ST. PAUL -- With a nationwide shift to all-digital broadcast television looming, more than 150 people recently crammed into St. Paul's Hmong American Partnership community center for advice.
These city residents use older TVs with antennas to pull in traditional analog broadcasts. If they don't convert to digital by Feb. 17, their screens will go dark.
They are hardly alone. The rabbit-ear crowd is particularly prevalent in Minnesota, which has the fourth-highest number of U.S. homes using only broadcast television.
About 21 percent of Minnesota households get their TV this way, according to Nielsen Co.
And while most people know about the switch, many are not ready.
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The crowd at the Hmong American Partnership was looking for information on low-end digital-converter boxes, which work with older TVs to pull in digital broadcasts. (Newer digital TVs do not need converters.)
They also wanted help ordering free federal coupons to defray the cost of these converters, about $40 to $60. The feds are offering each U.S. household two $40 coupons, each good for the purchase of one converter. The coupons are available at dtv2009.gov.
Retailer Best Buy has found that nearly half of those it surveyed about the digital transition don't intend to take steps until after the Feb. 17 deadline. Best Buy also found that many people mistakenly think they won't be affected, don't know what kind of TV set they have and don't understand why the transition is occurring.
The feds are endinganalog-TV transmissions to free the portion of the communications spectrum used for those broadcasts. That part of the spectrum will be made available for law enforcement and emergency-rescue workers as well as for advanced wireless services.
The digital transition has begun.
Wilmington, N.C., recently went all digital in what is likely to be the only significant test run before the nationwide transition. And while the Wilmington switchover appeared to go relatively smoothly, it still generated about 1,800 phone calls from residents with technical problems; Wilmington's population is 187,000.
