Anyone Can Install a TV Converter Box

Help for the DTV challenged

We've been hearing about the TV conversion to digital on February 17, 2009 now for months. As the date draws near, do you have your converter box in place?

If your TV reception is currently through a paid service such as cable or satellite, you will not need a converter box. Your company has already taken care of that for you. If your TV set is relatively new and has a built in digital tuner, you will not need a converter box. That's the purpose of the converter box: to convert the digital signal so that your old analog TV can decipher it.

The TV converter box is only for those TV sets that are analog and are connected to an antenna to receive air wave signals. If you have an analog TV and you use a tower antenna in your yard, or a rooftop antenna, or rabbit ears on top of your TV set, you will need a converter box. Each analog TV set needs its own converter box.

Your converter box is not difficult to connect. Think of the path that your signal travels to get from your antenna to your TV. Depending on whether you have an accessory like a DVD player/recorder or a VHS player/recorder, you just need to keep everything connected the way it is, and "insert" the converter box directly between the antenna connection and whatever it is currently connected to.

No matter which antenna you have, tower, rooftop, or rabbit ears, if your antenna is connected directly to your TV, then your connection would be Antenna > Converter Box > TV set.

If you have a VHS player/recorder or a DVD player/recorder, the connection would be Antenna > Converter Box > Player/Recorder > TV set. By connecting the Converter Box after the antenna and before the player/recorder, the digital signal will be deciphered first, and then sent to your player/recorder and TV. You will be able to record TV programs just as you currently do.

When you are ready to make the connections to your Converter Box, first unplug your TV set.