So, by now those of you in the U.S. have probably been made painfully aware of the planned obsolsence of analog broadcast TV next year. This matters only to those non-DTV TV’s which aren’t hooked up to cable or satellite…but it does include the TV in my home office which is used primarily for morning news and weather.
In January, a federal government website went live to start processing application for coupons—2 to a household, $40 off per coupon—for DTV converter boxes. I put in our app on January 1, and the coupons arrived in the mail yesterday.
So, of course, I quickly popped over to Best Buy to grab the new toys. 
Considering that it’s a cheap, basic-level converter box, it’s a nifty little gadget. The benefits of digital broadcast immediately became apparent—I went from having one station with decent reception (WWLP, NBC22 Springfield) and three other snowy stations (WTIC, Fox 61, Hartford; WGGB, ABC40, Springfield; and WGBY, PBS57, Springfield) , to having a nearly full array of digital broadcast channels (picking up WFSB-DT, CBS 3/67 Hartford/Springfield; WVIT-DT, NBC30, Hartford; and WUVN-DT, UNI18, Hartford), plus the associated digital subchannels (including WFSB and WVIT’s weather subchannels, WUVN’s Telefutura subchannel, and the teaser for WGGB’s upcoming FOX subchannel)…all with crystal-clear pictures. The picture’s actually scary-good, without the digital artifacts I’ve become used to on the sattelite feed.
Perversely, the one analog station that came in clearly over the rabbit ears (WWLP) is the weakest digital station I was able to successfully receive. And, I’ll play with the rabbit ears to see if I can eke out another station or two.
(Yes, I know, an external antenna would work better, but it’d also be overkill for what’s really just an auxiliary TV.)
The Insignia converter I picked up at BestBuy also provides a primitive program guide, offers easier access to closed-captioning and SAP than the TV does, and it has an independent (albeit underpowered) volume control.
It doesn’t address my biggest gripe with television these days—that there’s nothing decent on—but the NBC WeatherPlus subchannel reminds me a little of what the Weather Channel used to be, back when they focused on weather forecasts.
I’m not sure that I would have paid the full $60 store price for the converter, but with $40 federal subsidy… at $20, it’s a pleasantly entertaining toy.