 |
 | ||
| A Quarterly Publication of the Raleigh Regional Association of REALTORS® |
January 2009 Issue
| ||
|
|
About Us March Dates to Remember
|
Going digital: Making the transition
If your televisions are already connected to cable, you’ll continue to receive a signal. The change to all-digital impacts viewers who currently use analog televisions with an antenna – as in rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna – to access local broadcast stations. If your television uses an analog broadcast signal, you have a few options:
The converter boxes cost between $40 and $70 and are available for purchase at a number of retail locations including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Target, Sears, Kmart and RadioShack. To offset the cost of the converter boxes, all households are eligible to request up to two coupons worth $40 each to be used to purchase converter boxes. To apply for the converter box coupons, visit www.dtv2009.gov and complete the coupon application. The coupons, available on a first-come, first-serve basis, will be mailed to eligible households and will expire after 90 days. Consumers may call (888) 388-2009 for updates in English and Spanish. If your television was purchased before 1998, it probably doesn’t have a digital tuner. If you bought the set after 2004, there’s a good chance it has a built-in digital tuner, but it may not. Televisions purchased after March 1, 2007, and those sold in recent years that are 25 inches or larger, already have digital tuners. If you are unsure about your current television, check your owner’s manual. If you subscribe to services such as DIRECTV or DISH Network, any televisions you have connected to your satellite service will continue to receive programming after the digital transition. But if you don’t receive local channels through your satellite system, you’ll need to either upgrade your service package to include local channels or purchase equipment that will allow you to receive the channels. This may be a converter box or an over-the-air tuner. For more information about the transition to digital, visit www.dtvtransition.org. |
By
Feb. 17, 2009, television broadcast stations in the
United States
must complete the transition from analog to exclusively all-digital broadcasting. 