kok328

I may be in denial but, it just occurred to me that I own a rather expensive, handheld, battery operated, color TV.

Will this become nothing more than a paper weight after analog TV signals are terminated in 2009?

As I said, I may be in denial and am pretty sure of the answer but, I don't think many people have considered this to be an issue beyond their living room TV.

Does the Govt. have a convertor designed for the smaller, portable TVs?

JoeD

The TV will be pretty much useless after Feb 2009 to USA TV. If you are near the Canadian border you will receive Canadian TV until Aug 2011.
The govenmant does not supply converters. They only supply a $40 certificate towards the purchase of one.

tmiskimen

Converters are available (using the $40 coupon from USG) that will convert the digital signals to analog (Channel 3 or 4) or will produce an audio/video signal either of which will work with your existing TV. I have one (Digital Stream) and it works great. Before the coverter I could only get 6 or 8 channels with my antenna now I can get about 20 with crystal clear picture. With digital you either have a crystal clear pic or none at all.
One thing to keep in mind the new digital signals are all broadcast in the UHF band channels so after Jan 19 you can sell your channel 2 thru 13 antenna for aluminum scrap.

JoeD

That brings up another issue. You don't a special HD or digital antenna. If you have a UHF antenna that currently picks channels 14-63 that is all you need.

CraigFL

As far as I know, some DTV signals will still be on VHF.

The problem with small, portable TVs is that the converter may almost be as big as the TV and it will need separate power....

JoeD

All DTV signals will be in the UHF range. They want to reassign the VHF frequencies for other use.

Charlie

I had heard a while back that Google was trying to get the rights to them, I don't know if that is right or not.

It looks like Obama's team is actually trying to push back the February 17th cut over deadline though, so perhaps kok328 will be able to use his TV for a little longer...

JoeD

After a bit a research it appears that most but not all DTV station will be in the UHF band. Some will still be in the VHF band.
The old frequencies will be auctioned off for use by cells, pagers, blackberries etc.

kok328

We'll see what happens here. I suspect my analog reciever won't get the stations on the UHF band. I think they are going digital on the old UHF band frequency.

kok328

It's official, I'm now the proud owner of a paperweight (RCA, handheld, 2" color TV). I got one station on the UHF frequency but, it was in spanish. I think I may have used it once or twice during a power outage but, for the most part, it's brand new. It does have an A/V In jack so maybe it could be used for something else.