Will My Current TV Still Work When DIGITAL and HDTV Take Over?

Many consumers are under the impression that when the transition to total DIGITAL-TV Broadcasting with High Definition TV resolution and wide-screen display capabilities finally occurs that all existing analog TV sets will be "obsolete". Although, many of the TVs in U.S. households may not be capable of displaying HDTV or DTV signals, external set-top boxes are already available (and are expected to decline in cost in the future) that will enable most older TV sets to continue to be used well into the future. Cable TV providers have already established a booming business in the leasing and sales of these set- top boxes.

The set-top box simply converts the incoming DTV/HDTV- DIGITAL signal into an ANALOG- TV signal that can be transmitted to any TV. The viewer won't get any of the benefits of increased resolution of DTV and HDTV and all WIDE-SCREEN programming will show up as letter-boxed on your ANALOG set. Converters however, do significantly extend the useful life of many older, but still perfectly usable TVs despite the lower quality of viewing that may be obtained.

The majority of set-top box designs that are currently in use as tuners for HDTV's can also convert HDTV signals for use with an ANALOG- TV. The advantage to this feature is that the same box you may need to use to convert HDTV signals for viewing on an ANALOG-TV, can also be used as your HDTV tuner, once you have decided to make the transition to HDTV and purchase a modern set.

Should you decide to immediately purchase a HDTV set, or several HDTV's, this new set or sets are quite capable of viewing standard TV programs, since all HDTV's (except for a few flat panel monitor designs) also have standard analog TV tuners built-in, whether or not they also include an HDTV tuner or require an external set-top box to receive HDTV programming.

Prices of digital TVs are plummeting dramatically to very affordable levels and so sales of Digital TVs continue to rise on an ever- increasing pace. It is expected that by the end of the decade, the vast majority of TVs in U.S. and Canadian households by the end of the decade will be digital, thus consumer preference and wider DIGITAL programming options will finally put the ANALOG-VS-DIGITAL debate and market struggle to rest.