Digital HD TV not ready in San Diego

As of February, over 11 million U.S. households were not equipped or ready to receive the HD digital broadcasts. An additional 6 million homeowners have more than one TV that will be affected.

With almost 8 percent of homes not prepared, San Diego is about in the middle of the national average. Many residents still have many questions on the digital converters.

The switch to the digital format was mandated by the US Congress for a number of reasons, including improved image quality and efficiency. TV broadcasters can send multiple high-definition channels in the same slice of TV spectrum that now carries one standard-definition analog channel.

Because the United States Federal Communications Commission has raised many billions of dollars auctioning off the soon-to-be-vacated TV frequencies, Congress was therefore able to set up a refund program to subsidize part of the cost of digital converter boxes and receivers.

Consumers can apply for a $40 coupon to be sued for a digital HD receiver at dtv2009.gov to defray much of the cost of a digital converter box.

Most consumers seem to be confused by the digital TV transition because it is happening at the same time that high-definition television is gaining in overall popularity.

Digital TV simply means that the TV signal is encoded as a stream of ones and zeroes. HDTV refers to a higher resolution picture, or number of pixels, in each and every frame of the TV image.

Subsidized digital converter boxes should help ease some but not all of the transition issues. Many consumers may hook up their digital HDTV receiver only to find that they get no or somewhat  limited reception.

Digital signals are not the same as analog TV signals. Homes that could receive analog TV signals with a rabbit-ear antenna now may need a antenna mounted on their rooftop.

Although analog signals can produce lower-quality images and sound, or degrade, digital signals either get through at the highest quality or not at all. Analog signals that bounce off nearby buildings and therefore arrive later than the main signal can produce a ghost image. However, a delayed, duplicate digital signal can provide interference that totally blocks reception.

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