Whether it’s HDTV or not, I keep hearing someday we’ll all need “digital TVs” just to get regular television. Is that true?
Not if you’re a cable customer. Here’s the story. The U.S. government has mandated that the entire TV broadcasting system be transitioned to a digital environment by February, 2009. By then, you will need a way to receive digital signals and display them on your TV sets. You can certainly go out and buy a special converter device or a new set of digital-ready TVs for your home, if you want. But if you’re a cable customer, you won’t have to. With cable, even your “old” TV sets will continue to work as long as you have them connected to your cable service. That’s because your cable company does all the work required to convert the new digital signals for you.
