Exactly 1 year from today everyone will be viewing television over a digital signal. As you probably already know, on February 17, 2009 analog television signals will be history. The problem with this transition from analog to digital is that so many people don’t understand what it means.

To put it in simple terms, as it stands, people will have two options 1 year from today.

1. Purchase a converter box, which will do as its name suggests, convert a digital signal to analog so that older televisions can use it. These converter boxes cost around $40. The good news, is that the government is offering to send coupons for converter boxes which make them literally free, however, coupon supply is limited so your advised to visit https://www.dtv2009.gov/ and apply for a coupon ASAP, or call 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).
2. Your other option is to purchase a new digital television set (after March 1st all new televisions will have digital tuners).

How do you know if your television is going to be affected? The best way to tell is usually by checking the manual that came with the television and most of the time somewhere on the television (usually on the front) it will be labeled as “Integrated Digital Tuner,” “Digital Tuner Built-In,” “Digital Receiver,” or “Digital Tuner,” “DTV,” “ATSC,” or “HDTV” (High Definition television).

According to an article on wired there are approximately 13 Million households that will need to transition to digital TV, an estimated 1.4 million households will likely switch to pay TV service, that’s a lot of new customers for the cable companies.

The switch is inevitable, so take the time to understand your options if you have an Analog TV (also known as NTSC standard)