Buy a Digital TV Converter Before February

Only about 1 million customers have purchased purchased a digital TV receiver or converter box. LG and other manufacturers that make these converter boxes are urging consumers to buy their converters now, before the night of Feb. 17. What will happen at the stroke of midnight on that day, all TV stations will cease to broadcast over-the-air digital signals and they will go all-digital. While there is not likely to be mass chaos, but there will probably be bumps in the road and hiccups if everyone who needs a digital converter box waits until the last minute.

While LG doesn’t anticipate any catastrophic results, they do predict challenges facing the conversion.

One possible scenario that may develop is a temporary shortage and run on the digital HDTV receivers. Manufacturers typically don't make these devices until they receive hard, solid orders from retailers, and both the retailers and manufacturers are wary of stocking too many of these devices and being left with unused inventory. So they may very well end up being overly conservative and not making enough units.

The consumer electronics industry currently estimates that American consumers will need between 25 million and 29 million digital converters for their TV sets that rely on antennas and are currently capable of receiving only traditional, analog broadcast signals. A challenge is that because there are dozens of competing manufacturers, each company has to guess what its sales are likely to be.

Bottom line...both retailers and manufacturers are urging consumers to act now to avoid the rush and confusion

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