On May 17, 12:11*am, Bob wrote:
Nate Nagel wrote:
my suspicion is that converter boxes will die off and become unavailable
in a couple years or so, since the pool of TV's out there requiring same
is only going to grow smaller over time.

Going back a generation, UHF converter boxes were available for about 15
years after the FCC mandated UHF tuners on all new TVs. *The last
inventory of converters was grabbed up by hackers building bootleg
pay-TV converter boxes. *Also, back then TVs were much more expensive
and people were less likely to throw them out merely due to the need for
an add-on box.


Yes, like all electronics, they will become obsolete and disappear.
But I suspect the timeframe will be closer to your 15 years example
above. I doubt the converters are going to just disappear in a year
or two. There still will be a need for replacements for ones that go
bad, people who change setups for some reason and now need one where
they didn't before, people who move, etc. Surely enough volume to
support at least one manufacturer for many years.