In June 2009 the TV Broadcasters in the USA switched to "digital" broadcast and thus millions of TVs were no longer able to get "over-the-air" TV broadcasts. You could get a digital-to-analog converter box or subscribe to cable or satellite TV. Instead, you could you your laptop and get free TV, news, movies, etc. via the internet and connect to your TV with our PC to TV Cables The good news is that you do not have to get a new TV to continue to get TV broadcasts. Below are options to consider. 1. Keep your existing analog TV and: 1.1 Get TV through your computer-internet connection and use your TV as a display. Just purchase one of our PC to TV Cables. Watching videos on a computer screen is fun, for about 5 minutes, but it's a lot more fun to watch them on the big TV screen. I get all my video entertainment through the internet and have cancelled my DirecTV service. The reality is that paying for TV is for people that grew up in the last century. 1.2 Get a Digital to Analog TV Converter Box to continue to get TV broadcasts on your regular TV. A converter box plugs into your TV and will allow you to view digital TV broadcasts on your analog TV after Feb. 17, 2009. 1.2.1 Converter boxes will be available from retailers during 2008 but do not go out and get one yet! First of all, who knows if the broadcasters will be able to meet the February 2009 deadline set by the government - the same guys that can't set a date to get out of Iraq. But, if you want to get a converter box, the government will mail you one or two coupons (worth 40.00 each) that you can use to purchase a converter box. 1.2.2 To sign up to get a coupon go to TV Converter Box Coupon Program. The coupons will be issued by the US government - probably by the same guys that are handling the Iraq war. 2. Connect to cable, satellite or other pay service to get TV broadcasts. Wait, if you are already paying for cable, satellite or "other pay service" read below, it may be time to dump these guys and get your TV via the internet. 3. Purchase a television with a digital tuner. Wrong. DO NOT purchase another TV, especially one of those widescreen flat screen LCD TVs that you have to get in debt. Plus, those flat screen LCD TVs only look good if you sit really far back. Let me explain...if you connect a regular DVD player and view it on a flat screen LCD TV the video will play at 480i resolution and will look really bad. How bad? You will see small black freckles over most of the images - these are the "video artifacts" that result when converting an NTSC video signal to a digital signal that is displayed on an LCD TV. Since our eyes are part of the resolution equation, the only way that a 480i video will look better is by watching the LCD from a distance. Only when the video source can output a 720p, 1080i, or 1080p will it begin to look better. The point is that your current TV is better at displaying DVDs! Who's driving this frenzie to "upgrade" to digital formats? Well, I read somewhere that it's a Japanese thing...you see, over in Japan they have small houses...and small houses mean small TV rooms and that means that you just can't park your standard humungus 40 inch analog rear projection TV in their TV room...so, someone decided that there's a market for flat screen TVs...and the only way to do that would be to go digital...and since regular videos (480i) do not look good on a flat screen LCD TV, there was a big push to make TVs 1080i or even 1080p. So someone got the government to buy into all this baloney and now broadcasters are going be "forced" to broadcast digital signals and in the mean time, now the Microsoft has got us trained to upgrade the operating system on our computers every couple of years or so, they figured we are trained to accept an "upgrade" to our basic viewing hardware (Television). I suggest you write your congressman and tell him where he can put his digital signal. In fact, instead of the measly 40.00 coupon (to subsidize the TV industry) for you to buy a digital converter box, tell him that you want him to foot the bill for a big 50 inch Plasma. Hey, if Uncle Sam can continue to spend billions of dollars a month in the war in Iraq, he can surely buy everyone in the USA a new, eneregy efficient Plasma. 4. Sell your TV, cancel your cable, satellite or other pay-TV service. It's time to get off your butt and get some exercise. Actually, your will probably not be able to keep an exercise schedule for more than a few days, but think of all the money you will save when you dump your pay-TV service! Ok, most of you couch potatoes will not go opt for this one, but read on. 5. Get your dose of TV viewing from the internet. The bad thing about viewing videos from the internet is that "they are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get". Videos posted on the internet can be about anything and the keywords may not be about what the video is about. 5.1. Options to consider: 5.1.1 Go to Veoh.com and get a ton of videos. Make sure that when you sign up you enter a birthday that makes you older than 21, then turn-off the "Family" filter and see "over 21" content, i.e. porn. Actually, some of the adult stuff there will make you have some really bad dreams. 5.1.2 Go to Joost.com - these guys are trying to post television programs on the net. They are the same guys that started illegal file-sharing peer-to-peer services and later created Skype. Joost uses similar peer-to-peer technology - they basically use your bandwidth to make file transfering faster for everyone that is running their program. Make sure to turn-off Joost (and Skype) when you are not using them! 5.1.3. YouTube. What can be said about the biggest time waster of all time, next to the original TV? The problem with YouTube is that instead of couch potatoes, it has created chair potatoes. Reclaim your couch by connecting your computer to your TV with our PC to TV Cables and enjoy your videos again on your Big TV Screen instead of the puny computer/laptop monitor. 5.1.3.1 Rip YouTube videos to your hard drive and play them anytime in full-screen. Get the Internet Video Recorder. If you haved another option, (especially a funny one) please email it to us and we will consider adding it here. |
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