IP 001- How do I know if I am ready for February?
An excellent Internet Pumpkin question tossed from reader Debbie in Zebulon, NC and, it really can be hard to determine. Naturally, if you have Cable or Satellite, you are fine no matter what. They will continue to provide you with your current SD signals for a few more years. If you use any antenna, either indoors or outdoor, then you need to pay attention.
A newer set may have logos imprinted on the front like HDTV or ATSC or on the rear near the antenna input. If it has the word “ready”, then beware. It probably has an old fashioned NTSC or SDTV tuner, and requires an external box to display DTV. Many early 16:9 displays were simply monitors with a standard tuner. Those will require a converter box; however, if you want to get real HD on it, you need a more advanced box than the standard CECB we have been talking about. And also get ready to go crazy with connectors! To get real HD you need either component cables, HDMI, DVI or VGA style cables. This higher end box is not usually coupon eligible.
One quick way to tell if your set is ready is to use the channel up/down buttons and look at the channel numbers. If you see ch 17, then 17-1, 17-2, and 17-3, then you are ready. No action required because the (dash) 1, etc are the digital channels.
Keep going though, because some earlier boxes had an “option” to use off air guides or not. If it does not read those guides, the DTV channels will come in at their real UHF channel numbers, such as 55-1, 55-2, etc. You may or may not have been missing them!
Nearly every TV manufacturer has a utility on their web site you can enter your set’s model number, and it will tell you if it is digital or not. Basically, any TV manufactured in the past 4 years was required to have an ATSC tuner. Naturally, there were some older stock on the shelves mixed in, and the retailer was “supposed” to have signs posted on them if they were not DTV ready.
Most basic sets with a 4:3 screen, or what you’ve been used to all these years, will likely need a box. It’s not a big deal, just go to www.dtv2009.gov or call 1-888-388-2009 and request up to two coupons for $40.00 off the price of the box.
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