Converters Signal a New Era for TVs
Friday 08th of June 2007 04:16:08 PMAt midnight on Feb. 17, 2009, the rabbit ears and the rooftop antennas that still guide television signals into nearly 1 of every 5 American homes will be rendered useless — unless they are tethered to a new device, including two versions unveiled yesterday, that the government will spend as much as $80 a household to help families buy.
The V-shaped rabbit ears, which have stood sentry in some living rooms and dens since the early 1950s, risk going the way of the eight-track tape player or Betamax in 20 months because that is when local television stations will cease sending their signals over the analog airwaves, and instead begin transmitting their programming exclusively over the more modern digital spectrum.
The change, which was set in motion by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission in the mid-1990s, is being made at least partly to give viewers a better picture and to make it easier for stations to broadcast their signals in high definition.
“The moment coming is the end of something that has been around for 60 years — conventional television — and it has been a wonderful era,” said Richard E. Wiley, a former chairman of the F.C.C. who led a government advisory panel on what was then known as “advanced television” from 1987 to 1995.
“With that ending will come this new digital world, this much greater world,” Mr. Wiley said, “but many people aren’t yet ready or haven’t gotten the word.”
Those families still using antennas on their roofs or atop their sets to watch David Letterman or “Desperate Housewives” — nearly 20 million homes, according to government figures — will eventually be unable to see their favorite programs, at least not without a digital-ready television or a converter that will serve to translate the new signals for old TVs and their antennas. (Those viewers who already get their television from satellite or cable providers are not expected to have much disruption.)
That is where the government vouchers come in. Yesterday, the National Association of Broadcasters, the powerful trade lobby representing the nation’s television networks and stations, lifted the curtain on two prototypes for those basic digital converters — one made by LG, the other by Thomson, which is distributed under the RCA brand — that will start appearing in electronic and department stores in January, at an expected cost of about $50 to $70.
To ensure that uninterrupted access to free, over-the-air television does not pose a financial hardship for viewers, a government agency with a name that sounds as if it was borrowed from the old Soviet Union — the National Telecommunications and Information Administration — will issue $40 gift cards to consumers who want to buy the converters so they are not left behind when television as we have always known it goes dark in early 2009.
Beginning in January, consumers may apply for up to two coupons each, for a total of $80. (More information on the program is available at an F.C.C. Web site, www.dtv.gov, or the broadcasters’ site at www.dtvanswers.com.)
