A Canadian’s Guide to Digital TV: Here and South of the Border

Anyone that gets TV channels from the US has noticed the incessant warnings that action must be taken to preserve their TV’s from going blank. The reason is that US stations are switching to broadcasting Digital signals, and analog broadcasts end on June 12, 2009.

Canadian channels have until August 31, 2011, an extra two years and change, to stop broadcasting in analog, so you don’t need to do anything to keep getting Canadian channels until then.

Many of you have already noticed a problem. Living on the CBC may be fine during the playoffs, but it is going to be a long time before they roll around again. Even Peter Mansbridges’ family probably doesn’t want to see that much of him.

If you live close enough to the border to get US channels, you might very well have to do something if you want to keep watching them. Even if you are up north and don’t get TV from the States, you may as well find out what you have to do between now and August 2011. Just keep in mind that you can wait until it’s easier to find a converter box, or you might buy a new TV or switch to pay service by then.

The only people to be affected, on either side of the border, are those who use over the air, free, TV signals. If you have rabbit ears, a loop, bowtie, or outdoor antenna, these receive over the air signals that will be affected, first in the States, then here.

If you pay for your TV signal, either through cable or through satellite, you have nothing to fear (other then the bills). You already own or rent whatever it is you need get and decode the signal. These changes brought in by the FCC and CRTC only affect over the air broadcasting: they won’t change how you watch TV.

It depends on if your TV has a digital tuner in it. Your odds are a lot better the newer, bigger, and fancier the TVs you own are. Some will be labeled (Integrated Digital Tuner, DTV Ready, ATSC Tuner, or similar nomenclature) but any manual will have this information. If you can’t find your manual, check the manufacturer’s website or get in touch with their customer service. If your TV supports only NTSC, that means analog, and you are out of luck.

If you are thinking of doing it anyway, buying a new TV (most of which have digital tuners by now) or switching to cable or satellite will solve the problem. If you are happy with your current setup and want to keep watching free over the air TV channels, either US ones now, or Canadian ones later, the cheapest answer is a digital to analog converter box.

That is going to be important if you are buying the converter box so that you can still get US channels that go digital, and also want to watch Canadian channels until they switch to digital. Find a converter box with a feature called “Analog Passthrough” and you will be just fine.

It allows you to still get Analog signals with the converter box hooked up. If you get a box without this feature, you will have to use splitters and extra cables to switch from Digital to analog and back. The feature doesn’t add much, if anything, to the converter's price, and using extra cables and switches instead degrades the strength of your TV signal.

On the next page we recommend a couple good converter box options and tell you where you can buy them in Canada.