What Will Happen To All the Old Televisions, You Ask?

TWICE: Thomson Gauging Retail Demand For D/A STB
More than one person has asked me what will happen to all the old, non-HDTV sets once the analog NTSC signals are shut off. Obviously if you took away television from millions of people, there would be rioting and bloodshed in the streets. Thomson’s RCA is first off the block with a set-top box that will convert HDTV to analog SDTV for the millions of televisions that are not HDTV compatible.

From the TWICE article:
“The final rules from the Department of Commerce insure that manufacturers will offer high-quality and energy-efficient digital TV adapters to meet the needs of millions of consumers. We’re very pleased that all households in America will initially qualify to receive up to two $40 coupons to defray the cost of products like our RCA DTA800, which we are now discussing with retailers for consideration in their upcoming assortments,” said Dan Collishaw, Thomson Americas A/V business chief operating officer.
The device will receive terrestrially broadcast digital TV signals and convert them to analog form for display on conventional analog TVs.

It’s sometimes forgotten in all of the hullabaloo in our industry that in addition to early-adopters and late-adopters, there is a demographic known as non-adopters. It’s good to see that our industry is finally embracing the non-adopter, looking after their needs, and more importantly, producing something to sell them!

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