Digital Tv: Here It Comes

Beginning in February of 2009, all television is going digital. If you don’t know about this big changeover, then you must be living in a cave or in the jungles of Central America. Every channel I turn on, with the exception of the Home Shopping Network, is advertising this change that will sweep the nation and threatens to doom our unofficial pastime if we don’t do something about it before the deadline.

I am looking forward to it. The digital channels that we get now are only due because of a strong antenna and a digital TV. But those channels are great regarding picture quality and sound. We don’t have cable, but with the change coming, we may finally be ushered into the digital age and I cannot wait.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a TV junkie. More oft than not, I find other things to do to occupy my time, such as writing or reading. When I do watch television, I try to avoid the mainstream networks, with a few exceptions. Mostly I watch PBS.

With having cable, I’ll have the enjoyment of having the History Channel at my beck and call, along with TLC and the Discovery Channel as well as National Geographic. And of course, being a movie buff, I’ll have movie channels to view as well. The only disappointment I’ll suffer will be that with a basic cable package, I won’t get BBC America.

The only obstacle that we’ll face will be the dilemma of whether the cable company will be willing to come out to us. We live in the country, and those that live in the country are notorious for being left out of the loop with certain amenities. We don’t always have the option of getting natural gas to heat and cool our homes, and cable is another iffy. And if cable does come out to us here in the sticks, I don’t see us having a lot of choices as to who our carrier will be. As of right now I think Time Warner is the only one that is willing to carry out this far, but maybe not to us.

Personally, despite my excitement to finally have cable, is that I haven’t seen any justification for switching everything over. Granted, digital TV is great and has its advantages, but I haven’t seen why this is happening. It seems that this crept up out of nowhere and now everyone is clamoring about, making sure that all of us switch over.

Even though I haven’t seen anything on TV to explain why this is going to happen, I’m going to make sure I switch over, even if I don’t get my BBC America.