Torch

Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: TORCH GRAPHIC BY RINA KHADIVI

If your television signal transmitted through V-shaped "rabbit-ears" on top of your television set or through an antenna on your roof, you live in one of every five homes in the United States that will soon need to invest in a converter box or switch to a digital cable company so your television doesn't go dark in early 2009.
"I don't find that this is a very good idea, considering people will have to spend money on a converter just to see things such as news and their favorite programs," said Sean O'Toole, an education major at St. John's University. "It's unnecessary money just to make the picture of the TV better."

As set in by The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, all television stations will stop analog broadcasting, and turn to the modern digital transmission as of midnight of February 17, 2009. Digital Television will offer more local news, sports, public affairs, multilingual programming, weather religious programming and better public service announcement opportunities during times when they are needed, as well as a better picture.

The change was brought up in Congress and the ederal Communications Commission in the mid 1990s to better the quality of the picture and make it easier for stations to display programming in high definition.
Soon, to view your favorite television programs, you will have to purchase a converter box. The converter box is a small device, about the size of a normal cable box, which connects to an analog television so that it can receive digital programming signal. Some prototypes have been released by companies like RCA and LG Electronics.
"As far as progress and technology it's a large move forward, but it's an inconvenience. I don't think people should have to go through all of this stress just for television," said Kudakwashe Chipanda, a junior actuarial science major at St. John's University.

According to the Director of Operations at WNBC Channel 4 Kathy Mosolino, the change will occur for people who use "rabbit-ear" antennas for television signal, or people without some form of digital television or cable. WNBC has a television in the studio that is broadcasting digital signal, and Mo was very clear.

"People are going to watch television. The New York Area has a very small percentage of people who don't use a digital cable already," said Mosolino. "Most of them are cable or Direct TV users."

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