[Jeffhs]

All existing analog TV sets will work after February 19, 2009 if they are connected to cable or satellite service. Cable companies, moreover, do not necessarily or in fact have to carry their channels (even local channels) in digital format. I read in this thread (IIRC), in fact, that the cable companies can carry analog NTSC indefinitely if they so desire or need to (e.g. for financial reasons); only over-the-air TV stations are required by law to transmit digital signals.

Analog TVs do last longer than digital flat-panels. (My own two 19" analog CRT sets are still going strong and making excellent pictures on digital cable after eight and almost 13 years, respectively.) You are right as to your statement that analog CRT sets (such as your Samsung and all other makes of analog sets) will still be in use, and hopefully working well, years after the new FPs have developed serious problems and are thrown out to face a certain death in a landfill.

I personally like the picture on a CRT set better than I would probably like the same image on a FP television. Someone in this thread said basically the same thing not long ago, stating that, to him, the picture on a FP set looked terrible (oversaturated colors, for example) when compared to the same picture on an analog set. I personally do not believe that even the best and most expensive flat panel HDTV produces a better picture than a good CRT set with a strong signal. My feeling is that if you like the picture you get on your analog set, keep it and enjoy it until it dies, the signal format be darned. The government is not forcing anyone to switch from a CRT TV to an HD flat panel; the only thing the FCC has forced on us (and every one of the nation's TV stations) is the change from analog to digital transmission. Even OTA (over the air) digital TV can still be viewed on an an analog set if an ATSC converter is used ahead of it. However, as the new digital TV commercials are saying, all unmodified analog TVs will show nothing but snow on 02-19-2009, which is a fact. Hopefully, these commercials will drive this point home, so that viewers will not have a rude surprise on that date when they turn on their analog sets to watch the news (for example), and see nothing but noise on their favorite news channel.

Fortunately, as I said above, however, if you have cable or satellite service you need not even be concerned about the changeover, as all the changes have already been made or will soon be made by your area's cable company. Time Warner, the cable operator serving northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, for example, has already converted its entire system to digital, so they (and their subscribers) will definitely be ready when 02.19.09 rolls around.

Digital TV. Don't fight it and for heaven's sake don't worry about it. As long as cable companies carry analog NTSC (and even digital, using a converter) you will still get the same channels you receive now, regardless of what kind of TV you have. The only difference will be that, on standard analog televisions, digital broadcasts will be displayed in letterbox format. You will see the same picture you've been seeing all along, only now it will be in 16:9 aspect ratio and will not fill your screen vertically. Don't be alarmed the first time you see this; your TV picture isn't shrinking. If your picture were actually shrinking due to a problem in the vertical sweep system, you would be seeing the station's/network's VITS (vertical interval test signals) at the top of the picture; the latter might be stretched out of shape or compressed as well.

Remember as well that all the hype surrounding HDTV is just advertising hooey, designed to drum up business for stores so they can sell more flat panel sets. Personally, I know only one person (my barber) who actually has an HDTV in his home. I do not think high-definition has really caught on yet in many parts of the country, except perhaps southern California. When people find out just how short-lived FP sets are, they are probably going to wish they would have held on to their old reliable analog CRT sets. I think it's a darn shame that $1,000+ large-screen (and smaller) flat-panel TVs last only a couple years before they go belly-up, but that's the way it is these days. This factor alone is keeping the stores that sell these TVs in business. It's known as planned obsolescence, and there's darned little if anything we can do about it.