I need to buy a new TV.
False. If you rely on an antenna to watch television, you have several choices for watching TV after February 17, 2009. You have the option to purchase a new TV that is equipped with a digital tuner. You also have two other choices, both of which will allow you to keep your current TV: subscribe to a pay TV service or buy a converter box. (You need to do this for each analog TV set that gets its TV signal through an antenna.)

I will need to buy a converter box.
False. This is true only if you currently rely exclusively on an antenna for TV and you do not purchase a TV with a built-in digital tuner or subscribe to a pay-TV service such as cable or satellite. To watch a broadcast on UNC-TV or ABC, you will need an antenna and either a TV with a built-in digital tuner or a converter box. As usual, you will need a subscription service to watch a non-broadcast channel such as CNN or C-SPAN.

One converter box is all I need.
False. If you choose to buy converter boxes, the ratio is always 1:1 – one converter box to one over-the-air TV. Every set that requires an antenna to get a TV signal today will require a converter box to get a digital signal in February 2009.

If I have a TV subscription service for at least one of my TVs, I’m golden.
False. Only those TVs that are hooked up to the pay-TV service (or have built-in digital tuners) will get a TV signal come February 2009. If you have cable on your main TV but use an antenna to get a signal on additional TVs, those TV sets will only show "snow" unless you take action and hook them up to a pay service or get converter boxes.

TV will no longer be free for me.
False. You can still receive free over-the-air TV with an antenna just like you do now. You just need to be sure your TV has a built-in digital tuner. If not, then you will need to use a converter box or change to a new TV. The federal government has a coupon program to reduce the cost of converter boxes.

The change to digital is unnecessary and it’s not going to improve television.
False. Commonly sited benefits include more free TV channels, interactive capabilities, and clearer pictures and sound. In addition, digital television will allow local PBS stations to serve under-served audiences by providing more free programming in several genres, including children’s, performance, how-to, science and nature, and news and public affairs.

My DVD player, VCR, camcorder and video games will no longer be compatible with my TV.
False. These electronics will continue to work even if they are analog. They will not provide the level of quality sound and pictures that their digital counterparts do. However, manufacturers are producing connectors that will hook equipment together and improve sound and picture quality.

To get the best picture quality I need to subscribe to cable or satellite.
False. Cable and satellite compress your signal. The best quality picture will still come over the air with an antenna used in conjunction with a receiver in your digital TV set or a digital set-top converter box. And best of all, it’s still free.

You can’t see a big difference between analog TV and DTV.
False. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but DTV is, in fact, designed to offer superior sound and picture quality. Even the converter box for traditional analog TV sets delivers an improved signal that viewers with older sets will be sure to notice.

My traditional analog TV can display HD images without any help.
False. A TV must be HD-ready in order to display high-definition images. Older non-digital TVs need a converter box or a subscription service such as cable or satellite to display images in digital. If you own a non-digital TV then you are not watching anything in digital even if what you are viewing is delivered that way. In order for your traditional analog TV to receive and display HD images the digital broadcast signal must be converted to an analog format. You are, in fact, receiving your favorite programs in HD; however, your TV is displaying them in the old-fashioned analog format.