Linked by weildish on Tue 6th Jan 2009 17:28 UTC
If you live in the United States, then it's almost certain you've heard about this big digital switch that public television is making due to a new US law. If you live outside of the US, I bet you've heard of it anyway since we like to let people know what we're up to. The big day that's coming up -- February 17th, 2009 -- that magical date when all television stations will historically abandon the infamous analog broadcasting for greener, digital pastures -- didn't strike fear into the hearts at my household. We rarely utilize the antenna, and then only two to four times a year for a special program. Nonetheless, we got our hands on one of those nifty coupons anyway and went out to purchase a digital converter for the sake of those few intrinsic public broadcats. Read on for the whole story.
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Member since:
2005-06-29
Depends on how things are organised in your country.
Here in The Netherlands, you can only get the three public, tax-paid stations (see my blog for an explanation of our media landscape [1], it's quite complicated) for free, whether you're on normal cable or digital cable or digital antenna. For the rest, including the several Dutch commercial stations, you'll either need a normal cable contract (very cheap), or a digital decoder approved by your cable company, who will give you a smartcard to shove in the decoder, unlocking the channels you paid for.
Yes, many TVs come with a digital receiver - but they don't include smartcard support, so it's all very basic, and in NL, practically useless.
[1] http://cogscanthink.blogsome.com/2008/02/09/70s-porn/