The conversion box is "free" with the government
coupon. https://www.dtv2009.gov/

With a fairly cheap ($29) UHF antenna, you can get
remarkable results from almost any TV. The digital
pictures are quite sharp.

http://www.nab.org/AM/ASPCode/DTVSta...TVStations.asp

In our case, the digital cut over was a major
improvement over cable. The picture quality is
really unbelievable, even on my older set in the
shop.

I have Direct TV and the digital tv is certainly
as good.

I should also point out that most if not all
stations will be broadcasting in HD over the air waves
and that is free, but that does require a HD tv.

My local marker(Wilmington,NC) was the very first in the
country to switch over completely.

Now you are back to where you started 40 years ago
with a antenna.




Charlie Self wrote:

We'll probably let the TV satellite go. That means we'll probably do
without TV, because the set is very old, cost what I consider a max
for a TV set ($297), and I am not going to pay for a conversion box to
bring in the local channel news. We watch little else, so that's not a
real loss. $750 for a TV set that we then pay $55 and rising per month
to keep active is silly when probably three days out of the week it
isn't turned on at all, and on most other days, it gets to work its
way through an hour of news programs.