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DTV Coupon Program Out of Money

Posted by timothy on from the time-to-nelson-laugh-at-the-government dept.

Thelasko writes "It appears that the US Government's digital converter box program is running out of money. If you sign up after the program runs out of money, you will receive your voucher if the program receives more funding. Older analog televisions will no longer work without a converter box after February 17."

5 of 591 comments (clear)

  1. Remember.... by acrobg · · Score: 3, Informative

    You only need a converter box if you get your television via over-the-air broadcast and don't have a digital tuner built in. If you get your television via cable (with a cable box or no), satellite, FiOS, U-Verse, etc., you don't need a dtv converter box. On Feb. 17, nothing will change for you. If you get OTA broadcasts, and you're unsure if your television needs a box, if you have the ability to type in a hyphen or decimal point in the channel number on your TV, you hava digital tuner. Fo example, in the Los Angeles area market, if you can type in 11.1 (11-1), you will get Fox in both digital and HD via OTA broadcast. Your best bet if your'e unsure, however, is to look up if your TV has a digital tuner online on the equipment manufacturer's website.

  2. Maybe not expensive to you by cromar · · Score: 4, Informative

    New TVs are not that expensive.

    New TVs are expensive. If you're living on less than $800 a month, that $100+ is going to be felt. Trust me. This is obvious to anyone who hasn't had money supplied to them by their parents for their entire lives...

  3. 20 billion auctioned off, 1.3 billion in coupons? by Vellmont · · Score: 3, Informative

    So the FCC made around 20 billion dollars auctioning off the spectrum, but only allocated 1.3 billion for the coupon program? At $40 /coupon, that's around 32 million coupons. I'm guessing there's more non-cable televisions than that. Something seems quite a bit wrong with the amount allocated.

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  4. Re:Hidden Cost & Annoyances by snowraver1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sounds like they put macrovision on it. You can buy devices that remove the macrovision, they are pretty cheap, here is an example of such a product. They are called video stabilizers, you might be able to find one at you local electronics store, usually with the camcorders.

    http://www.converters.tv/products/colour_correction_225.html

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  5. Re:Why is the government even subsidizing this? by garcia · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is where you're confused. The citizens of this country shouldn't have had to pay *ANYTHING* to buy a converter. The spectrum was sold for BILLIONS of DOLLARS to third parties and being that the citizens OWN the spectrum and the government does not, the money gained by this sale should have gone directly to us. I promise you that the $80 in coupons (which I didn't even get and they won't replace even though they didn't send it in any trackable manner) won't cover what we should have been given.

    It's sad that people don't understand the simple fact that we got fucked on this deal all around.