Are you ready for the federally mandated switchover from analog to digital TV broadcasts? More than one-fifth of the TV sets in the Minneapolis-St. Paul viewing area are affected by the transition — more than any other U.S. viewing area, except Portland, Ore., which has a slightly larger proportion. That’s 22.1 percent of the TV sets in 59 Minnesota counties and nine in Wisconsin.

Sunday began a yearlong countdown until the switch on Feb. 17, 2009. I wrote an article Sunday about the looming transition, so be sure to check it out for more perspective.

If you receive over-the-air TV broadcasts (using an antenna) on an older, analog set, you are affected by the transition and will lose your programming if you do nothing before next Feb. 17. If you receive your programming via a cable or satellite provider, or if you have a newer TV with a built-in digital tuner, you are among the majority of viewers who are not affected.

If you are affected, you have three options:

• Subscribe to a cable or satellite service.
• Buy a newer TV with a digital tuner, which is pretty much all that stores sell now.
• Buy a converter box that connects to your older TV and antenna and converts the digital signal, which all Twin Cities stations are already simulcasting.

The latter is the cheapest and easiest option. The government is issuing $40 vouchers (two per household) to defray the costs of buying the converter boxes, which are selling for $50 to $70 through stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. 

This seems like a fairly straightforward process, but there is loads of consumer confusion about the switchover, judging from the reader feedback I’ve received:

• One woman asked if radio was affected. No, nothing is changing with your radio.
• One woman insisted that she went to Best Buy and was told she needed a $150 converter box. No, the sole converter box that Best Buy is selling (linked above) costs $60 — $20, after using the voucher.
• One man said he was given poor service at Best Buy but found what he was looking for at Wal-Mart, including converter boxes with built-in DVD players and VCRs. Again, no. As linked above, Wal-Mart is selling one converter box, which costs $50 — $10 after the voucher.

My article was meant to raise awareness about the issue, but many questions can be answered by going to the government’s website for the switchover, DTV2009.gov. Also, on Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., will hold a press conference at 10:15 a.m. at the Best Buy in Richfield to publicize the transition.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 8:16 am and is filed under Home theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.