What is a Digital to Analog
Converter Box?

A Digital Television (DTV) Converter Box is an electronic device that converts the new free over-the-air digital signal into an analog signal viewable on older "analog" television set.

The digital to analog converter box connects your antenna or rabbit ears to your TV set.

It will allow you to continue watching TV after June 12, 2009, the day the transition to "all digital" took place.

If you currently use an antenna or rabbit ears to receive your over-the-air programming, you will still need them with your converter box.

New Information: Rescanning
After hooking up a converter box to your TV set, or installing a new digital television, you will need to scan (also known as "auto-tune") for new channels to ensure you receive all of the digital stations broadcasting in your area. While some boxes do this automatically, you may need to select scan manually.

Since digital stations are becoming available regularly, and existing digital stations may be changing channels or adding subchannels over time, you should rescan on a periodic basis to get all of the digital programming available.

How do I Perform a Channel Scan?

Run the "scan" function on your converter box or digital television set, usually on the remote control, labeled "set-up" or "menu" or some similar term. Consult the owner’s manual for more detailed instructions on how to run a channel scan.

Once the scan is complete, you should be receiving digital channels through your antenna.

Perform a channel scan periodically to check for new digital channels in your area.

If you run a channel scan and are still having difficulty, we recommend you use the DTV Coverage Map to see what stations you should be receiving in your area.

If rescanning doesn't help, you may need to double scan.

In a storm, when the cable or satellite goes out, (if you don't have a TV set with a digital tuner) you won't be able to hook up your rabbit ears to your TV set to get local weather and news without a converter box.

When you lose power, a portable TV is a great choice. Old portable TVs without digital tuners won't work. You will need a new portable digital TV.

A digital to analog converter box will not give you a digital picture on an analog TV set. Analog TV sets using the set top boxes will show digital broadcasts, but not in the full picture quality of digital TV. However, your picture will be better than it was with the old analog signal.

Technically speaking about picture quality: The reason the picture quality won’t be as good on an analog TV set is because of the display resolution. Analog TV screens aren’t designed to display the same level of picture quality and resolution that is found in the digital TV signal.

A digital to analog converter box will not convert your analog TV set into a high definition TV, also known as a HDTV. You will need to buy a high definition TV set for that. Analog televisions are not capable of displaying in high-definition resolution, but the picture will generally be better with a converter.

The Federal Communications Commission has required Closed Captioning capability in digital to analog converters. This will ensure that Closed Caption services will continue to be available as the transition from analog to digital broadcasting progresses.

We are getting many questions about the additional features on some of the boxes. Here is the link to a chart that indicates which boxes have analog pass-through, S-video, Smart Antenna, longer EPGs etc.

Analog Pass-Through Feature

You may choose to purchase a converter box with additional features.   These features include:

• QAM tuner to receive free "unencrypted" digital cable signals.
• Component output for resolutions higher than standard video.
• HDMI output for High-Definition. (HDTV)
• Digital Optical output to connect to home theater systems.
• Dolby Digital output for theater quality sound.
• Antenna (RF) pass-through to allow analog signals to the TV.
• Selectable DTV Output Formats (1080i/720p/480p/i).
• Programmable Remote Control.

Splitters: A digital to analog converter box CAN be connected to several TVs at the same time using a splitter, BUT all of the TVs will view the same channel; the one that the box is set to. The box can only be tuned to one channel at a time. For practical purposes, each TV set will need its own box.

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