Two years till the analog shutoff, hopefully
It's February 17th and you know what that means -- well you should if you are a big HDTV fan. Today starts the two year countdown till the analog shutoff unless the group Public Citizen has its way. While some will have to buy a STB to continue to enjoy their free OTA TV, they will be able to reap the benefits of the digital revolution for a small fee. With any luck people will be ready and might only need to reconfigure their TV, that is of course if they already bought a TV with a digital tuner, while it still seems hard to believe anyone would buy a TV without a digital tuner. Starting March 1st they might not have any choice in the matter, since that is the date that all devices with NTSC tuners must also include ATSC tuners, yes you read that right all; portable TVs, VCRs all of them. This means no portable TVs, since ATSC is almost useless for portable TVs, until A-VSB becomes a reality. The good news for HDTV fans is that without NTSC more people will enjoy DTV and thus HDTV and with any luck no NTSC means more HDTV for all of us.
