The national switch to digital format will happen someday, but when?

Television, as the world has known it for more than half a century, could soon go dark. If that happens, those who still rely on roof-top antennas or rabbit ears won't be able to access their weekly fix of "Survivor," "CSI" or Donald Trump's obnoxious declaration of "You're fired."

The elimination of the analog format is the work of Congress.

More than a decade ago, legislators targeted Dec. 31, 2006, as the end of analog television broadcasting in the United States and mandated a full switch-over to digital format.

Congress had been pressured by electronics manufacturing lobbyists to uniformly regulate television transmission and others said those analog airwaves could be better used by law enforcement and other governmental agencies.

If that happens, then roughly 70 million analog television sets will go blank unless consumers buy a special converter box.

Experts say the change-over can't happen that quickly; broadcast stations and consumers are nowhere near ready for the switch. Even Congress is in discussions about moving the date back -- anywhere from 2009 to 2018.

"Nobody thinks it's going to happen on that date," said Dr. Jim Dufek, who teaches television courses at Southeast Missouri State University. "Society hasn't even agreed to utilize the system. It's too soon."

Also, it's cost-prohibitive for many consumers to buy digital sets or other sets -- such as high-definition -- that have digital capabilities built in, he said.

Congress has left itself some wiggle room, however. There is a loophole in the 1996 legislation that could let the cut-off date pass. According to the law, 85 percent of TV homes must have access to digital TV before that can happen.

Dufek said that digital cable and satellite TV services already reach a large part of the population, so it remains to be seen when and how the FCC considers the 85 percent threshhold to have been reached.

Digital television is an all-new digital system for transmitting, receiving and viewing higher quality television images and surround-sound audio. Technophiles say it's changing the way viewers watch and interact with television, resulting in HDTV (high-definition television), data-casting (the ability to download information through TV), and video-on-demand (paying for shows as you want to watch them).

So far, digital television sets have been mainly the big-screen, pricey high-definition television sets. Manufacturers aren't expected to start selling smaller-screen sets with digital tuners until next year. Under current law, all new sets won't be required to have digital tuners until 2007. Currently, experts say there are only about 30 million televisions with digital tuners in American homes.

Joe Belcher, sales manager at Stereo One in Cape Girardeau, said he's selling HDTV's every day. His store has been selling them for five years, he said. In fact, he said, they don't have any TVs in their electronics stores that aren't high-def or digital ready.

"Televisions are not the type of item you intend to replace every six months," he said. "More and more people are buying them all the time."

Belcher stresses that the digital change-over will only affect people who use rabbit ears or roof-top antennas, which he believes is a "small percentage" of TV owners. Others will simply have to buy a transmitter box, which run for a few hundred dollars. The transmitter box will translate the over-the-air digital signal back to analog for older televisions.

"Consumers are very confused about it," Belcher said. "And there are salespeople out there telling them that if they don't buy digital televisions, the TVs they have won't be any good anymore. That simply isn't true."

So, if consumers aren't ready for the transition, why not push the date back indefinitely? Dale Cripps, publisher of Portland, Ore.-based "HDTV Magazine," said that manufacturing lobbyists are pushing legislators hard to switch to digital TV, which could provide a financial boon to their industry.

Also, Cripps said, when there is a switch-over, analog TV channels 52-69 will no longer be needed, freeing them up for use by the government, either to sell or to designate to Homeland Security, the local police force or other governmental agencies.

"This has just been one big problem," Cripps said. "But once people get used to digital television -- better picture, sharper colors, more like a movie -- they're not going to want to go back."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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