I think it is cut and dried. People and industry are expecting it and gearing up for it.

The Government (in the USA anyways), wants to take some TV channels for two way communications (they will auction the spectrum off, hence it is their financial interest).

Existing perfectly operable analog TVs won't become useless, that is what the convertors are for. The voucher program was devised to make it easier for the
economically disadvantaged to get a convertor to keep the free OTA TV they receive.

US OTA won't be as good as Freeview in the UK, at least to begin with.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Anyway, do what I'm doing. The government is sending out coupons ($40) for the converter receivers ($60)...it'll take the sting out of this stupid thing. I don't have the website handy but it should be an easy google search away.

Where you would only have 5 channels, yes seriously 5 channels, you now have about 70.

A freeview box can be had for £20 from Maplins ($40 from Radio Shack)and it seriously takes longer to decribe that than it does to install.

As for the 2012 cut off date, it will by then be 3 guys on the Isle of Uist who object to buying anything new at all.

The UK is good for that sort of entrenched craziness.

It's craziness if you're poor, eccentrics require more funding.

There are about 15 really good channels on Cable/Satellite. The rest are crap. Think about it... you are paying for channels like Home Shopping and QVC, or other channels like MTV which run MORE commercials than free channels.

With my $70 outdoor antenna, I can get about 15 different channels from 2 different cities. $50 more for a pre-amp, and I get 6 more channels. Add a $40 converter box, and I get even more on the expanded digital spectrum. And my total investment has been less than $1 a month (when spread out over the years).

Oh, and Netflix helps alot, too.

This is pretty wasteful - a lot of tvs will end up in garbage dumps way before they should. It would be a good idea to get a massive electronics recycling program going.

In real world terms, the CW, My, or Univision affiliate will leave upper UHF and become a sub-channel on a CBS, Fox, or NBC digital broadcast, or something like that.

The benefits of digital TV (on an existing SD set) is you will get a stabler picture (no snow or ghosting), a couple more channels (although lower value), and an EPG (although some newer sets may already have an EPG).

At the end of the day though, there really isn't a whole lot gained by the end user by going to digital OTA.

Those that don't need cable or satellite will get one of the DTV tuners. It isn't hard, or particularly expensive. I have satellite, so am unaffected, really.

My money on why the switch has occured borders on the paranoid, it's about pacification and money. They make more money and with more channels with even more crap to watch the people become more pacified and stop caring about other wordly things, like politics or social issues for instance.

but seriously, i don't have cable because it isn't a necessity. although it's great that this digital takeover will allow for more airspace, i really just think it's more of a marketing ploy for the electronics industry. how does having a digital picture make tv viewing more pleasurable? if you're watching a show, are you going to understand the plot, laugh, cry, and enjoy yourself MORE with a digital signal over analog? i don't think so. we're made to think that television is our only source of entertainment; that we all rely on it to get us through the day. what happened to reading a book? playing board games? GOING OUTSIDE?

another thing.. like i said before, it's great that there will be more airspace due to this switch. but this is where development really needs to be looked at. this is the step that the industry tends to childishly look the other way with their fingers in their ears, humming and saying "i can't hear you! i can't hear you!" by compressing the signal, yes there is more airspace. BUT- compressing the signal doesn't take away any of the already existing channels. with more available airspace, of course more networks will snatch them up and fill them up again. won't that cause some kind of overload decades from now? i already feel that there is an information overload these days, what with all of our technologies, but what about 10, 20, even 30-50 years from now? there will be so much information out there we won't know what to do with it (similar to how seniors feel today). we will turn to different forms of entertainment because we'll grow tired of all the crap on tv, the internet, our i-pods, cell phones, portable players, and GPS devices. we already have the i-phone, which encompasses all of that. what's next? what new gadget will take us into tomorrow? all i know is that a clear signal on my tv isn't going to motivate me to buy satellite or cable. only if jon stewart, the steves, and judd apatow created their own channel, cable just isn't worth $50 a month.

In the UK analog(ue) TV will be totally turned off in 2012, with different regions being switched off over the coming years.

Memories.