Buying a TV - changes to come?

[horseshowmom]

For those of you who keep up with these things, I have a question.

I know that there are "changes" coming with televisions and that the old TV's won't work after a certain date without some sort of adapter box. (As you can see, my knowledge of this subject is pretty vague.)

Our 22 year old Quasar TV (yes, 22) has started having some major problems. Television really isn't that big of a deal in our house, and I really don't want to go out right now and spend $2000 on a TV.

I can buy one of the "old" types of televisions pretty cheaply (because of the upcoming changes, I'm sure), and that price range would suit me much better.

Does anybody know when the old ones aren't supposed to work anymore or maybe give me some more information, so I'm not totally illiterate on this subject?

Thanks!

 

[jbdreamer]

They are planing on changing the "TV waves" or whatever so you can't really get them threw an antena - or analog tv - your TV will need the adapter. That's only if you use an antena to get a signal. You will never need the adapter if you have ANY form of cable television.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

I would like to know about this too. I don't really "get" how they can just "change" the tv signals and older tvs won't work after that.

Does cable tv include satalite?

 

[horseshowmom]

We have satellite, so does that mean we won't have to worry about an adapter?

If it does, I'm headed out to buy a 35" TV. The flat screens are nice, but I just don't want to pay that much.

 

[Ragnrok23]

The difficulty, of course, is that the analog broadcast system will then be shut down -- which will leave most of today's TV sets unable to receive a signal over the air.

Roughly 20 million of those soon-to-be-obsolete sets are in homes where people don't subscribe to cable or satellite. The other 50 million or so are in pay TV homes, and used as second, third or fourth sets. Sets hooked up to cable or satellite services should work fine no matter what.


I got this from CNN.com- It sounds like it will only effect people who use anntennas

 

[WDWAurora]

DH gave me this link, may be what Ragnrok23 is referring to.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/technology/pluggedin_digitaltv/

 

[Charade]

Personally, I would recommend a flat screen HDTV model (either old fashioned TUBE or true flat panel technology). The reason is glare. Older curved tube TVs are like a wide angle lens and you'll see reflections from all over the room. Flat screens don't do that and some flat screens (mostly flat panel)have anti-glare to reduce it even further.


I've had a 36 inch Sony HDTV model for about 2 years and watch mostly satellite or DVDs. The picture quality is better than standard TVs. It'll still be a few years before older TV's will be obsolete because cable and satellite providers will still support them. It's the over the air (via antenna) that is what's mandated to be changed. So if you rely on an antenna, you'll need an adapter box to receive over-the-air broadcasts at some point in the next few years. Since you managed to get 22 years (that's alot!) of service from your old TV, a new one should be good for a number of years (maybe not 22, they just don't build them like they used to).

Even if you're not a heavy TV watcher, once you see a DVD or HDTV show on an HDTV TV set, you'll probably never want to watch anything else. And once you see a BIG screen TV, well...

But you must consider your budget, viewing habits and location to determine the size and type (technology) you choose.

Even if you choose an older style TV, check out the flat screen models (not the thin flat panel type like plasma but a traditional picture tube like what's in your TV now).

 

[mrsv98]

Television will change the way it broadcasts from analog to digital tv in the next few years. It was supposed to be in 2007 but the gov pushed it back by a couple of years. We recently bought an "HD-Ready" tv, meaning it needs a converter, ie cable box, to receive HD. That is fine with us as we have digital cable and it was very simple to have a new box. In fact, our cable compnay was running a special and gave us $100 in checks to pay our bill when we bought the tv.

There are also "HD-Tuner" tvs. These do not need to have a converter box and can receive digital signals directly.

What I have said above doesn't address the Plasma-LP-tube debate. Personally, we bought a CRT tv, they are bigger and heavier than the others, but they also last a lot linger. We bought a 30" widescreen Panasonic and absolutely love it. There is nothing to compare with watching sports on HD.

 

[horseshowmom]

Thanks to everybody for the information. I'm understanding a lot more about it than I did, for sure!