Sunday, February 22, 2009

Digital TV is coming

Digital TV is coming and is here now. There are 3 ways to cope with the change to digital TV.
1. Either have or purchase a digital TV.
2. Subscribe to a cable or satellite service.
3. 3. Hook up your old analog TV to a digital to analog converter box. They cost between $40 and $70 and there is a $40 government coupon available (2 per household) to help offset the cost.
An added benefit for those that have a digital TV or a TV with DTV converter is the multiple sub-channels being broadcasted. Digital TV is very efficient with spectrum bandwidth. This means that TV stations can transmit multiple programs at the same time. Channel 2, KTVU has 2. Channel 4, KRON has 3. But channel 5, KPIX has only one program. Channel 9, KQED has 3 and KTEH has 5 programs. KQED and KTEH are sister stations and so the 9-2 program is the same 54-1 and 54-2 is same as 9-1. Cable companies only pick up the main TV program of each TV station, so those customers loose out.