In article ,
UCLAN wrote:
Mark Zenier wrote:

Got to http://www.dtv2009.gov or call 1-888-DTV-2009 and give them
the details (fill in the form or do the voice mail stuff) and they'll
(if you qualify) send you up to two coupons for $40 each to buy a dtv
convertor box, which are supposed to be on sale real soon now for $50
to $70.

The models that qualify for the subsidy are stripped down and
only produce NTSC composite and/or RF outputs. There's a page
on the web site with a list.

The Zenith DTT900 (that I download the spec. sheet for) has
an RF output.

Some units are already out there. I just saw a posting that a
qualified Magnavox unit was at somebody's Walmart.
(There have been ATSC tuners out there for several years, but it
hasn't been worth $350 for me to bother 'till now.)

A) The Zenith is a re-branded LG.

I think of it more that Zenith IS LG. But there's not an LG branded
unit in the approved list.

B) A review of the Magnavox unit is at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=986114

Yea, great stuff there, (but it's a real pain if you're not on
broadband). I gather from the threads I read there that a lot
of these units use LG's guts.

C) No retailers with *any* boxes within 50 miles of me.

What are the chances that the government site it really up to date. ;-)

Maybe try the big box companies web sites, or call them on the phone?
Rant I'm not sure that would work any better. I went to a Best
Buy last week for another reason. That place doesn't have customers,
it has victims. /Rant

I wonder...could one hook one of these boxes up to his VCR to record an
analog version of a HDTV signal?

ooohhh. Good Question. I have a horrible feeling that they might
enable copy protection in the video if the right/(wrong?) bits in
the datastream say so. I wonder what the government certification
requirements said...

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)