Have you picked up your Digital TV converter box yet?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 by Philly0381 | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

As you should know by now this coming Feb over the air broadcasts will switch from analog to digital.  There will still be some low powered stations that won't have to switch. 

Now for a household that has satellite with five receivers you wouldn't think we would need these.  Wrong.  There were two TVs that don't have a sat receiver.  It' was also hard not to use the $40 coupon for two converter boxes.  Yeah, I know it comes out of our tax dollars.

Even picked up a third one (without discount) to hook to one TV to use with the split screen/picture in picture function.  Sunday  watching two football cames at once, ah, life is good.

Since there are two outputs from the converter box and I have a TV card in the computer, well you can see what is going to happen here. 

It is interesting to see how many Digital/HD stations are available locally. All the major networks have switch, PBS has 3 channels and the religious and spanish networks all have multiple channels.  What is nice is that NBC put up a weather station.  Wonder why the others didn't?

What would really be nice is if the major networks had a seperate channel that they rebroadcast the previous nights prime time shows on.  It never fails that there are always two programs showing at the same time on different networks that I want to watch.  Yeah, like that is going to happen.

Okay, so how many of you have picked up your converter box?  Oh, I live just outside of Albuquerque NM and I get 20 digital channels, how many are you getting?

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CarGuy1
Reply #1 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:42 PM

Wow...7 TVs...you must be rich.  

Lantec
Reply #2 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:50 PM

I have 3 TVs and one is digital (42" Sony Widescreen). I'm planning to get just one converter for a 1997 or so Sony Trinitron I can't part with. Then I'll talk the wife into letting me get a new TV for my son for X-Mas.

 

Far as digital channels go.....I'm on CATV from Brighthouse with the HD pack so I get quite a few........When I first got the digital we got the card. That only lasted a couple months and we went to the DVR box to get beyond basic cable. I'm not sure what's available locally but from what I can tell it's similar to yours.

Philly0381
Reply #3 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:54 PM

Wow...7 TVs...you must be rich.

Not at all, just never give up the older ones when you buy a new one.

eieio
Reply #4 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 2:11 PM

I have satellite and cable here ... no need for a converter box.

 

I would be curious to know the percebtage of people that don't have either cable or satellite. I'm guessing it is pretty low.

Philly0381
Reply #5 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 2:38 PM

I would be curious to know the percebtage of people that don't have either cable or satellite. I'm guessing it is pretty low.

Even if they have cable or satellite there is a strong chance that there is another TV in the house that isn't connected to it that isn't digital or HD compatible that could use a converter box.

ZubaZ
Reply #6 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 2:55 PM

Believe it or not, we, in a family of 6 (now reduced by two as kids went off to uni) have had the same, single television for the past 11 years..

Crazy.

I almost wish I lived in New Orleans for this past huricaine so I could have looted something better. 

butch123
Reply #7 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:08 PM

I'm on Videotron cable.And my 3 tv are HD so no need for a converter

jpmurph1
Reply #8 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:21 PM

I have 2 sony 48" plasmas, and a sony Wega (tube) all are digital ready, only things is i have a portable tv that runs on batteries,that i take to New England Patriots games while we tailgate, so i am kinda sunk on that one

jpmurph1
Reply #9 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:30 PM

Oh i forgot, i have no idea how many channels we have, i just subscribe to every channel that Comcast offers, all pay HBO, SHO etc, in fact i switched my verizon land line to comcast, and saved 75 bucks a month, so that justifies having all the premium channels, (for what i paid for verizon)

BONEHEADdb
Reply #10 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:06 PM

I have 9 TVs counting the two in the Durango. We only get 1 1/2 stations on the air here so all my TVs are on cable. The two in the truck are digital, so no box for me. One of the TVs in the house is HD, a lot of good that does me seeing how US Cable in this crapy little town has no HD channels. I'm thinking of going to satellite, my friends say I'll be without TV some of the time due to weather. I tell them at least I'll have HD sometimes.

Jafo
Reply #11 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:46 PM

I would be curious to know the percebtage of people that don't have either cable or satellite. I'm guessing it is pretty low.

I have neither.

I have one 'decent' Teev ....a Loewe that's analog....so it'll eventually need a 'set-top box'...either that or a PVR replacement that's digital.  The new house addition will get a reasonable-sized digital LCD sometime....when the darn building work is finished....

Xiandi
Reply #12 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 8:10 PM

One TV. No cable, no satellite. We have the coupon for the converter box but have not used it yet. I spend most of my time on the computer anyway. I've done the cable thing, and the satellite thing. We had 100 channels and there was nothing good on any of them. If I want to see a movie, we rent it.

BONEHEADdb
Reply #13 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:05 PM

We had 100 channels and there was nothing good on any of them

Ain't that the truth!

If I want to see a movie, we rent it.

I don't rent anymore, I buy movies, by the time I pay the late charge on a movie I may as well have bought it!

storm347
Reply #14 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:13 PM

we have direct tv but we have to upgrade our daughters set for her

AnneMarie
Reply #15 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:23 PM

I have 2 tvs and bought 2 converter boxes.

 

I am seriously lookin into upgrading to a widescreen tv as soon as me and hubby can afford it though. I got the coupons and got 2 boxes to make use of them and if nothing else we will have them if we can't upgrade tvs by Feb ..

 

 

Anne

Iben
Reply #16 Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:26 PM

~

Yes, I found it in a folder called "LastGood"

~

Erk.
Reply #17 Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:06 AM

~

Yes, I found it in a folder called "LastGood"

~

</random>?

starkers
Reply #18 Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:14 AM

We have 1 HDTV digital set top box and 2 SD digital top boxes... these bring digital to our  78cm (tube) WS TV and 2 56cm (tube) TV's.  The DVD recorder also has a digital tuner, and on top of that we have 2 hybrid TV tuner cards for our PC's that deliver both analog and digital TV - FM and digital radio.

Yeah, I know.... why so many?  Well, as they say, variety is the spice of life, and the missus and I aren't always interested in watching the same 'spice' at the same time.  Besides, it's handy to have 3 TV's in different locations, like at meal times or when we sit outside in the garage, which has been set up as a second lounge room for summertime cos it's nice n' cool out there. Then there's those times when we want to be on our PC's while keeping an eye on something on TV that's showing on the 2nd monitor.

All up we currently receive 18 or 19 digital channels, but some of those will duplicate at times, until the networks reprogram their 2nd, 3rd and 4th channels, etc.

 

Come to think of it, I don't know why I bother... with the endless hours of excrement they serve up - not to mention dozens of repeats of crap I didn't wanna see first time around.  Reality/lifestyle shows are NOT entertainment to me, and we're saturated with the damned things every night of the week, so these days I can find only about 10 - 12 hours of TV per week that's worth viewing.

I don't rent anymore, I buy movies, by the time I pay the late charge on a movie I may as well have bought it!

Hehe, I get my DVD's delivered to my front door for 2 bucks a pop... great selection, latest releases and never ever get any late fees.

511b
Reply #19 Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:34 AM

I have just the one 20-incher that picks up both channels on a GIGANTIC set of bunny ears. I might just pitch the thing in Feb. I was trying to rationalize getting a bigger boob-tube but just couldn't do it when I watch maybe 4 movies a month on it. It's sad, but at the moment both of my monitors are bigger than the telly. It's a sign of the times, ie I spend more time in front of the computer than the tube and I'm not rich enought to afford both.

DAMN STUDENT LOANS!

 

Iben
Reply #20 Thursday, September 18, 2008 8:25 PM

~

Message to Bill Handel,

It only took me 5 seconds to find it.

 ~ 

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