February 17, 2009 marks the end of an era. After that date,
broadcast television signals will cease being transmitted in
analog format and will be transmitted in digital format.

If you get your television progamming through free, over-the-air
signals using an outdoor antenna or "rabbit ears," you need to
purchase and hook up an analog-to-digital converter box if you
don't have a digital TV. If you don't have a converter box, you
will not get TV progamming after February 17, 2009.

You can get a $40.00 coupon which can be used to offset the
cost of the converter box from the government. In fact, each
household can get two coupons.

If you have cable or satellite TV, you won't need the converter box.

The boxes are easy to hook up. Disconnect the antenna cable from
your TV, and connect it to the Antenna IN terminal on the box.
Connect one end of the RF cable provided with the box to the TV OUT
terminal on the box, and the other end to the Antenna IN terminal
on your TV. Or you can use RCA cables to connect the composite
video and audio signals from the converter box to the TV, if your TV has
these inputs. This should probably provide a better picture than
using the RF connection.

You then use the TV's remote control to turn the TV set on and off,
and to adjust the volume. You use the converter box's remote
control to change the channels. The converter box also has
additional features that you can select, such as parental controls.

I found this to be an easy conversion, but it can be vexing to
some senior citizens and others who may not be technically savvy.
I set up the boxes for my aunt, who is in her late sixties, and
she found the experience frustrating. "What are they trying to do,
kill the senior citizens with aggravation? Why don't they wait
until the seniors are all dead, then they can change the TV,"
she grumbled. I'm hoping she'll get used to it with time.

I can see the point of some frustration, however. You have a TV that
works, that you bought with your own money, and after February 17,
2009, that TV won't work. So you have to buy another gadget just
to be able to watch TV, thanks to the government. Even with the
$40 coupons, most people will end up paying $10-20 each for the box, as
I have seen most of them retailing for $50-60.

By the way, if you have a TV set that you only use with a VCR, DVD player,
gaming system, video camera, Web TV or MSN TV internet receiver, or similar
item, you do not need a converter box to continue to use it with these
devices. In these applications you are using the TV essentially as a
direct-connected monitor. You only need the converter box to convert over-the-air
signals, from a commercial broadcast station, that you receive with an antenna.
(However, if you use an analog TV tuner in a VCR or Web TV Plus unit, and
get your TV signal through an antenna, then you would need a converter box,
and you would connect it between the antenna and the device with the tuner,
such as the VCR.)

You can find out more about the DTV transition at

http://www.dtv.gov.