Hey,
Thanks for putting this front and center today -- I hope people will shop carefully. We are going to play the waiting game for a while. Maybe by the end of the year we will go for an LCD. Too many weird things about the HDTV revolution that I do NOT like -- why is this being shoved down our throats? Will the adapter boxes be affordable for those of us who don't make the switch? Will things work with our current VCRs or will we have to get different ones with a special tuner in them? Too many unknowns.
Thanks for your timely article today!

Analog tuners aren't contraband -- they're still perfectly legal. The new rule is a requirement that new TVs contain digital tuners, it's not a ban on analog tuners.

We are going to have to pressure Congress to delay the switchover by five years.
Far too many people are going to get cut off from TV if that's not done.
many of us don't have cable or satellite & can't afford the switch, what with the republicans trying to kill the free tuners for people that can't afford them.
One of the chief opponents of the free tuners is a major league wing-nut named Ed Feulner, the head of the Heritage Foundation. These whack jobs forget that TV is a major source of news. i know of huge numbers of elderly people that don't have cable or dishes, can't afford them & TV is their entire entertainment & news source.
Plus the idiot manufacturers still haven't come out with digital DVD recorders.

I'd be intereseted to find out what percentage of people watch TV over-the-air. I would bet that percentage is fairly small given the poor reception that most people receive. I don't think this transition is going to cause as many problems as people seem to think, although it's unfortunate that manufacturers hands weren't forced a little sooner on including the ATSC tuners in product!

Writing from the UK. We are beginning the process of going digital and expect the analogue signals to be switched off by 2010.

We would not now expect to be able to buy a TV or DVD recorder that did not have a digital tuner. Virtually all of the main brands and most of the others available here include digital tuners. Having recently bought a Panasonic DVD recorder I know that these have both analogue and digital tuners.

Every time the gubermint tries to legislate technology, it comes back to bite the public in the rump!

One of a few things happens:
1) The Technology advances so fast that it makes their legislation meaningless (like the ban on reception of Analog cell phone frequencies - beat by the cell phones going digital).
2) The new technology never materializes.
3) The new technology doesn't work or perform well enough to make it into use.

Congress should stay out of telling the manufacturers 'how to' do things and concentrate on just the desired results.

Hey, Unindited Co-Conspirator. You speak of wing nuts, etc. It's amazing how you left-wing lunatics rationalize everything as a vast right-wing conspiracy. As for the elderly depending entirely on TV as their only news source, they're in trouble, since the big three (ABC, NBC, CBS) totally slant their news to the extreme liberal point of view, which I'm sure is just fine with nuts like you.

The networks and manufacturers have known about this transtion for about a decade now. Yet, a few days before this article came out, I went to the SONY site looking for a DVD recorder and there were none listed. Now, the site lists two DVD recorders and neither have a TUNER - LINE INPUT only!! Yet, if you go to the UK sites for SONY or PANASONIC, you will have no problem finding a DVD recorder with a digital tuner.

Interesting news. I subscribe to the "Digital Tier" on Time-Warner Cable. I wonder if this means that if I buy a DVD recorder with a digital tuner, I can get all these stations without having to rent the TWC cable box, which is an extra $8.95 a month. Anyone know?

Thanks for being one of the few to bring this mandate to the public's attention, but I need to correct a couple of your facts. The new phase of the FCC mandate applies to *all* sets which currently have an analog tuner, not just 13"-and-up. The 13"-and-up rule was included in the *prior* mandates that were superceded in Nov. '05 (that FCC document is not the clearest, spending a lot of time recapping those old mandates).

Also, I believe that stores are allowed to sell their existing stock (the FCC order only addresses shipping and importation, not retail sales), which is why these sets might stick around awhile. Last year at this time the 25"-and-above sets were gone pretty quickly, but it might be a challenge to replace the smallest, lowest-end sets wth digital-capable versions whose prices are acceptable to their intended audience, so it's possible that stores have stocked up on these last analog-only models (just speculaing here).

rjrjj:

I feel compelled to point out a possible error in your reasoning. Nobody is making you buy an *HD*TV at all. You are perfectly able and capable of buying a normal 30" tube non-HD (but it will have a digital tuner)

Will it work with your current VCR? Probably... but unfortunately since your VCR has an *analog* tuner it may be unable to change the channel on its own (but how is this any different than trying to record something from a digital cable box?)

It seems that nobody really has a good idea of exactly what this FCC mandate will entail. The washington post should really do an easy to read piece on it.

Here's what it should say over and and over again:

The *only* people that the FCC mandate will affect are people who use OTA *analog* signals directly. Nobody else will notice. That's it. If you have a cable box only, you won't be affected. If you *don't* have a cable box, but get cable, you won't be affected. If you have satellite, you won't be affected. If you have FiOS, you won't be affected.

The answer will be that you must have an ATSC (digital) tuner in order to receive the OTA channels after that date. This can either be built in to your TV (like all digital TVs now) or a separate 'tuner box'. The exact details of the tuner box vouchers, which you may have heard about are not clear yet, ask your congressman.

Why is the FCC turning off my TV? Because they (and the government) are going to make *billions* of dollars from auctioning off all the old spectrum for new wireless sevices like cell phones, digital movie broadcasts over the air, etc. etc. Anything that gives the government money to implement programs (ok, questionable programs) without taking it from me in terms of more taxes is not a *totally* crazy idea.

I predict these dumb asses in Congress are going to feel the heat when this is about to happen. You don't mess with a man's TV and while it looks good on paper the political pain is going to be severe. Especially as it builds before the mext Conressional elections.

I just purchased a Lg DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner at Best Buy for 243.00 and I can ger 14 digital stations with a indoor antenna also I have seen a Magnovox & Phillips DVD Recorder at Walmarts with ATSC Tuners.