Dark at the dawn of digital?
What to do if TV won’t work with the signal switch
BY KEILANI BEST
FLORIDA TODAY
The digital age in TV is upon us, and today, channels that hadn’t already made the switch are going all digital.
The Federal Communications Commission expected some fallout today after the switch, mainly because many customers will need to re-scan their conversion boxes and digital televisions due to the changes.
And there’s no mistaking a weak digital signal.
"The issue with digital is that there is a little less room for error than there was in analog," said FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield. "If your signal was weak in analog, you might get snow, whereas in digital, you don’t get a picture or it’s so pixilated you can’t watch it."
If you don’t have cable, here are two easy solutions to ensure your television is working properly after the conversion.
Make sure you have a good antenna. According to Wigfield, you need an antenna that gets both UHF and VHF signals. More digital TV stations, including channels 14 through 51, will be in the UHF range than in the past.
And make sure that your antenna is adjusted correctly or you will get no signal at all. Newer antennas may work better in terms of reception than older models.
Re-scan the converter box or digital TV. Do a channel scan — where the TV or cable box runs through each channel, locking in those it can receive — so that your television will pick up all of the available channels. "It’s going to be fairly common that a station will go to a new frequency, so the box has to be rescanned. That may be confusing to people," Wigfield said.
Contact Best at 242-3784 or kbest@floridatoday.com.