Will your TV suddenly go black? The government says consumer-electronics stores aren't doing enough to alert customers about the pending transition to digital television. By MSN Money staff The big names in consumer-electronics retailing are selling analog TVs without alerting buyers that the sets won’t work without conversion devices after mid-February 2009, according to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC this week warned Best Buy (BBY, news, msgs), Circuit City Stores (CC, news, msgs), CompUSA, Kmart and RadioShack (RSH, news, msgs) that they face $11,000-a-day fines, up to $97,000, unless they prominently display notices alerting shoppers that broadcasters are switching to all-digital signals on Feb. 17, 2009. The FCC told retailers they had until May 25 to post "consumer alert labels" in "close proximity" to analog sets, even those sold online. The regulators said the move was necessary because voluntary efforts by stores and television makers weren't working. After FCC staffers made in-store visits and surfed retailers' Web sites, the commission concluded that analog-only devices were still being sold without the proper alerts. Hence the citations sent by the FCC this week threatening retailers with fines for noncompliance. Although high-definition TVs have been a bright spot for consumer-electronics chains, the retailers continue to offer analog-only TVs, typically for less than half the price of an HDTV set. TV with an expiration date Roughly one in 10 Americans rely on an analog set with rabbit ears to watch free over-the-air broadcasts. An additional 15 million might have cable or satellite television service but have extra sets in their home that aren't hooked up and depend on their antennas for service. Starting next year, owners of analog televisions will be able to buy a converter box for $50 to $70 that can pick up digital signals and convert them to analog. To ease the burden, the Commerce Department intends to offer $40 coupons that will defray the cost of a converter box. Three in five Americans, according to a recent poll, don't know about the pending transition to digital television. Congress set the 2009 deadline several years ago to free the nation's analog airwaves for public safety agencies like police and fire departments, as those frequencies are useful at passing through buildings and walls. Some of the newly available frequencies will be bought by cellular and other wireless companies seeking to expand their services.
Yep, and guess what our incompetent federal government is going to give you half the purchase of a converter box so that you can continue capturing your analog signal. The reason behind all of this is so that the government can reclaim the current analog spectrum and auction off said public airwaves to gain more money to waste.
Didn't you hear, thats the new block that will be allocated to "wireless electricity" so hang onto your old sets!
I read about that in the Carolina Weekly a couple of months ago. I think the real question will be how will analog sets do with cable/satellite WITHOUT a convertor box?
We have a small tv with rabbit ears. Great picture so we don't want to throw it away. Anyone purchased a converter yet? Any recommendations on a brand? Cost and retail store where it is sold?
I bought a couple. You have, I believe, 90 days from the time you get the converter certificate to get the converter. The best pirce I found was on line and with shipping was about $10.00 and the certificate.
You are correct on the time line and we bought them at Best Buy for my in-laws. Bought them about 5 months ago and they were $59 before the $40 off certificate and the in-laws love them.
Bought ours at Walmart for about $50, so were about $10 after coupon. Got RCA's, have a remote and buttons on the front, make sure you get one that way so you can change channels if the remote is misplaced. Not all of them have the buttons, believe it or not.
the box is so that you can capture the new digital signal for free on your old tv the same way you did the analog, not to continue capturing analog signals. those signals will be turned off. the gov't mandated the change, which would require new equipment should you choose to get tv free over the air, so why shouldn't they pick up part of the tab for the new equip?
if you have cable or satellite, you don't need a digital converter box. the box is only for receiving the digital tv signal free, over the air. if you have an old analog tv with cable or satellite, you won't notice that anything happened...
Wife says they are available for $49.95 at Target, so for a one time investment of $10.00 you multiply your viewing ability by 4 to 5 times.
i purchased the one recommended by consumer reports and wral's monica online from: www.solidsignal.com i paid less than $15 for the converter box (using the $40 tv converter box coupon) and that included s&h. it is the: tivax stb-t9. i could not find it anywhere other than online.
Convertor Box I was looking at the circulars in the Sunday Paper and noticed that there is a place called Tiger Direct that is offering the Convertor Box for $41.00 and they are advertising that if you download and print the government coupon for $40.00 off the purchase you only pay $1.00 for the convertor box. Check out the ad in the circular in today's N&O Inserts!!!!!!
I am quite aware of what the boxes are for. The part that bothers me is the government is selling the idea as "better" which it is not. They agreed to give the rebate coupon to "bribe" the American public as we will lose a deeper penetrating air wave for an inferior one. One again the politicians in Washington sell the American public out and the sheep don't even know it.
See that would be progress, but they are taking back the lower end spectrum and squeezing more channels into the higher spectrum. I enjoy the extra channels, but don't like the sales job they are doing and I certainly do not like the FCC auctioning more and more public airwaves.
