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Surprisingly, I’m a 26-year-old guy without cable or satellite television.
When I first moved to Temple, I spent about 3 months without any television channels, before I finally succumbed and bought my first pair of “bunny ear” antennas. From my location, I was unable to receive any TV stations without the help of an antenna. Antennas, by the way, are requirements for the digital converter box.
After hearing about the change in quality from analog television to digital television, I ordered two DTV coupons from www.dtv2009.gov. The process was easy enough. I entered my name, address, checked a box detailing whether I had cable service and another indicating the number of coupons I needed.
I ordered the coupons at the end of April and received them about a month later, which is the standard time according to the Web site.
DTV coupons look like a credit card and are only valid for 90 days, so I wasted little time in finding the digital converter box.
I bought a $60 digital converter box from a local retailer, and the register attendant had no problem scanning the coupon and taking away the $40. You can only use one coupon per digital converter box, so you will have to pay a little of your own money since the boxes cost between $40 and $70.
The package I purchased includes the converter box, remote control, one coaxial cable, one stereo audio cable and composite video cable (the red, yellow and white cable used on new televisions) and one AAA battery for the remote control. It also came with a quick-setup guide and a detailed manual that describes all the features of the box. Once hooked up, the box will ask if you want to search for available channels and then program them into the box’s memory.
You can also search for channels manually; instructions are provided in the manual.
Honestly, I expected a huge change in the picture quality on my TV and the number of channels I received, but that did not happen. Without the box I could pick up five TV stations (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS) and with the box, I only picked up three (ABC, NBC and PBS).
The quality of the picture was amazing, but the real problem began when the wind blew. The reception was impaired if the wind blew or it rained, the television picture became a blob with random sounds.
The one thing I did enjoy about the upgrade is that the channels I did receive had what I’ll call “sister channels.” Both ABC and NBC featured a weather channel with updated conditions for Central Texas 24 hours a day. PBS had the most sister channels with a “How-to” type channel, Spanish language channel and Pentagon channel.
Unfortunately, the way the box is hooked up does not allow you to switch from digital reception to analog reception without disconnecting the box from your antennas. It’s either hooked up or not.
And that is how I have it now - not hooked up. The total digital conversion is not until February. So until then, I’d rather stick with my five low-quality channels instead of getting three high-quality channels that only work on days without wind.
But don’t wait to get your coupons and buy your box because come next February I would hate to be staring at a blank screen.
--rrenfrow@temple-telegram.com