Spring Break
Say goodbye to 'rabbit ears'
Analog shifts to digital in June
Katie Taylor
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Features
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Originally set for February, the deadline for the complete change to DTV has been pushed back to June 12. After the deadline, analog TV will no longer exist.
Senior journalism student Markeisha Boyd says her family in Charlotte, N.C. is frustrated by the conversion.
"My parents were upset that they had to buy the DTV boxes back in February," said Boyd. "They had to buy two of them [boxes] and now they're just sitting in their closet because the conversion deadline was pushed back to June."
Boyd shares the concern with other ECU students about whether their own televisions will be affected by the conversion; however, the majority of ECU students will not have to worry about the DTV conversion.
"All the student dorms and any student housing should be fine as long as they are hooked up to Suddenlink Cable. For Suddenlink customers the transition will be seamless," said Suddenlink Regional Vice President Phil Ahlschlager.
Currently, 39 percent of television stations in the United States have already been converted to DTV.
The conversion will produce better picture and sound on television screens. DTV will eliminate fuzzy pictures, also known as "snow." Analog broadcast waves are much less stable than DTV and use a lot more space.
The FCC Web site states that, "Converting to DTV also will free up parts of the scarce and valuable broadcast spectrum. Those portions of the spectrum can then be used for other important services, such as public and safety services (police and fire departments, emergency rescue), and advanced wireless services."
If television consumers own analog television sets using antennae ("rabbit ears") they will now have to purchase DTV set converter boxes in order to watch TV. The FCC Web site has downloadable and mail-in coupons that can be used to buy discounted converters from major retail stores. These coupons can be accessed online at dtv.gov.
This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.
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