What do I need to do about Digital TV?

What does the digital transition mean for me?

Analog TV sets with rabbit ears or rooftop antennae without a digital converter box are not able to receive over-the-air programming after midnight on June 12, 2009, when the nation completed its conversion to 100% digital broadcasting. The switch enabled television stations to offer clearer pictures, better sound quality and more programming choices and is a result of legislation passed by Congress the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005.

What do I need to do?

You have three options:

• Purchase a DTV converter box for each analog television used to watch over-the-air broadcasts (don't forget RVs, vacation homes, deer camp, etc.)
• Purchase a new digital television set with a built-in digital tuner
• Subscribe to a cable, satellite or other provider that carries the channels you want to watch, including AETN.

What is a DTV converter box?

A DTV converter box is an easy-to-install electronic set top device that plugs into your analog TV and over-the-air antenna or rabbit ears and converts the DTV signal into analog. It enables you to continue watching free television on analog sets.

Do I need a DTV converter?

Yes, unless:

• You subscribe to a cable or satellite service and don't want to watch television over the air.
• You recently bought a TV that has a built-in digital tuner.

Is there any kind of discount for DTV converters?

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued up to two (2) free coupons per household, each worth $40, to reduce the cost of a DTV converter through July 31, 2009. Those coupons are no longer available now that the July 2009 date has been passed.

What is a “digital-ready” television set?

Some televisions on the market are called Digital Ready, especially those sold a few years ago. These are sets that do not have a built-in digital tuner and will require a digital tuner box to receive and view any digital television programming.

What if I use a satellite dish with a digital, digital-ready or analog television?

No action is required providing you don't want to watch television over the air using an outside antenna or inside rabbit-ears. You should receive digital television signals on your analog TV just as you were prior to the end of analog broadcast, and you will receive AETN's primary program service and other over-the-air broadcasts in your local-into-local program package where available. You will not need to purchase additional equipment because you already have a special receiver to view programming from a satellite provider. Just to be sure, check with your satellite provider.

What if I use cable with a digital, digital-ready or analog television?

No action should be required provided you don't want to watch television over the air outside of your provider's offerings.

For three years starting on June 12, 2009, all cable providers are required to provide a converted digital-to-analog version of all over-the-air broadcasters that the cable company can receive. There is no provision in this requirement for anything other than over-the-air broadcasters and their primary program service. If you are satisfied with those services, then nothing more is required for those three years.

You should not need to purchase any additional equipment, but check with your cable provider to be sure you know how digital will affect your viewing. You will need to subscribe to the cable provider's HD package if you wish to see any HD programming in HD on your HD television set.

What if I use an outside antenna or rabbit ears with a digital, digital-ready or analog television?

If the TV has a built-in digital tuner, no action is needed. Televisions purchased after May 2007 most likely have a built-in digital ATSC tuner even if they are Standard Definition (SD) digital television sets. If you have one of these digital SD televisions, you should not need to take any action and can use a VHF/UHF antenna to receive digital signals over the air.

With a digital-ready or analog TV set, action is required! Since your analog television does not have a digital tuner, you have three options:

• Purchase a DTV converter for each analog television used to watch over-the-air broadcasts (don’t forget RVs, vacation homes, deer camp, etc.)
• Purchase a new digital television set with a built-in digital tuner
• Subscribe to a cable, satellite or other provider that carries the channels you want to watch, including AETN.

Will I need a special antenna to receive DTV over-the-air?

In general, dependable reception of DTV will require the same type of signal reception equipment that you used to receive analog TV. If you needed a roof-top antenna to receive television in the past, the same antenna typically will be needed to receive DTV.

There is no such thing as a "digital" television antenna. A good, VHF/UHF outdoor antenna will maximize your DTV reception.  Just be sure that it is designed for both VHF and UHF.

Generally speaking, you should not expect to receive a reliable digital signal with rabbit ears if you are more than 10-12 miles from the broadcaster’s transmitter. An outside antenna will likely be needed for anything beyond that short distance.

What are some reasons that I may have trouble receiving AETN’s digital signal via my antenna?

Unlike the old analog signal where you could receive a snowy picture or a fading picture on the fringe of the broadcast area, digital transmission will provide you with either a clear picture and sound or nothing at all.

Tall buildings, large hills or mountains, dense tree foliage, electric lines and even interior venetian blinds can also affect the ability to receive a digital signal. It is possible that where you previously received a marginal analog picture, you will get no digital signal. You may find that a TV set in one room using rabbit ears receives a signal and another TV set in a different room does not.

What things do I need to know when considering what kind of digital TV to buy?

First, consider your options for different types of digital TVs

• LCD
• Plasma
• DLP
• Stand alone sets
• Sets only a few inches thick that can hang on the wall
• Sets with up to 60-diagonal inch screens
• Flat Panel sets
• Sets with Picture tubes
• Rear projection
• Front projectors

Next comes quality. Digital television signals can be broadcast in many different formats. All television pictures are comprised of a series of horizontal lines scanned across the picture. SDTV sets will have about the same number of lines of resolution as analog sets around 480 lines. HDTV pictures are broadcast in 720p, 1080i and 1080p. This means that there are either 720 lines or 1,080 lines comprising the picture. The “P” and “I” stand for how the picture is refreshed per second. The “P” stands for Progressive, which means that all lines are refreshed sequentially. The “I” stands for Interlaced, which means that the odd and even groups of lines are interleaved together to form the picture. All of this helps determine the ultimate quality of the picture you see and the cost of the set.

Finally, take into account such things as:

• The size of your room
• How far you are away from the TV set
• How bright or dark the room is
• If you watch mostly directly in front of the set or also from an angle
• The size of the screen you want
• How much you are willing to spend

All of these factors will help you decide which type of TV is best.

Why do I see the picture freeze into tiny little boxes?

This freezing is called pixilating or "tiling". It occurs when the digital data stream is interrupted. The television set cannot continue to receive the required information needed to recreate the pictures being broadcast. When this loss of information occurs, the digital equipment may freeze until more information is received to continue. This pixilating may last for a second or two or indefinitely. Occasionally when the program stream is interrupted you may see a blue screen on your TV set with a message indicating that there is no signal.

Why do I see the picture squeezed or have black bars around it?

The picture looking squeezed is generally only seen when an HD widescreen (rectangle) picture is down-converted to a standard digital or analog (square-looking) picture.  This is an option that broadcasters and cable companies have to allow you to see the entire picture.  AETN strives to not squeeze a picture before it is broadcast.  Another viable option to make this conversion from  widescreen (16x9 format) to the more square (4x3 format) picture is to do what is called "letterbox". This is where the entire widescreen picture is maintained, but the addition of black bars above and below the wider picture is required to fill out the traditional square frame of the TV set.  This is AETN's desired option for cable companies to use when downcoverting the 16x9 HD picture into a standard 4x3 picture.  A final viable option is to "center-cut" (or pillar-box").  This means that the outside left and right quarter portions of the widescreen picture are eliminated leaving only the center half visible.  This is the alternate option preferred by AETN for cable companies to use if they have the equipment to do so.  A final option for this conversion is to "postage-stamp" the picture with black bars all around the picture.  Only occasionally will this happen and only because this is the way the picture is received from an outside source.  In these cases, AETN will attempt to resize the picture just enough to eliminate as much of the black bars as possible without distorting the picture.