I've heard that I will be forced to buy an HD television under federal law? Is that true? What should I do about that? Should I buy some sort of converter? Should I wait until the last minute for prices of stuff to fall?

There is a LOT of information about this online, but it's too much, really. I'm looking for some "simple advice".

Your not really forced to buy a HD. The madate was to do away with analog TV (NTSC) and go digital. Soon all new TV's will be capable of receiving digital broadcasts.

For TVs, here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

As of March 2006, all 25 inch and larger TVs for sale must have ATSC tuners capable of receiving the 8VSB modulation used for free terrestrial digital broadcasts in the United States. The final conversion step is a mandate that all televisions and TV-tuning devices have ATSC tuners by March 2007. Many of these will not be capable of displaying HDTV signals at their full resolution, but they will be capable of decoding and displaying these signals.

Yes, you will be able to buy an inexpensive converter that will convert the digital TV signal to analog so your existing TV can continue to work. If you want to buy a new TV, then, as the last poster stated, it will have a digital tuner in it. If you don't want to buy a new TV, then you'll just need to go the converter route.

All this applies only to over-the-air signals. If you get your TV service from a cable or satellite TV system, you won't be required to change anything at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ebaines

All this applies only to over-the-air signals. If you get your TV service from a cable or satellite TV system, you won't be required to change anything at all.

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That's not entirely true. A cable ready analog TV will not be able to handle a digital signal when the cable company goes all digital. The signal has to be converted, which will require a box. The cable companies will most likely stock some set top boxes that have a legacy analog output, but the consumer will need to be aware that they need this capability.

You will not be Forced to buy HD Receiver. You just won't pick up any signals.(NO TV)
Seriously, someone will make a cheap converter.