Analog TV broadcasts are scheduled to stop by December 31, 2006, which is less than 2.5 years away. After that date if you do not have a digital TV or a digital TV converter box you will not be able to watch TV.

The only thing that can push back that date is if fewer than 85% of the homes in a given broadcast area have not upgraded to the new digital hardware.

The federal gubmint (FCC in particular) is very anxious to make this conversion happen because they already have a bunch of uses planned for the old analog frequencies. Right now broadcasters are simulcasting on both the analog and digital frequencies during this transition period. The FCC has even set up a web site to get people to convert to digital TVs and answer any questions. The site is www.dtv.gov.

The bottom line is if you are thinking about buying a new TV soon, do not buy an analog one. If you do you will have to buy a digital converter box in a couple of years, and the picture won't be as good as if you bought a digital set to begin with.

We have a 36" CRT that we bought three years ago that still has a lot of life left, so we will probably end up buying a digital converter in the next year or two. If we had to replace the set tomorrow I still don't know which technology I would go with. As I mentioned the other day the current options are:

Plasma
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
DLP (Digital Light Processing)
LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon)

You know I will be writing more about this in the future. If you have any questions please ax.