Is a new LCD or Plasma Required for 2009?

[pcdoctor]

Here's the deal:

I own 3 direct view standard TV's and 1 Flatscreen TV. The oldest TV in the house is a 1993. That is a 19 inch Toshiba. Then I have a Symphonic 13 inch TV from 1999, and then got a 32 inch esa TV in 2005, and just got the Insignia 20 inch flatscreen TV this past Christmas. I do know that we are going from Analog to Digital in 2009. I currently have regular comcast cable service. What I would like to know is would I basically have to buy a new LCD or Plasma TV by then? If not, what do I need to do to make sure my TV's will still work?

[Ratman]

The "analog to digital" transition is for "over the air" (antenna) broadcast(ers). If you are a cable subscriber... this should not directly affect you.

Your cable provider will inform you of any changes (if any) are required. Either way, all of your TV's will still "work".

[pcdoctor]

If I want HD though, would I have to buy a LCD?

[57U]

No, you would need to buy an HDTV and rent an HD STB from your service provider if you want "premium" channels. If you get an HDTV with a built-in QAM tuner, then you could receive the unencyrpted channels "free". See the HDTV FAQs

- Types of HDTV
- Can I get digital cable...
- Which HDTV to buy
- How Large an HDTV to buy
- What you need to do to your new HDTV
Etc.

[kevinw]

If I want HD though, would I have to buy a LCD?
No you could buy a DLP, Plasma, LCD or even a CRT

[Kent]

What the guys above are saying is all true. You might be missing the fact that you need a digital HDTV source in order to view what we call HDTV. In addition to the "source", you will need a tv capable of presenting a true HDTV quality picture. That tv must be capable of generally 720 lines of resolution to reproduce that HDTV signal that is fed to it. The type of display such as LCD, DLP, Plasma or CRT will look really bad if it isn't fed the correct signal.
Bottom line is: your cable provider is sending a analog signal to your tv's that they can handle and will continue to do so until the market has little demand for that service. That might take 10 to 20 years, so I wouldn't worry about losing service.
I liken it to the old days of color tv. A lot of folks still had black and white tv's , but they still got to see the same show you were watching in color. As time went on, color tv came down in price
and now has become the norm.

[pcdoctor]

Then I would have to buy like 3-4 TV's and haven't got the thousands of dollars to buy them.

[ottoman673]

Then I would have to buy like 3-4 TV's and haven't got the thousands of dollars to buy them.

You don't need to buy a 40" 1080p screen, though!

You can buy a CRT, or a smaller LCD, those run anywhere between $400-$1000, whereas what I think YOU'RE saying is you're looking for a bunch of $2000+ TV's, and you do NOT need those!

I'm not recommending that you buy from Best Buy, but here's what you need to look at:
TV's ranging from $500-$1000 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?navLevel=5&type=category&navHistory=cat00000%2Bcat03000%2Bcat03001%2Bpcmcat95100050011&id=pcmcat95100050015)

[ohheck]

Not necessarily. You could buy 1 hdtv for your main viewing and watch SD on the other sets. No need to replace them all at once. :grandpa9:

[mjones73]

You don't need to buy anything, you are using cable, it's not impacted by the analog shut off in 2009, that is for over the air broadcasts only.

In the event Comcast goes all digital, they would be able to provide you set top boxes that would work with your existing TV's.

Regardless of how your getting the signal, you don't need a digital display to view HD, you just need a display capable of HD resolutions and the proper STB from Comcast to give you HD reception over their system.