Will my old TV still work after the digital conversion? Nobody seems to know.

I have included a link the the government web (http://www.dtv.gov/) for two purposes. First, you can get a lot of information there about the conversion to digital TV (DTV) and the difference between DTV and High Definition Television (HDTV). They are NOT one in the same. You need DTV to further be able to get HDTV but HDTV is not necessary nor part of the FCC conversion project. It is just an add-on. And DTV is only necessary for full powered broadcast, over the air, TV stations. You know them: ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.etc. There is no mandate yet for non-Over-the-Air stations like Lifetime or Comedy Central to go to digital since they are not using public air waves. That is not to say that they won't convert, but they don't have to, at least not until 2011 when Congress takes another look at it.

However, there are still at this late date, unanswered questions. They remain unanswered by my local cable company, the FCC, the Consumer Electronics Association, and any number of "customer service reps" that you might talk to at the big box electronic stores. I know because I've talked to them all.

As for older TVs:

I bought a TV in October 1997 from Circuit City.

Below are some of the FCC mandates affecting DTV tuners (source: Wikipedia)

By July 1, 2005 all televisions with screen sizes over 36" must include a built-in ATSC DTV tuner
By March 1, 2006 all televisions with screen sizes over 25" must include a built-in ATSC DTV tuner
By March 1, 2007 all televisions regardless of screen size, and all interface devices which include a tuner (VCR, DVD player/recorder, DVR) must include a built-in ATSC DTV tuner.
It should be noted that devices manufactured before these dates can still be sold without a built-in ATSC DTV tuner.

I bought my TV in October of 1997. There are no indications in the manual or any markings on the TV (which by law need to be there) that the TV I bought has any digital capabilities. Second, I attached the antenna I use for my HDTV to pick up digital and High Definition broadcasts to my old TV and got nothing except a few analog stations.

Keep in mind that digital TV broadcasts usually originate from sources of UHF. But even if they are in the VHF range the will still have a decimal point on them. For example, on my digital TV I pick up channel 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 8.2, 13.1, 13.2, 26.1, 26.2, 35.1, 51.1 etc.


To make it more confusing, you will pick up digital channels like channel 8 in my area on UHF channel 46.1. Your TVs auto channel find will do the work for you and you will type in channel "8" on your remote control but it is actually being received on a UHF channel. For more confusion, because of corporate branding issues, some TV stations want to revert back to their original channel after the digital conversion so Channel 8 in my area will be received on channel 8.1 after the conversion instead of channel 46.1

My analog TV does not have the capability to see these sub channels. So know I know, my old TV is analog, not digital so I will need a converter box to that the digital signal can be fed through it and converted to analog so that my TV can understand it.

So I know my rabbit ears won't work to well for me on my analog TV after the conversion. On that TV, I have no cable box, the cable goes right into the "Antenna in" jack on the back. So the two big unanswered questions are these:

ONE - After the digital conversion is complete, will my TV be able to read the "cable right into the back of the TV" configuration that I have now. The cable company people I have spoken to so far have no idea. They are suggesting I rent a regular cable box from them (yup, more money) or that I but one of the digital/analog converter boxes for which I can get a voucher from the government to help defray the cost. Although so far nobody can tell me how much they are. The voucher is supposed to be for $40. You can get up to 2 of them but you can't combine them. By the mere fact that they say you can't combine them, I'm inclined to think that they are more than $40.

TWO - If only high powered, over-the-air, broadcast channels (meaning the big networks) are mandated to convert to digital as of 2/17/09, what happens to the other channels. For sure some will remain in analog as long as possible. So you may have to get quite familiar with your remote control and the capabilities it has to switch from analog to digital, from separate input sources and in the UHF or VHF range of channels.

You can, or course, avoid a lot of headaches by buying the most up-to-date TV, the most up-to-date digital cable box, and subscribe to the most fancy digital/high definition package that your cable or satellite company can provide. Right now I don't many who can afford this but good luck to you if you can.

If you read additional articles on this blog, you will see that just because you might pay for high definition TV does not mean that all of the programming you receive will actually be in High Definition. Read some of the articles on how stations like TBS claim to be High Definition 100% of the time but are broadcasting re-runs of Friends and Seinfeld - two shows never produced with in High Definition cameras.