Free DTV!

Most of us have heard about DTV for some time now. The government wants all current analog broadcasts to end by February 2009 and is making a big push to digital. There are definitely benefits to digital for us consumers, and you don't even need to know why to get the benefits. For one, your old SDTV will look much clearer than most of the analog channels you get now.

I picked up a dtv converter box a few days ago, hooked it up in less than 10 minutes - Wow! I now have some extra channels, and reception is crystal clear! I can still turn the digital box off and continue to use analog reception if I want, but I won't want to go back to reception that is not as clear. Some of you may want to continue to use Analog, since some broadcasters have not finished their conversion or the signal is not picked up digitally.

You don't need a fancy new HDTV flatpanel to get the benefits of digital tv either. Though, you'll see more details with HDTV broadcasts. You don't need cable or Satellite to get Digital TV, your old rabbit ears can pick up digital reception just like the old analog signals.

So how do you get started today? Get your $40 coupon from Uncle Sam, otherwise you'll shell out $65 (including tax) of your own money for the box. I did some googling and found some posts about BestBuy having a good digital converter box. So I picked up an Insignia and an Apex model at best buy. I tried both out and loved them both.

The Insignia unit does let me control power to both my TV and digital converter box. The setup is pretty painless, the only thing you need to know is how to connect the antenna cable to the box and the coax cable from the box back into the TV. You put your TV on Channel 3 and you get a little quick run through that walks you through a few simple steps. I let the box autofind my channels and I'm all set. Now I have all my usual broadcast channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, WB, WWOR, PBS, etc..) plus a few sub channels that give me wheather or other content, such as a dedicated Kids channel for PBS.

Most of you already have Cable TV or Satellite, and this is no big deal. You will find that OTA DTV may be more clear than many cable channels. I don't have cable or Satellite, for the reason that I hardly spend any time watching TV and can't justify the cost of Cable TV or Satellite.

Hope you found this quick article helpful. Have you tried OTA DTV? Have you recently hooked up a digital converter box? If so, please share your comments!