June 12, '09 Was the Day!!

Ok guys, how many of you have one or more digital converter boxes for your analog TV's that are not hooked up to cable or satelite service?

Last night at 12 midnight was the deadline.

If you didn't get one, and you have an analog TV that isn't hooked up to cable or satelite service, then you are left out in the cold.

The gov't issued billions of coupons for the converter boxes since last year. I bought two and gave one to a friend, since one of my TV's is an HD flat screen. I kept the other one in case I no longer want cable in the beroom, or want to hook up a small TV for the kitchen to it. Also, I bought an antenna as well.

So the burning question would be; who's on board and who isn't?

All three of mine are covered cause I have cable.

Both of mine are as well.

High Def TV's don't need the digital converter box because their digital tuners were already put in when they were being made. They just need the antenna.

we (cbs-ny, and wpix) shut down our broadcast from the empire state building over a period of a few hours yesterday. i think it was finalized around 4:30pm.

yay!!! no more analogue.

There are still some analog TV's in use in millions of homes, I'm sure. I still have one in the bedroom. They are just no longer in production.

I have a bunch of analog TVs (and 3 HDTVs), but it's all OK since I have cable. I don't know what I'm going to do with all the analog ones though. Goodwill doesn't take them anymore. I'm thinking about offering some of them on Freecycle. Even without cable, you can still use them to watch DVDs.

I only have one Analog TV left, and it is DW’s “Night Time” TV. It has cable hooked to it, but she uses it mostly for old B/W DVDs (Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, etc) to go to sleep to.

I’m actually watching an over-the-air channel now. It’s APT (Alabama Public Tv), and it’s called Create TV. They’ve been playing cooking shows all morning. It’s awesome. Picked up some great recipes. Even got to see Ming who I haven’t seen in forever. Right now, a show is on showcasing Scandinavian coking. How cool.

I can’t find a Public TV channel on my cable box, so I’m digging the over-the-air channels. Bought a cheap set of rabbit ears (10 bucks) at the Dollar store, and the picture quality is amazing.

Do NOT be hyped by these new “HD” Antennas they are selling! It’s crap. Any old set of rabbit ears will work fine. In fact, that’s all the HD antennas are anyway. Nothing special, just a new name for an old product to justify a price hike.

I didn't know that about the rabbit ears, Keltin. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm really surprised at the quality of the over-the-air stations. Excellent!

I have digital cable on all my TV's. And if the day ever comes that I have to give it up, then obviously I'll have bigger problems than whats on!

Fisher's Mom said:

I didn't know that about the rabbit ears, Keltin. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm really surprised at the quality of the over-the-air stations. Excellent!

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It’s awesome isn’t it! I was watching one show, Gourmet Foodies, and these guys made Smoked Ice Cream over thinly sliced Mushrooms in a Brandy sauce. They made a sugar concoction (I missed how they did that part) that came out like a little wad of chewed bubble gum. Then they attached that wad of sugar to a pipe and blew it into a 3” bubble and then heated it with a blow torch.

It made a 3”, crystallized bubble. Brittle and fragile. It had a hole in the bottom from the blow pipe. They then used one of those hookah pipes (like High Cheese posted the other day) and filled the bubble with smoke. On the plate, they put down the mushrooms and sauce, a dollop of ice cream, and the smoke bubble on top of the ice cream with the hole facing down and going into the ice cream.

When they serve it, you crack the bubble to release the smoke, then crunch up the sugar bubble and eat it along with the ice cream and mushrooms.

It was really cool!

It's been nothing but a nightmare for me switching from Dish Netork to Direct TV.
The sales person over the phone lied to me and my area is NOT getting local channels in June sometime, so that means I am in the dark right now as far as locals are concerned. I do have an antennae still, but for some reason it is only pulling in one channel to my HDTV. I was told I need to buy a "digital" antennae.... And my upstairs TV is analog, so nothing works for it getting the locals. And living in the eastern timezone I have been wanting to finish watcing the playoffs (NBA) in bed, but can't. Last night was weird though..... I DID get the hockey game on an NBC channel that I am not supposed to receive... so maybe Direct TV is allowing the signal to get through in some cases? The signal went off right after the game last night. I'm interested if they also do that for ABC and the basketball playoffs.
So that's where I'm at.

And hi, BT.

chowhound said:

It's been nothing but a nightmare for me switching from Dish Netork to Direct TV.
The sales person over the phone lied to me and my area is NOT getting local channels in June sometime, so that means I am in the dark right now as far as locals are concerned. I do have an antennae still, but for some reason it is only pulling in one channel to my HDTV. I was told I need to buy a "digital" antennae.... And my upstairs TV is analog, so nothing works for it getting the locals. And living in the eastern timezone I have been wanting to finish watcing the playoffs (NBA) in bed, but can't. Last night was weird though..... I DID get the hockey game on an NBC channel that I am not supposed to receive... so maybe Direct TV is allowing the signal to get through in some cases? The signal went off right after the game last night. I'm interested if they also do that for ABC and the basketball playoffs.
So that's where I'm at.

And hi, BT.

Click to expand...

Ya know, Chow, I think you're on some kinda black list some where. Maybe it's the Feds?

i told you we can see you through the tv.

btw, chow, your showlace is untied...

and terry,

buckytom said:

i told you we can see you through the tv.

btw, chow, your showlace is untied...

and terry,

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My "showlace"?????
I'm hoping your spelling was as bad as mine in my post, otherwise I'm not sure I'm comfortable about you thinking of me in lace


And I just know it's the feds, Terry. Between my refrigerator, Verizon and now TV.... I just knew I shouldn't have torn that tag off my new pillows...

lol, oops. i meant shoelace.

but your leopard thong is nice...

i remember an print ad a number of years ago for a set-top antannae that was a pair of rabbit ears with a tiny dish in between. it claimed to get better reception because of the dish, but was was a total rip off. it even said that it works "just like a set of rabbit ears".

umm, that's because it was. nothing more. the dish was plastic.

Rabbit ears used to come with analog TV's years ago.

Before they went out of production, antenna for them had to be bought separately.