222 Days To Go
If you’re one of the many Haysville citizens who subscribes to cable or satellite television or who has invested in one of the new digital television sets, you may be utterly uninterested in the upcoming changeover to universal digital broadcasting on February 17, 2009. On the other hand, if you aren’t yet ready to spend a tidy sum on a new TV, or if your current analog television set has years of service left and you don’t want or need cable or satellite service, the federal government has a program to make your transition a good deal less painful than it might otherwise be.
At the official TV Converter Box Coupon Program you can apply online for two $40 coupons good for 90 days toward the purchase of any eligible digital converter box. The converter box will take the digital signals that will be the only ones broadcast, and convert them to the analog format that your TV set can use. The coupons are free, and should cover about 80 percent of the cost of a converter, more or less.
For a more complete explanation of the program see the website above, or consult the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer alert Television is Going Digital: Get the Picture.
More information about this program, and much other useful consumer information is available in the Consumer Affairs section of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Web on the library’s home page.
