Did you apply for your TV converter box coupons yet?
By Evan Blass 
posted January 1st 2008 12:19PM
posted January 1st 2008 12:19PM
[Thanks for the reminder, Travis C.]
posted January 1st 2008 12:19PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Our Walmart has the converter boxes on the shelves. They are $50 so if you use a coupon the out of pocket will be around $10.
I received the coupon cards this weekend, giving me about 80 days before they expire. Does anyone know if there have been any reviews of these converter boxes? The accompanying letter lists approved models, but are any better than the others?
As long as we convince ourselves we are getting deal, this is all that matters.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience. An unexpected error has occurred and been logged.
You will be redirected to the home page in 3 seconds."
Good job US Government
It said that for me around 9 (EST) this morning; I tried again half an hour later and it worked fine.
I am surprised by this turn of events.
Yes, I am.
Yep, no other website ever has problems.
So I gather that everyone in the States gets a $40 voucher to get money off/ a free freeview box depending on price. So if the box costs $40 you get it free, if it costs $80 you pay $40.
Why aren't the UK doing this, I have to buy my own freeview box, what kind of a world is that, where you exchange money for goods and services, outrageous.
They are for certain members of society such as the elderly and those on benefits but not until nearer switchover.
Matt,
Good point. The real secret is America has likely been one of the Most socialist counties on the planet. I don't think that is all bad. It's a real eye openner when I found that so call socialist counties like France required school children to pay for text books in School.
Try doing that in America and your will have a second revolution. We have a massive safety net including TV decoder boxes for the masses. Unlike UK we don't have a TV tax!!! Do you guys still have to hide you sets behind closed doors?
Granted our health "payment" system is weird but almost everyone will receive massive cutting edge medical care. You may go broke but receive you will. Sort of a special socialist/market system only the land of fruit and nut cases can come up with.
I still recall a guy from the UK standing at the highway bathroom/rest stop near the Chicago airport and was marveling at the structure which exceeds in size the largest castle of nobility in the UK. As it spanned 15 lanes of highway, many restaurants, spotless bathrooms all "free". Never saw 1 reststop on the M25 and sorry to say my wifes bladder was not happy.
Just having some fun....
Carl
hahaha, 1337 engadget towers. very funny. maybe you should've made it 1337 3n64d637 70w3r5, though.
Haha, no.
Its so sad to see the end of an era =(. Oh well all good things must come to an end and besides changes are good =)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
It looks like it is not working yet as I am getting the same ERROR as the first post mentioned..........
im good!! long live hd cable
Working for me have been signing up friends and family all day have sent out over 118 coupons to different addresses. My first reference number was 1805 at 612 am this morning. I guess it went live around at 12:01. I think this would be better if we could get $40 off any product that has a digital tuner in it.
"The page cannot be found" on every page I click on dtv2009.gov. lol.
so, the US.gov is using only top notch website designers from the looks of it . . . nonworkola
Seeing as a large number of people who need these coupons are most likely a little "behind" in their technology, isn't it safe to guess that they probably don't have the latest and greatest in computers, either? A simple website that takes very little computer power and is very easy to navigate and understand is definitely the best way to go for this.
but are stores even selling converter boxes yet?
hopefully they're not going to shove them in the back where no one can find them.
I have looked, but haven't found any that you can use the coupon for yet.
Best Buy is selling them and in plain sight too, the first time I saw them on the shelves though i had no idea what they were then i discovered that they were converters by seeing this post
This system is down at 1:20 pm est.
What does this mean for all the analog TiVO's and things out there?
Shame on you Engadget, and you too Mr. Salty, you greedy deadbeat. These are supposed to be used by people who can't afford to buy the boxes. Something tells me that anyone reading engadget is probably able to shell out the $40 for their own box.
Jason why should these people have to pay for something that is being forced on them by the government? The government is doing this to free up the spectrum because they know they can auction it off and making billions of dollars from the sales of these spectrums.
Something tells me that most people reading Engadget don't need the coupons because they don't need the converters themselves, due to owning a TV with a digital tuner, or having a cable/satellite subscription.
Despite how well-off any of us may be, we are paying taxes to subsidize this, so we may as well reap the benefits of the money we are paying to the government. The program is of arguable merit in the first place, considering the ability to watch TV is far from a necessity of survival.
Actually, every household should at least get one box for when the cable or satellite goes out, unless you live in those lucky places where it never happens. It is important to get one as a backup, and it is likely that the supply for cable/satellite households will expire by the end of February as public awareness increases.
Not true - there are no limitations or qualifications on who can use the coupons.
Why should we have to, though? I'm not paying $40 to watch free TV any more than I'm paying $500 or more for some ridiculous digital-ready TV. If the government wants to change things, they'd better make sure it doesn't cost me a dime.
I agree. This was intended for people who can't afford them and now everyone is going after them simply because they're a free gadget. The people who justify this by saying that it's their tax dollars paying for them are morons. The more people who do this, the more it costs, the more money it costs the government, and the more it costs you.
Hmm, just applied for two for my family because they don't know about it. We don't watch much TV anyway, mainly just my sister watching PBS and ABC and so we don't have cable, and don't need it really. I was originally planning on letting the thing expire so that they would have to get a new TV to replace the ancient ones we have but then I figured that would be cruel and useless since we don't use much TV anyway, and I'll be in college at the time of the switchover. Just wondering, if anyone can clear this up once the digital converters come in will we be able to use them with our analog TVs right away or only after the switchover date? I'm hoping this makes our TV clearer since the few times we watch TV it's horribly grainy since we live in a valley and almost everyone has cable anyway.
Now that I've signed up, I see that the coupons, once issued, expire after 90 days. This might limit one's ability to shop around for the best prices.
would someone please provide a direct link to the page with the coupon? I can't find the damn thing. Damn government!
Quote from https://www.dtv2009.com/FAQ.aspx
"Coupons expire 90 days after they are mailed. Each coupon has an expiration date printed on it."
So, now might not be the best time to get one, unless you plan on using it right now. I'm sure retailers will have a lot more choices and bigger selections 6 months from now when the public gets informed and races to the store to buy converters.
"IMPORTANT: TV converter boxes are not expected to be available in retail stores until late February or early March. You will receive your coupon(s) then. The Coupon will expire within 90 days from the date it is issued."
This comes up after requesting them online. Sounds to me like the coupons can be requested now, and will not actually be issued until supply of the boxes is ready - so you will still have roughly 90 days to use it. I had the same concern you did until the above message came up.
I have this little box that takes the Antenna signal and then it goes into my TV. The cable company forced everyone to switch to it. I do need to order 3 pairs of these things for my upstate home for the grandparents..
Has anyone noticed the incomprehensible words they make you type to get validated? What is the deal with that? I can't figure out any of them and the audio is even worse! Anyway, the system is down for me too.
You really don't know what captcha is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
I'm not going to tell my parents about this. Hopefully my father will be forced into replacing the 14-year old Sony set (that still works) that they still use right now.
I thought that Engadget was bursting with tree-hugging pinkos, but you proved me wrong.
Haha, I thought the same thing but then I figured I'll be in college anyway so I won't care what TV they have at home. Heck, if I can get a decent part time job in college I'll buy them a smallish HDTV.
"So, now might not be the best time to get one, unless you plan on using it right now. I'm sure retailers will have a lot more choices and bigger selections 6 months from now when the public gets informed and races to the store to buy converters."
That is why I only ordered 1 coupon now in case they run out of the 22.25 million coupons (It doesn't sound like a lot to me) and if anything 6 months from now I'll order the second coupon and get a nicer box if there are any. I'll probably end up using them both at some point anyway. Living in Florida every time theres a Hurricane I don't get cable for weeks even though the power comes back up. It would be hell having to spend it without TV.
To anyone who will apply to this coupon program, while not needing it. Don't do it: the boxes only have a composite output and an RF output.
Ms. Gadgie sounds hot! Is she on MySpace?
There is only so much money devoted to this. It's a shame that Engadget is promoting getting coupons for TV's gathering dust while people who actually need the box will be left having to pay full price when the goverment money runs out. A previous poster had a good point that people are getting rich off this but is that a valid reason to screw people who don't have money to buy an HDTV and probably don't even know what's going on? Don't be greedy.
People actually *need* tv?
Also this:
"Consumers who apply at the beginning of 2008 will receive their coupons when TV converter boxes are expected to be available in retail stores, probably in late February or early March."
So I guess it is okay to get them now.
PFFT!
I won't even bother signing up. I'll just wait like every other nerd out there when they break open the box and post what you need to build one on the Internet!!