A TechLore "Ask the Experts" Question...

Question:

When HDTV becomes standard, and all the channels change, how do we get ordinary TV over an antenna without exorbitant charges from a cable or DirecTV service?

-submitted by lordbasil

Answer:

The transition from analog to digital television has certainly raised concerns among the large portion of Americans that rely on free, over-the-air broadcast signals for television. Of course, much of what folks are concerned about stems from the confusion of what will happen when analog television broadcasting stops completely.

The transition from analog to digital broadcasting technically started in 1998, though it didn't really pick up steam until about four years later, when networks finally started offering more than just one or two shows in HD quality. All this time, analog signals have been sent along with digital ones, so if you're still using a regular analog television, you wouldn't even know the transition was taking place.

To more directly answer your question, the transition to digital broadcasting (which includes HDTV) doesn't really have anything to do with pay-TV services like cable and satellite. Broadcast television will continue to be free, even when analog signals no longer exist. The only real difference is how broadcasters will deliver television content to you, using digital signals and much newer technology that dramatically improves the quality and experience from what you're currently used to.

Of course, there are some hardware requirements necessary to receive digital programming, and to get a good overview on what you need to finally watch HDTV in its full glory, read the article "What do I need to watch HDTV?".

If you're currently using an analog television, and you don't plan on upgrading any time soon, you're not out of luck when analog signals go away. All you need to continue to enjoy free broadcast television is a new tuner that can receive and translate these new digital signals for your TV. You won't magically turn your TV into high-definition, but you'll still reap some of the benefits digital provides, like no static, snow, etc. In fact, you could pick up a digital tuner today and start taking advantage of what digital has to offer.

These boxes are much cheaper today than what they used to be, and it's expected that they'll be really cheap by 2009, when analog broadcasting joins other extinct technologies. If you're still worried about cost, there are several lobbyists working to get the government to subsidize some of the cost for low and fixed income families. So in the end, you may not even need to purchase one, but the details on that front are still being hammered out.

In the end, you'll have a better television experience from your rooftop antenna, and you still won't have to pay for cable or satellite. Free TV is just getting a long overdue upgrade.

Matt Whitlock - Editor, TechLore.com

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