Still no comparison

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Kiwick

I can only imagine the reaction to the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts in 2012... millions of low income people and retirees which are struggling to pay the bills and make it to the next month will be forced to go out and spill 100 bucks for ABSOLUTELY no perceived benefit... or either stop watching TV...

We are getting a better deal here in the USA. The government will send two US$40 coupons to buy tuner boxes starting next January or so, to any household that requests them. Digital tuner boxes are already available for US$80, and will probably be about $50-60 next year. Regarding "perceived benefit", with any halfway-decent antenna, these boxes will tune in perfect, ghost-free signals, and many stations already have two or more channels in the space of one analog channel. I have the choice of two 24-hour local weather channels, a 24-hour news channel, 24-hour children's commercial-free channel, and others, all crystal-clear (but those ones are not hi-def). At worst case, some people might need to add a US$10 RF modulator to the box. With that, for $25 I can watch all those added channels as well as all of the existing ones except they are clearer, on any TV made since 1946 in the USA... Certainly, anyone in the USA who thinks this is a bad "value" simply has no idea what really deserves complaining about.