Posted on 01/01/2008 9:12:40 AM PST by Pikamax
Dec 31 05:14 PM US/Eastern John Dunbar, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Write a Comment
WASHINGTON - Millions of US$40 government coupons become available Tuesday to help low-tech television owners in the United States buy special converter boxes for older TVs that might not work after the switch to digital broadcasting. Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a digital set and still gets their programming via over-the-air antennas will no longer receive a picture.
That's the day the television industry completes its transition from old-style analog broadcasting to digital.
The converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and $70 and will be available at most major electronics retail stores. Starting Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will begin accepting requests for two $40 coupons per household to be used toward the purchase of the boxes.
Viewers who have satellite or cable service will not need a box.
To request a coupon, consumers can apply online at www.dtv2009.gov starting Tuesday. The government also has set up a 24-hour hotline to take requests, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).
The U.S. Congress, in ordering the transition to digital broadcasting, set aside $1.5 billion for the coupon program, which will fund 33.5 million coupons and other costs.
The giveaway basically works under the honour system.
The first 22 million coupons will go to all households that request them. That includes a residence that gets cable service for one television but has a spare TV that still uses an antenna, for example.
The rest of the coupons, however, are meant only for those who do not subscribe to a pay-television service.
The Nielsen Co. estimates that 14.3 million households, or about 13 per cent of the 112.8 million total television households in the U.S., rely on over-the-air television broadcasts for programming.
bttt
Didn't they learn a thing from the Katrina $2000 fiasco?
What really stinks is that I have two small black n white TVs I use for emergencies and trips. Wonder if a box will work for those
Also, my portable walkman type TV becomes obsolete. I am not carrying a big box around for that
Keep trying. It took me at least 6 tries.
Finally you’ll get a confirmation page with this info (maybe you can call/write instead of applying online):
If you have any questions, you may call the Toll-Free Consumer Support Hotline
at 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009), 1-877-530-2634 (TTY), or write to us at:
TV Converter Box Coupon Program
PO Box 2000
Portland, OR 97208-2000
Not if you’re a liberal Democrat. It’s much easier to have someone else pay for your TV, food, house, car, medical care and so on and so on and so on...
I saw a little thing about this the other night on TV. It's a program by the guy who invented captchas to help with a huge book scanning project.
The problem with scanning old books is that some words just don't scan correctly, due to problems with printing or dirt on the page, etc. The words that the computer doesn't recognize are put up with a known word in a captcha several times, and the results are stored (the known word is used for the captcha). Since you don't know which word is known, several people typing in the same result is probably the right answer.
Hey homie, I just went to the site using Firefox and I got mine on the first attempt. Go on back and try again. I kinda like the idea about obtaining the coupons and not using them.
In re saving the feds some money, I like the idea, BUT, it is their fault that our perfectly good tvs aren’t going to work next year. So it does seem fair to me that those of us who are going to have to go buy a new tv should be compensated.
I don’t have cable. My tv is old. I am perfectly happy with it.
From the site’s FAQ: - Are your B&W TVs handheld or batery-powered?
I have a handheld or battery-powered TV. Will this work after February 17, 2009? Can I connect it to a TV converter box?
Generally not.
This must be for illegals. Lower income Americans have better TVs than I do.
“To chase people off the analog spectrum currently used by broadcast TV so it can be auctioned off for other uses. If they didn’t pay for some converter boxes, then Jesse Jackson would run out, declare digital TV to be racist and TV stations would be required to keep both analog and digital forever.< /only half sarcastic>”
This brings to mind the picture of the woman (Katrina victim?) and her HUGE flat screen TV and she was bitching about not getting enough money.
“Israeli Responsibility”
So I get my coupons, go to an electronics store and buy whatever I want using the coupons. The merchant simply redeems them with the govt. for his payment. Sounds simple enough unless the govt is going to require additional proof from the merchant that a converter box was actually sold...........if thats the case, thats going to be a heck of a lot of paperwork for the govt. agency assigned to this.
The feds didn’t buy me a new car when they removed lead from gasoline making my old cars engine fail. Nor did they help me with a new refrigerator when they banned Freon and I couldn’t get my ‘frig fixed. Since the feds think it necessary to “buy” me two converter boxes and since they’ve increased the CAFE standards and pooh-poohed diesel, I want a coupon for a new car.
Kinda silly, huh?
I tried it online twice and failed both times. Then I called the phone number in the article and it went through smoothly using an automated system. I can’t say I liked the fact that when I called on my home phone, my address and name were already linked to my phone number - a bit too much “big brother” for my taste. It was quick and easy though.
I think I figured it out: I was checking the “all or some of the TVs in my house subscribe to cable” button. I just tried by hitting the none of my TVs button and it worked.
33.5 million times $40 is $1.34 billion.
And the other $160 million was, oh I don't know, PORK?
“my address and name were already linked to my phone number - a bit too much “big brother” for my taste. It was quick and easy though.”
Had no problem doing over the phone either.
I’ve used other automated services that had my name and phone and address already. It’s probably alot like a Yahoo phone look up system.
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