All HD all the time

Well I just made arrangements to get my satellite dish upgraded to HD.  I can’t imagine watching Eagles games in low def now.  The cost to upgrade wasn’t bad although if for some reason I wanted to drop DirecTV in the next two years they would bash me over the head with a $480 early termination charge.  To upgrade requires a new receiver AND dish.  I figured my 3 LNB dish would work for HDTV.  Nope, HD requires a 5 LNB dish, sheesh.  It will be good to have an installer come out anyway.  The dish we have now doesn’t seem to be aligned very well as even normal cloud cover can sometimes cause picture problems. 

The other week Ali forwarded me a link to a website regarding the 2009 switch to all digital tv broadcasts.  It is a government site where after filling out a form they will send you a card for $40 off a converter box that would allow you to watch digital tv on older analog sets.  Without doing any research I filled out the form and got my cards a few days ago.  I saw the cards expired in 3 months so I was considering using them to get a box awhile.  Well after doing some reading I don’t need them.  The digital switchover refers to over the air broadcasts.  So in other words, if you are getting your tv via rabbit ears you have a problem.  With satellite and most cable customers, the change won’t mean much to you at all.  Eventually you may have to get some sort of converter but at least for the immediate future there is no reason that your old analog tv that is wired to the cable company will stop working.  Now of course you should check with your local carrier to be sure, but I know at least with Comcast no changes will be magically occurring in 2009.