It’s all about Digital Television (DTV) beginning Feb. 17, 2009.  DTV is a broadcasting technology that will give viewers crystal-clear pictures and sound and more programming choices than ever before.

So how does one get ready?  Chip Johnson, the General Manager for Vision at Garner TV explains.

“They'll have basically one of three choices,” said Johnson.  “They'll get a converter box to receive the digital signal, they'll get a digital TV with a digital tuner built in which was mandated starting about two years ago or they can subscribe to one of the services cable or satellite service which is a digital service so they'll be able to use they're existing television.”

If a viewer watches now without cable or satellite, they more than likely have a pretty good antenna.  It should work just as well with a digital converter.  If a viewer has rabbit ears on their TV, they may have to experiment with something stronger.

According to NBC17 Chief Engineer Russell Mizell, the Phillips Silver Sensor is a great UHF Antenna and it also has VHS rabbit ears so that it can pick up everything for the feature.  It all depends on location and terrain.  What works at one house may not work at another.

“You’re going to have to experiment a little bit,” said Mizell.

Anyone with an analog TV and who needs a digital conversion box or two can get help from the government; in fact they will even help you pay for one.  Every household can get up to two $40 cards.  It's just like a debit card, but there's one important thing, consumers have to pay attention to the cards expiration date.

 “Something people need to know is those government coupons expire in 90 days. So you can’t get one today and plan to use it in February,” said Johnson.  “You need to go ahead and use the coupons that help you defray those costs.”

Consumers can only use one coupon per box, meaning buyers will have to spend $10 to $20 out of pocket for a converter box.  The amount of money a consumer spends also depend on what kind of digital convert box they need.

 “There are various ones...some that are just simple enough to take the antenna and display the picture on the TV, certain more expensive ones will allow you to connect a VCR or other video sources through that single connection to the TV…ranging in price from $40 to $100,” said Johnson

It is important for consumers to know that all converter boxes do the same job, providing a digital picture on an analog TV.