Program helps TV viewers prepare for digital conversion
Do not attempt to adjust your TV set - not without a digital converter box, not after Feb. 17, 2009, anyway.
Yes, Aware One, just as "The Outer Limits" once promised 45 years ago: "You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to" - TV's complete and utter transition to a digital signal.
Now, for most people this will mean absolutely nothing. Most cable and satellite subscribers long ago discovered the wonders of digital TV, both in the signal compression that allowed dozens more channels to move through the same system, and in the high-definition signals that filled those cable and satellite streams to the bursting point with precise, movie-quality images (if you had an HDTV capable of playing them).
One of the main reasons the major broadcast networks embraced HDTV is it allowed them to seize vast new expanses of the public airwaves in the form of what's called "the digital spectrum," new frequencies capable of handling the concentrated HD signal - or various "multicasting" channels running on the same digital frequency. Yet the government insisted that in exchange the major networks give back their old frequencies - what's now airing Channels 2, 5, 7, 9, etc. - when the conversion was complete.
Me, being Your Cynical Neighborhood TV Critic, I never thought I'd see the day the major networks would actually give that airspace up. Yet the government has set a Feb. 17 deadline, and thus far it's held to it. (It plans to auction that old broadcast spectrum to various other telecommunications businesses in need of airspace.) That means any old analog TV set not connected to a cable or satellite system will go dead with snow on that date, just like at the beginning of "The Outer Limits." There'll be nothing on TV - unless you get a box to convert the new digital broadcast signals to analog.
Fortunately, this being the greatest country in the world - or at least the one most obsessed with TV - the government is handing out $40 coupons to buy the boxes, which typically sell at major retailers for somewhere between $50 and $80, depending on the quality and gadgetry (a universal remote, for instance) a viewer is willing to pay for. And the good news is all U.S. households can get two of those coupons.
"Because it is a nationally mandated change that affects all households, everyone should be eligible," said Dr. Francine Jefferson, consumer education manager for the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, on a recent visit to Chicago.
Again, most won't need to apply. According to Jefferson, a recent Nielsen survey found that about two-thirds of all Chicago-area households are good to go with their current systems. About a quarter are like me, connected to cable or satellite, but with a couple of old TVs sitting around the house - in the bedroom and office, in my case - that will soon become obsolete if not fitted with converter boxes. One in 10 households, however, is still getting free over-the-air broadcast channels the old-fashioned way, via rooftop antennas or TV-top rabbit ears. For them, the need for a converter box is vital.
No, it won't turn an old TV set into a plasma HDTV, but it will allow it to play the local digital stations and whatever channels they're multicasting, such as the local affiliates' weather channels and WGN Channel 9's music channel.
"Our mission has been to spearhead a national education program," Jefferson said. And while everyone is eligible, they've focused on the "vulnerable" citizens most likely to be in need.
"We have targeted the economically disadvantaged, limited-English-speaking, disabled populations," Jefferson added, as well as "minorities and rural and elderly Americans."
There are three ways to apply. The simplest, of course, is online at www.dtv2009.gov. It took me less than five minutes to complete the application, and my coupons - which actually arrive in the form of gift cards worth $40, solely for the use of buying converter boxes - are set to be mailed at the end of the month. Viewers can also call (888) DTV-2009 - (877) 530-2634 for English hard-of-hearing, (866) 495-1161 for Spanish - or fill out an application and fax or mail it in. Those applications are available online and at most libraries, and the NTIA is working to cut through the usual red tape to get them in post offices as well.
The NTIA has also been recruiting community groups to spread the news. Jefferson was in town to address the General Federation of Women's Clubs and to make another presentation in Gary, Ind. "Part of our strategy is to work with organizations to get the word out and make coupons available," she said. Your Friendly Neighborhood TV Critic, of course, is part of the process as well.
Now, it wouldn't be a government program without a couple of irritating details. First, the coupons are only good for 90 days once they're mailed. Yet the boxes can be put to work now to pick up digital broadcast signals, so it's not as if anyone has to wait until February to use them. The other thing is that although everyone is eligible, there is a limit to the $900 million program, and at some point coupons will go exclusively to those most in need, with no cable or satellite service. So, as they say in TV land, don't delay, order today.
Jefferson said the NTIA has already received 19 million applications, but only 726,000 from the Chicago area, which has about 3.4 million households. So some locals still have work to do, or else snow will be general across Chicago - and across Chicago-area TVs - come February.