HDTV FAQs: WILL My Current Analog TV Still Work After The DTV Transition Date?
Feb 1 2009 After several years of confusion, the DTV Transition is now firmly set to occur at 11:59PM on February 17, 2009. After this date, all full power televisions are required to shut down their analog transmitters and only transmit a digital television signal, which includes HDTV broadcasts. Many consumers are under the impression that when the turnover to total Digital TV Broadcasting occurs that all current TVs will be “obsolete”. Although, many of the TVs in U.S. households may not be able to display HDTV or DTV signals, external DTV converter boxes are available now that enable older TVs to still be used. The DTV converter box simply converts in incoming DTV/HDTV signal to an Analog TV signal that can be hooked up to any TV. Of course, you won’t get any of the increased resolution of DTV or HDTV and all widescreen programming will show up as letterboxed on your analog set. However, the DTV converter box does extend the usefulness of an older, but still perfectly functioning T
