Survey: Are You Changing Your TV?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
We learn from Mike that there are close to 300 million TV sets in the USA; The Utne Reader tells us that half of all Americans have no idea that American TV is going digital next February 17. Many of those sets won't work; the vast majority of them will not be able to take advantage of the new digital signal.
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I'm not in the US, but the situation is similar in the UK. And well.. I already have a digital widescreen TV. Not an "upgrade" replacing a perfectly good old TV, mind you - I've never owned a TV before. I mostly use it as just a screen to watch DVDs and BitTorrent downloads, of course... also, digital hasn't been rolled out here yet, so I have all of four broadcast TV channels.
There are many myths to the change to digital. The reality is that there is not really that many people who will be impacted. If you currently use ANY cable television signal (that is a box that is using a coax connection) then you're fine. If you are one of the few people left who are using ONLY a television antennae, AND your TV does not have a coax input, then you have to switch over to different equipment. You do not require an HDTV television set despite what the salesman at Best Buy tells you.
um convert box + coupon = 10$ out of pocket. Why get rid of a perfectly good tv.
I have an antenna only as I'm not a big TV watcher. You don't have to replace the TV, you can get a converter box. I bought one converter box for my old TV that hardly gets used as it's in the guest room. I used the $40 government card, so given that the converter was about $50, it only cost me $10 or so. The other TV is digital already.
The "vast majority" of TVs will work fine with a converter box.
thanks, Joe!
We're actually watching TV in real time for the first time since we've been together (five years) due completely to the olympics.
Other than that we're DVDs/internet watchers so I chose #1 but the "it'll look great on my computer" option applies here, too.
My family is changing over to the new digital TV's. But not by choice. Our old TV decided it did not want to work anymore a little over a month ago. So currently we are doing a social experiment and seeing how long we can go before we really need to replace it. Our 2 1/2 year old was upset for a couple of days, but hey she wasn't even allowed to watch TV until she was 2.
We did buy a new digital TV but only because our other TV stopped working
Any word on how all these tv's are going to be recycled? I hope the garbage collectors do not take them.
We only converted when our old TV big the dust.
Getting a converter box. No such thing as cable where i live. I refuse to get satellite . I have the coupons and we watch dvds because there is nothing on. Sometimes we just do not watch any and find something else to past the time.
First law I've ever heard of that required people to buy electronics.
I only watch a little TV.
I chose the cable option. My TV is a LCD EDTV and I will eventually upgrade to a LCD HDTV, but they're expensive and I don't watch enough to jump on it. I have technolust, but I'm poor and cheap enough that it's not out of control.
I also watch TV on my computer, but I mainly use it to record TV and play it back later. It has a HDTV tuner, but it only gets PBS and Spanish channels.
Before people belittle the TV, keep in mind that staying home and watching TV saves gas and such. Cheap entertainment.
how about an option for 'i already have a 'new' tv'??
Ditto what Dan and sarahsoo said. I used the coupon to get a converter box, so no need to throw out a perfectly good TV.
I wasn't planning on buying a new TV until my current one dies but the fact that LCD TV's are only available in widscreen makes upgrading even less appealing than it would otherwise be.