US Television reception is changing in just over a year

For my US readers, you may have heard that television broadcasts are slated to change in just over a year. The good news is you don't have to run out and buy a flat screen HDTV to receive the new digital broadcasts, though it would be nice.

A quick aside here, hi-definition TV has been the rave of the past few years with viewers marvelling at the crisp quality of the enhanced pictures, but I had to laugh when I heard a sports-talk show host lamenting that the Christmas Mass from the Vatican this year was only broadcast in standard definition. He apparently had looked forward to seeing the church in the crispness and clarity of HD. A strong testament to how much better the picture must be.

You don't have to purchase a new TV set, you just need a converter box (they're not available as of yet, but they're coming soon). For some reason the government feels responsible to cover the cost of up to two boxes per household; an indicator of how much they anticipate they'll make off the newly freed-up frequencies maybe?!? You can go to this website to sign-up for your coupons and this site explains things a little bit.

I just signed up for mine.