Is HD TV really needed?

[mastermesh]

To see HD, you will need an HD set. Period. What will happen if you have an SD set with a digital tuner is that HD will be received and downconverted to SD. So you will see something on your digital tuner TV, but it will be SD not HD.

Cool. Glad to hear that. I figured it'd be like it is with my Pansat 3500 and fta satellite where it will get a frequency from HD channels but won't actually pick anything up since it's and SD box...

Here's a reply the NTIA guy sent me after I emailed them... Sounds like you should just stay out of the looking mode til 2008. What really bugs me about the coupon thing is that they coupons are good for only 90 days... so if you get one in January, it has to be used by March... What happens when lots of folks sit and wait and then finally all order at once in September so that they can try to find these things on Black Friday 2008 combined with the coupons???... also will the money still be there to offer coupons that late in the year? Oh well, guess it doesn't apply to me really since we'll likely just buy a new tv... Will the converters work to send signals from Antenna in to an ati-all-in-wonder... my guess is yes since it's downconverting to normal analog... Anyways, here's the reply I got:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: COUPONINFO COUPONINFO <COUPONINFO@ntia.doc.gov>
Date: Nov 30, 2007 4:52 PM
Subject: Thank you for your email. You will see that by law we cannot accept

Thank you for your email. You will see that by law we cannot accept
requests for the $40 coupons until January 1, 2008. Please visit our
Web site
for answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at
NTIA: Digital TV Transition and Public Safety.

The $40 coupons will only be able to be used for a National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) certified
converter box.

Please mark your calendar and check our Web site or call 888-DTV-2009
in January 2008 or
online at NTIA: Digital TV Transition and Public Safety, by fax at 1-877-388-4632, or by mail at
Post Office Box 2000,
Portland, Oregon 97208. Please contact us if you have additional
questions.

Sincerely,

Television Converter Coupon Program Team
National Telecommunications & Information Administration