Time to get ready for digital TV

San Jose Mercury News (MCT) - The digital television transition may have been delayed, but there's no better time than the present to prepare for it.

That's because despite the deadline's postponement, some local stations plan to switch off their analog transmissions later this month anyway. Meanwhile, consumers who need converter boxes to receive the new signals could face holdups in getting them. And even once they have them, they may face setup issues.

Congress passed a law last week that would postpone until June 12 the deadline for broadcast stations to turn off analog signals and broadcast only digital ones. Previously, most stations were supposed to move to all-digital broadcasts Feb. 17.

The government has already sold off some of the bandwidth currently used by analog television to wireless phone and Internet services. It also plans to make some of the airwaves available for use by emergency responders.

President Barack Obama, many members of Congress and an assortment of industry and consumer groups pushed for a delay, worrying that too many consumers were still unprepared for the end of analog television.

Most U.S. households watch television through cable or satellite TV services, and they generally won't be affected by the cutoff of analog signals. But that still leaves millions of households that have one or more televisions that get only the old, analog over-the-air signals.

To continue watching television after the digital transition, those consumers will have to use a pay-TV service, buy a new television with a digital tuner or purchase a device to convert the new digital signals so that they can be viewed on older televisions.

According to a Nielsen report late last month, 5.7 percent of U.S. households _ about 6.5 million homes _ weren't prepared for the move to digital television, meaning that they rely on over-the-air signals and don't yet have a converter box to tune into digital transmissions.

The federal government has tried to ease the transition by offering two $40 coupons per household to apply toward the purchase of digital converter boxes, which range in price from $40 to more than $150. But the government agency in charge of the coupon program _ the National Telecommunications and Information Administration _ has already reached the legal limit on the number of coupons it can issue.

As of last week, about 2 million households were on the waiting list to receive about 3.7 million coupons.

"It's slowly creeping up," said NTIA spokesman Bart Forbes. The latest batch of coupon applicants probably won't get their coupons until sometime in March, he said.

Because of the backlog, Congress voted to push back the deadline for the digital transition. But the delay is not mandatory. Stations can switch off their digital signals at any time; they just need to notify federal regulators first.

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Even for those consumers with coupons, the transition may not be smooth. Some have reported difficulties finding particular converter boxes, especially the lower-priced ones.

Connecting the boxes to an analog television is relatively straightforward. But tuning in the digital channels may prove troublesome, particularly for consumers who get weak analog signals now.

With weak analog signals, consumers typically can still get a picture, albeit a fuzzy one. With digital signals, however, a weak signal can mean either a picture that cuts in and out _ or no picture at all.

So some consumers may need to buy a more sensitive antenna or install an outdoor one to continue to get broadcast signals after the transition. Whenever it comes.

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© 2009, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).