Digital TV & Converter Boxes

[Mr. Bloom]

I been thinkin' (and that's not good)

We have cable and seven TVs. Only one TV is digital and none have antennae. So, we're techically OK after the digital conversion.

UNLESS, the cable goes out after a disaster (like a major storm or power failure) when we need situation updates more than ever. This is not a far flung possibility in our part of the world

So, should we be applying for the coupons and getting at least one converter box with an antenna as a backup?

The coupons are $40 and the converters seem to be going for about $60 online.

[Mr. Bloom]

More Info from www.dtv2009.gov

Are all consumers eligible for the coupon program? Yes, but supplies are limited. There are 22.25 million coupons available to all U.S. households. Once those coupons have been used, there are an additional 11.25 million coupons available only to households that solely receive their TV broadcasts over-the-air using an antenna. Households with TVs connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service are not eligible for this second batch of coupons. Consumers can apply for coupons until March 31, 2009, or until the funds are exhausted.

[OakLeaf]

You're going to get more up-to-date information online, anyhow. If you're just talking about what you need for emergencies, I'd make sure that your ISP offers dialup access, that you have all the information in your system preferences to get online via dialup, and that you bookmark websites that you can access at dialup speed. That's true even if you get your internet via DSL - as we found during a recent power failure, the DSL can go out at the source but you can still have phone.

And get a plug-in emergency weather radio, and a hand-cranked radio with weather band and phone charger power take-off.

Do you know whether you can even get broadcast TV? Do you have an antenna tower? In our part of the world - pretty much the same as yours - hills often get in the way. Even up on our ridge, there's a higher hill between us and the closest TV station, and the other stations are 50 miles away. When the antenna came down off our tower in a storm a few years back, that was the end of our broadcast reception.

[Aggie_Ama]

I don't have advice but I find this whole thing a crazy rude awakening that I will keep growing up (darn it). My junior year of college I took a class on the evolution of technology and how it related to media. We discussed at length analog signals and the switch to digital that would be coming. I think back then (2001 or 2002) I was floored at how far away it sounded. Now it is here and happening on my birthday no less. Just funny to me, makes me feel like time is just flying whether I want it to. We just had a 5 year college reunion, I still feel like a fresh out of college person!

Okay back to your regularly scheduled thread and I second the weather radio.

[Pedal Wench]

I hope y'all are still reading my Sound & Vision blogs! I posted one the other day y'all will love.

http://bitstream.soundandvisionmag.c...0/dtv-psa.html

So, yeah, having a converter box as a back-up isn't a bad plan, unless your digital TV has a built-in tuner. But, as others have said, a weather radio, battery-powered, should already be in your home in case of emergencies.

I find it an even ruder awakening that when I was in college, we were just starting to learn about digital audio -- pre-CD!

[sgtiger]

Pedal Wench, that video was hilarious!

[RoadRaven]

We have cable and seven TVs.

Sorry Mr S... I got stuck on this sentence...

Why do you have 7 TVs? Thats in one house, yes?

Excuse my ignorance or perhaps back-woodish-ness, but I don't understand...

[crazycanuck]

RoadRaven..I was wondering as well..

Why does one family need 7 tv's? I don't understand.

[Mr. Bloom]

Sorry Mr S... I got stuck on this sentence...

Why do you have 7 TVs? Thats in one house, yes?

Excuse my ignorance or perhaps back-woodish-ness, but I don't understand...

No, in one room!

Two homes & two teenagers (that we don't want to relocate during high school). I commute 120 miles from job to home, but Home #2 was stocked with TVs to facilitate weekend visits for the kids with their friends.

Okay back to your regularly scheduled thread and I second the weather radio.

Does a weather radio deal with the aftermath reporting?

Why does one family need 7 tv's? I don't understand.

We belong to and enjoy a 24 hour fitness center as well...but one has to think outside their own personal circumstances to fully understand. Shift workers make regular use of them since their work hours don't allow use in normal hours.

[Crankin]

Well, we have 5 TVs and we hardly watch compared to most people. I mean, I have NEVER seen Survivor or Lost or any of those other reality shows...
We are news junkies and watch maybe 2 shows regularly. Our house has 4 floors; one TV is on the main floor, in the kitchen/eating area. It's on the most when we are preparing food, reading the paper, etc. I do some of my school work here. Our "big" TV is in the lower level, in our family room. In our old house it was next to the kitchen, and got used the most. We use it for movie watching and our favorite shows. The other TVs are in our bedroom (gets used a lot. We watch the news every night before bed), the guest room, and upstairs in the loft, which is used almost exclusively for yoga DVDs when I exercise.

[OakLeaf]

Does a weather radio deal with the aftermath reporting?

Well obviously not, but a regular radio does and so does your local EMA website, and you can get the information from the website as soon as it's posted, not at the top of the hour or half-hour. Plus the TV station and newspaper websites will have additional information on-demand.

Either a radio or a laptop will consume MUCH less of your backup power than a TV. Even if you have one of those fancy-dancy whole house generators, the less electric you use, the less FUEL you use, and fuel is definitely an issue in extended power failures which I assume is what you're talking about. Save it for the furnace fan, the water pump and the refr/freezer. (And the septic aeration system if that's the type you have!)

Bottom line: get your converter boxes if you want them, but make sure that you have broadcast reception at all before you spend the money, and don't try to justify the purchases to us as being important for emergencies.

[SouthernBelle]

It's probably a bad assumption that you will be able to get online in a major emergency. You have to have electricity or functioning phonelines for that.

I second a good weather radio or even one of those little battery powered TVs.

I live alone and have 3 TVs.

[tulip]

You could get a solar generator.

http://www.solarhome.org/xantrexxpow...rpack1500.aspx

Then you can use as many TVs in the aftermath and not worry about fuel.

[OakLeaf]

It's as good an assumption as the other. No, you can't ever count on any information being available, but we've lived here for 11 years and never lost phone ONCE. (Granted we're on REC power, so electrical outages of more than a couple of hours are rare - our recent outage of 2-1/2 days with Hurricane Ike was the longest ever, before that the longest was 18 hours.) But in all that time we've NEVER lost phone. There was the ONE time this year that we lost DSL for a few hours due to a substation outage that serviced the phone company switching station, but we still had one of our phone lines. (Some cellular service went out also, but not ours.) DH rode out Hurricane Jeanne in '04 and never lost landline phone, even when electric and cellular went out for a couple of days.

And you have to conserve power when the grid is down, whether or not it's renewable - it's just like living off-grid full time. In tornado or ice storm weather your solar panels aren't getting a whole lot of input - you don't want to drain your batteries and risk not having water the next day. (At least in ice storm weather you shouldn't have to power your refr )

[Zen]

Radio.
Batteries.
Oil lamps.
Sterno or other camp style cooking.
Many layers of clothing.