I realize that The Furry Guy and I are among the last holdouts. We have an antenna. We've always gotten a really good selection of channels because we live high on a hill. We're about 60 miles from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and South Bend and get channels from all three cities. (Seriously, we're equidistant from all three.) We also get a couple of Lafayette stations.
A little over a year ago we had to replace our TV. Knowing the whole digital changeover thing was coming, we bought one with a digital tuner. We were ready.
Yeah, right.
Two of the stations we get have changed over. We can tune them in with the TV. However, we can't tape those shows on the VCR. (The Furry Guy works second shift. I tape prime-time shows for him.)
We went out and bought one of the converter boxes for the VCR. Surprise. If the converter box is on, you can't watch anything through the TV. The only signal is the one that comes through the box. That means that I cannot tape one show while watching another.
We found a splitter. (The Furry Guy has a little of everything stored here and there. I love that guy.) So, now we have a line coming straight into the TV and another going to the VCR via the converter box.
New problem. If I want to tape a digital channel, I can only program the VCR to tape one particular channel. In order to receive the signal, the VCR has to be tuned to channel 4, with the converter box tuned to whatever digital channel we want to tape. That means we have to choose whether we want to watch the CBS shows, the NBC shows, or the ABC shows. So, on, say, Monday night, if we tape Chuck and Heroes, we can't set the VCR to switch over to catch CSI:Miami.
This won't be a problem if I'm home. I can manually switch the converter box. However, we have to do some negotiating on those nights when I'm gone.
I'm so glad the government is watching out for all of us with this whole mandatory digital thing.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The Government is not your friend.
A little over a year ago we had to replace our TV. Knowing the whole digital changeover thing was coming, we bought one with a digital tuner. We were ready.
Yeah, right.
Two of the stations we get have changed over. We can tune them in with the TV. However, we can't tape those shows on the VCR. (The Furry Guy works second shift. I tape prime-time shows for him.)
We went out and bought one of the converter boxes for the VCR. Surprise. If the converter box is on, you can't watch anything through the TV. The only signal is the one that comes through the box. That means that I cannot tape one show while watching another.
We found a splitter. (The Furry Guy has a little of everything stored here and there. I love that guy.) So, now we have a line coming straight into the TV and another going to the VCR via the converter box.
New problem. If I want to tape a digital channel, I can only program the VCR to tape one particular channel. In order to receive the signal, the VCR has to be tuned to channel 4, with the converter box tuned to whatever digital channel we want to tape. That means we have to choose whether we want to watch the CBS shows, the NBC shows, or the ABC shows. So, on, say, Monday night, if we tape Chuck and Heroes, we can't set the VCR to switch over to catch CSI:Miami.
This won't be a problem if I'm home. I can manually switch the converter box. However, we have to do some negotiating on those nights when I'm gone.
I'm so glad the government is watching out for all of us with this whole mandatory digital thing.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The Government is not your friend.