WEBVTT - Do I Really Need a Digital Converter Box For My TV?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey there,

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. This is Jonathan Strickland, staff writer

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<v Speaker 1>with how stuff Works dot com and with me is

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<v Speaker 1>Chris Palette, editor extraordinaire. Hey there, we're coming to you digitally. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and the question for today is do I really need

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<v Speaker 1>a digital converter box for my TV? UM? And we'll

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<v Speaker 1>give you the short answer right up front. If you

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<v Speaker 1>have a plain old TV that was manufactured, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>in the last uh not in the last five years.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's say, and you are using a plain old antenna

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<v Speaker 1>one that you stick on your roof, when you stick

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<v Speaker 1>on top of your TV, probably you probably need a

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<v Speaker 1>digital converter box for your TV. UH. Now there's a

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<v Speaker 1>little bit more backstory to it. UM. Basically, the federal

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<v Speaker 1>government in the United States UH decided in to look

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<v Speaker 1>into the possibility that they needed more radio spectrum, more

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<v Speaker 1>broadcast spectrum for emergency communications, which is why you're probably

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<v Speaker 1>seeing ads on your TV that by February two thousand nine,

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<v Speaker 1>you are going to need a converter box if you're

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<v Speaker 1>going to continue watching your local stations. But that's confused

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people. And yes, it's it's pretty easy

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<v Speaker 1>to find out why people are being confused, because I'm

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<v Speaker 1>actually I've been reading up on this stuff and and

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<v Speaker 1>for a while I was confused too. I wasn't really

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<v Speaker 1>sure who had applied to And of course now that

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<v Speaker 1>I've read your article, uh, it's all become clear to me.

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<v Speaker 1>But to help you guys out there, like Chris said,

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking about the televisions that are going to be affected.

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<v Speaker 1>Are the TVs that are analog televisions. That means they

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<v Speaker 1>only accept analog signals, that use a regular old antenna

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<v Speaker 1>to get their television signals. So if your television can't

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<v Speaker 1>accept digital signals, that's and you're getting it over in antenna.

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<v Speaker 1>That's what when you need to look into a converter. Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>otherwise you might be okay. So first of all, if

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<v Speaker 1>you've got a television and you you notice that it

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<v Speaker 1>can accept digital signals, you're fine. You don't need to

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<v Speaker 1>worry about that converter at all, because the converter is

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<v Speaker 1>doing exactly what your television already does. Yeah, a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of people maybe thinking that they need to go out

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<v Speaker 1>and buy a flat panel TV. But most most regular TVs,

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<v Speaker 1>the tube TVs manufactured in the last few years, have

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<v Speaker 1>a digital tuner and it should be labeled that way.

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<v Speaker 1>So you should be able to figure out from looking

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<v Speaker 1>at your television whether or not it's got a digital

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<v Speaker 1>tuner in it. That's right, and uh so, if it

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<v Speaker 1>has the digital digital tuner, you're fine. Otherwise you may

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<v Speaker 1>need to get this converter box. And what that does

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<v Speaker 1>is it accepts the digital signal that's broadcast that you know,

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<v Speaker 1>he picks up from Narontanna, goes to the converter. The

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<v Speaker 1>converter then converts the digital to analog signal and pushes

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<v Speaker 1>that signal to your television, which means that your TV

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<v Speaker 1>then accepts the analog signal. You get to watch Wheel

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<v Speaker 1>of Fortune or whatever it is you want to see.

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<v Speaker 1>And uh I just say that because you know I'm

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<v Speaker 1>big on the Wheel. But that way your TV. From

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<v Speaker 1>your TV's perspective, nothing's changed. It's it's getting signals the

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<v Speaker 1>same way it always has. It's just there happens to

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<v Speaker 1>be a converter in between it and the antenna. But

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<v Speaker 1>that's not necessarily the case with cable cable conversion that

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<v Speaker 1>it might stay analog or it might go to digital.

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<v Speaker 1>Is that right? Well, yeah, and uh, you know, satellite,

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<v Speaker 1>both Direct TV and Dish Network use all digital, but

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<v Speaker 1>cable companies have been sort of some of them sort

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<v Speaker 1>of sit on the fence, if you will. UM, if

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<v Speaker 1>you have a box on top of your TV that's

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<v Speaker 1>getting in cable signal and it's going into your TV,

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<v Speaker 1>chances are that box is going to keep you from

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<v Speaker 1>having to get digital converter box, although you may still

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<v Speaker 1>be getting some analog channels through that. UM. If you

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<v Speaker 1>subscribe to digital cable, a lot of people will probably

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<v Speaker 1>be surprised to find out that not all of their

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<v Speaker 1>signals are digital. UM. But again it depends on the provider. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>if you're ugging the cable from your cable provider directly

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<v Speaker 1>into the back of your TV, UM, then you're probably

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<v Speaker 1>getting all analog cable and the While the cable providers

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<v Speaker 1>are not necessarily required to switch over, UM, they you know,

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<v Speaker 1>they might, they might. They might take this as an

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<v Speaker 1>opportunity to change all their operations over to digital. It's

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<v Speaker 1>simpler on their end, but it's not required by the government.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's because the the cable it doesn't factor into

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<v Speaker 1>this frequency range. That's what that's what the government's concerned with.

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<v Speaker 1>They want to free up this this broadcast frequency. They

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<v Speaker 1>don't really care so much about what's going over the cable,

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<v Speaker 1>but the cable companies might care. They may want to

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<v Speaker 1>switch make it easier make on their end and uh

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<v Speaker 1>and lowers costs on their end. But for the user

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<v Speaker 1>it might mean some changes. That's true. So again, if

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<v Speaker 1>you have a an analog tuner in your television set

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<v Speaker 1>and you are using a terrestrial antenna, you know one

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<v Speaker 1>that you stick on top of your TV or on

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<v Speaker 1>the outside of your house to get your television, you

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<v Speaker 1>should get a digital converter box. They run between forty

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<v Speaker 1>and I think eighty dollars at your local electronics store,

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<v Speaker 1>although at DTV two thousand nine dot com you can

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<v Speaker 1>apply for a coupon from the federal government to give

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<v Speaker 1>you a little discount on that. UM. If you have cable,

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<v Speaker 1>contact your cable provider to make sure and otherwise you're happy, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>happy watching UM. So for more information check out do

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<v Speaker 1>I really need a digital converter box my TV? Which

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<v Speaker 1>is online right now? At how stuff works dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>and we'll talk to you again later for more on

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<v Speaker 1>this and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff

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