Wassup! Today – I am still struggling with this analog to digital conversion of TV channels. I understand that all TV broadcasters must discontinue the analog broadcast and provide digital broadcast only by February 17, 2009 in the states. If you currently watch TV using a simple indoor or outdoor antenna, the selection of available channels will drastically decrease after this date. To avoid this issue, you must get a digital antenna and a digital TV or at least a digital antenna plus a digital to analog converter to be used on your existing analog TV.

Most of us though do not pick up TV using the old fashioned TV antenna but subscribe to what’s called cable TV. Does this mean that we need to rent a digital to analog converter box from the cable company or can we just buy one anywhere?

Once the cable signal becomes all digital, this means the physical wiring used by the cable companies will be able to carry a larger number of channels due to the increased amount of bandwidth available. This, over time should reduce the operating costs of providing basic cable service. Will the savings be passed along to the consumer or will the cable companies provide added benefits at no additional cost? Most likely neither will happen and the cable companies may even charge extra because they can to unsuspecting consumers.