This date has been known for a while but I was reminded this morning while reading the newspaper. December 31, 2006 is the date where the broadcasters must return the analog portion of the spectrum to the government.

The reason why I bring this up is what are our plans hardware and software wise? I currently have a myth box with a PVR-250, PVR-500, and HD3000 and I would like to keep using it as we move forward. I know we'll be able to pick up channels with the HD3000 (QAM is available over the line from my cable provider), but what are the other options going to be?

From what I understand there will be boxes to convert "down" from the digital signal so that an analog tv can use the information. I think those will be more like our current cable boxes where you put the tv on channel 3/4 or use the auxilliary input. This won't do a whole lot of good for my 250/500 setup unless those boxes output channels 2-125 like the data that is available over the existing cable line. I think the most likely route will be one of the serial IR emitters and have that change the channel on the box while the PVR captures the video through the svideo and audio input.

Do any of you guys/girls have any more information about how this change will be made?

Heh. Last thing I read said April, 2009.

I'm not sure why cable companies couldn't continue to offer analog broadcasts for many years after the switch. They could do the conversion for us.

I suppose it's all about supply and demand and how they can make the most monay.

Actually, I'm not even sure if cable TV has enough bandwidth to broadcast *all* their channels in HD. Would you need fiber-optics for this?

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5895723.html might have been what you were reading about. Looks like they're realizing that they'll have to push the deadline off as they're not even close to 85%

Also remember that digital TV does not equal HDTV... all they need is bandwidth to broadcast most of their stuff in SD, which takes up much less space than their current analog channels. Once enough channels switch to HD, they'll hope to have the bandwidth to allow it (or start compressing stuff more).

I guess I'll just need to get another HD3000 or whatever we have drivers for by then