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The current $160-range cost of ATSC-to-NTSC converter boxes will not hold once the $40 chits are mailed to us. One company has already promoted a $39.99 converter box.
Questions about whether analog box output signals will produce a picture equal to an OTA NTSC signal haunts me.
Today I can tune a CT-100 to an analog broadcast and expect the RF signal to be every bit as good or better than the signal it received when it was new in 1954.
It's not the source material/video that has me worried; it's that that little converter chip with a saw filter and channel 3 RF oscillator, or however it's designed today, that doesn't I'm sure have to meet the same FCC broadcaster's rules and regs that define the quality of the analog signal it generates.
When I tune OTA color bars late a night, I have confidence I'm using an in-spec test signal to touch-up the CT-100 alignment. Thankfully, it's something we we can count on for at least another whole year.
Pete
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