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With the upcoming switch to digital in 2009, there has been a lot of confusion around who will be affected and who will not.
Currently anyone with a cable subscription through their local cable provider will not need a converter box that they have the stores. These converter boxes are for over the air broadcasts only. So if you pick up your TV channels with an old pair of "rabbit ears" then you will need one of those boxes.
Cable providers have to provide ONLY the local broadcast stations to their basic cable subscribers until 2012. What these means is even through your basic cable service will still work after the 2009 switch, you will more than likely see channels being moved over to a Digital channel, High Definition, or both. What this means is that even though you still pay for just the basic service, your channel line up will more than likely quickly become smaller or smaller, unless you sign up for digital service with your cable provider.
Most cable providers require you to have either a Settop Box such as a Motorola or Scientific Atlanta box to view their Digital/HD channels. As of July 2007, all cable providers must offer Cable Cards as well instead, so you can use it either in your TV or any other CableCard ready device such as a Tivo. The cable company will charge you a rent fee for either, and for the digital service. The reason they do this is because all digital channels are usually encrypted to prevent people from stealing cable. You must either have the box or a CableCard supported device in order to decrypt the signals and ensure proper viewing of the channels.
Some cable companies do offer some channels unencrypted so that if you have a new TV with a Digital Tuner in it, you might be able to pick up some digital channels without a box or cablecard. This is really hit or miss, and more than likely you will need one of them to view all the channels properly. You will want to contact your cable company to get all the details.
The FCC and many other companies have wanted to use the frequency range that Analog TV broadcasted over for other services such as Wireless Internet, Cell Phones, and any other wireless device that they might be able to think up. The reason for this is that the frequency range can go further than the current frequencies that they use. IT can also go through walls much easier to give better service to office buildings and in he home.
One comparison would be if you have a cell phone company that has 10 towers to cover an area, they would need less than half of that to produce the same quality of service with the frequency range freed up from the digital conversion.
The othe reason that this is going on is so cable companies can free up the analog spectrum, and reuse that space on their netowrk to provide more HD channels or digital channels. For every analog station removed, you can put up to 12 digital stations or 4-6 HD stations in it's place depending on compression and frequencies it is running on.
In the end, this switch should provide consumers in the US with more choices, and newer and better services to choice from. |
