Follow-up on my concerns, re switchover to digital TV in Canada:
(As you'll recall from another thread, at the beginning of the year I had to break down and buy a new (HD) TV and VCR/DVD recorder (both of which have NTSC and ATSC tuners); so my concerns over analog-to-digital converter boxes became moot/irrelevant. However, for the sake of completeness ...)
One of the local TV stations has started digital broadcasting, supplying both standard and high definition signals. My rabbit-ear antenna picks up the signal with no problem; the digital signal strength (according to my TV's built-in meter) is 90%. Now it only remains to be seen if the other broadcasters' signals will be equally available by the time the mandated switchover occurs, scheduled for August 31.
And for those of you in the USA who recall public announcements over your several-year run-up to digital broadcasting, ours only just started yesterday. Apparently, the CRTC thinks it's no big deal. And our government isn't offering $40 coupons towards purchase of analog-to-digital converter boxes, saying that most Canadians are hooked up to cable or satellite or already have digital tuners in their TVs. In fact, I noticed converter boxes in merchandise-remaindering stores offering leftover boxes from the USA; instead of English and French instructions, they had the two "de facto official" languages of the USA, English and Spanish.
