Digital TV: It'll Cost You Ten Bucks

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&search_query=tv+converter+box&ic=24_0' target='_blank'>http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...ter+box&ic=24_0</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>&quot;One week before U.S. households receive the first of thousands of $40 digital converter box coupons, Wal-Mart is stocked and ready with these small converter box units designed to keep home analog TVs receiving a digital signal. Today 3,400 Wal- Mart stores carry a new Magnavox digital converter box, with a retail price of $49.87.&quot;</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1202879325.usr1.jpg" alt="" /></p><p>Next year analog TV goes bye-bye. So what to do with all those perfectly good analog TVs? Throw them out? Hardly! The US Government is giving out $40 coupons to help consumers with the cost of converting to digital over the air TV. Wal-Mart is pitching in by educating consumers about all of the digital TV options available to them, and making sure to have plenty of Digital TV Converter boxes on hand when the coupons start arriving at homes next week. So if you've got parents or grandparents who have an older TV and no cable service, be sure and point them in the direction of the nearest Wal-Mart. It's only gonna cost them ten bucks.</p>

[onlydarksets]

Just to clarify, next year analog broadcast TV goes away. Analog cable is here for the foreseeable future. You alluded to that, but I know some lesser-informed folks are probably freaking out a little bit over this.

[Jeremy Charette]

Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. To Wal-Mart's credit, they are not only stocking plenty of Digital TV Converter boxes nationwide, they are also educating consumers about the cable and satellite TV options available to them in their area, all of which will support some form of analog output for a few more years.

[Chris Gohlke]

Even though I have cable, I'll probably pick up one or two for a backup in the event of a disaster where you would have to rely on broadcast TV.

[Jeremy Charette]

Yeah, I'm going to pick up a couple for my parents upstate. They still have a house full of analog tube TVs that work just fine. Heck, my old flat-tube WEGA TV is up there. Best thing on the market until HDTV arrived.