News, from Toccoa Falls Radio

Welcome to Tech spot. There are two purposes for this column;one is to help clarify in layman's terms some of today's technological terms, such as Wi-Fi and Blogging. The other purpose is to give advice on what to look for when buying some of these new fangled gadgets.

Now let's get down to it.

In my last post we discussed, "What is Audio Streaming?" This time we tackle the issue of converting from analog to digital.

February 7, 2009 will be the day that Television changes as we know it.
Here is some background from the Benton Foundation, http://www.benton.org/:
The nations 1,600 television stations are converting from traditional analog technology to a digital television format. Digital television (DTV) is a new, more efficient technology for transmitting and receiving broadcast television signals. But DTV signals are not compatible with todays analog TV sets in most American homes.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the amount of spectrum given to television station owners was doubled. The policy rationale for this was to enable the stations to transition US consumers to digital TV without interruption of analog broadcasts. But after ten years of digital TV broadcasts, only a small number of US households have made the switch to DTV, delaying the return of valuable spectrum that could be used by emergency officials and auctioned to offset federal deficit spending.

So what does all this mean? Since the inception of Television, programs were
broadcast through signals over the air in analog form, much like a radio station. Since 1996, television stations have been changing the way they broadcast programs. Instead of using a signal, they now are changing it over to computer language, much like a music, or Computer software CD uses, and this is transmitted through the use of WI-FI technology.

What this means is, that when the change over- happens, TV's will no longer be able to pick up TV stations through an antenna. Does this mean your TV is useless? The answer is no for the following reasons:

1. There are converter boxes that can be
hooked up to existing Analog TV sets to be
able to access Digital TV broadcasts.

2. Analog TV's still can be used to watch DVD's and play video games.

So how do I get one of these converter boxes?

There is a coupon program in place to give the consumer a $40 discount when purchasing a converter.

Where do I buy a converter box?

Most major stores should have them in stock now. Converter boxes should be available now. As of last year, they were supposed to be ready
for purchase in early 2008, which is now.

If you need more information about the switchover, and the coupon program, click here.

For Tech Spot this is Kevin "Flash" Klump