, you use a "cable ready" analog set to watch cable
without a separate box, you may have to surrender that simplicity to
watch more than your ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC
or PBS affiliates. While cable systems that haven’t already gone
all-digital must provide an analog feed of local commercial and public
stations through February 2012, they can move other channels to digital
services that would require a cable box.

If you get TV using an indoor, attic-mounted or rooftop antenna, you
have to get a new tuner — but not a new TV, unless you also want to
watch high-definition broadcasts. To keep using your older set, you
need a digital converter box, which should be widely available by early
March for about $50.

To help people who rely on analog broadcasts — 14 percent of U.S.
households, according to the FCC — the government is giving away $40
coupons for the purchase of a converter. You can request two coupons
online ( http://www.dtv2009.gov) or by calling 888-388-2009. Coupons expire 90 days after being mailed; the first should go out late this month.

The coupon can be used only to buy a converter box, not a new HDTV or
any other gadget. This box, in turn, won’t turn your old TV into a
high-definition set.

Will I get the same TV reception in digital as in analog? No. You should get better picture quality and sound, and you should also have more channels to watch.

That’s "should," not "will." Digital reception, like analog, can
have glitches. And weak digital reception is worse than a bad analog
signal: The broadcast will freeze, fragment or go blank instead of
picking up snow or static.

But when I’ve compared digital with analog in the same spot and with
the same antenna, digital has won every time — and it’s only gotten
better over the past two years.

Earlier this week, I tested one of the first converter boxes available, Philips’s Magnavox TB100MW9 (list price: $69). At a home in Arlington and in The Post’s downtown District office, this tuner made local commercial and PBS stations look as good as cable or satellite, without any flickering or ghosting.

In some cases, though, I had to wiggle the antenna to lock in a
signal. A few stations were unviewable in both analog and digital. And
some low-powered stations farther up the dial don’t have digital
signals (the FCC has exempted them from the 2009 deadline).

Many broadcasters send out extra digital-only channels, such as
local network affiliates’ weather updates and PBS stations’ educational
and how-to channels. Digital broadcasts also often include program
schedules, so you can see what’s on now and coming next by pressing a
button on a remote control.

Why is the government making me do this? This may be the hardest
one to answer. Congress had good reasons to approve the digital
transition in 1996. Most of the analog-TV airwaves will be auctioned
off to wireless carriers — expanding the reach of broadband Internet
and earning the government billions of dollars — and some will be
reserved for use by police, firefighters and paramedics.

But many viewers seem to regard digital TV as a scheme to line the
pockets of TV stations and electronics manufacturers. I think this says
more about people’s trust in government and corporations than about any
longing for analog TV.

Via Washington Post