The HDTV Switch Over

Over the last three or four years, you have undoubtedly heard a great deal about the HDTV switch over. You may have been less than enthused about the switch, or you may have absolutely no idea if and/or how it was going to affect you. First let’s go over exactly what this “switch over” entails.

The HDTV switch over is a mandated process by the FCC that stating that all broadcasting companies in the United States must now be broadcasting solely over High Definition; that from this point forward, analog would be nonexistent.

This switch was originally supposed to take effect on December 31, 2006. The date was continuously pushed back as most of the broadcasting markets were not fully ready for the switch.

At this point, while most markets have switched over, there are still some that have not. You may be in one of them. If you are still watching television over the air with an analog television, chances are you are watching an analog channel.

How does this affect you? Well first off, if you do not have cable or satellite then your old analog television will not be able to broadcast any channels. Now, this does not meant that you have to go buy a whole new set. All you have to do is get a converter box that will take the new digital signal and convert it back to analog. The only problem with that is you’re still going to have analog quality. You may find it worth your money to invest in your own HDTV. Besides, there’s never going to be a better reason to do so.