Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Technically Challenged...

Old faithful..



We have never been one of those families who were ahead of the game, when it came to owning the latest electronics and gadgets .
Just the opposite in fact, since my dear hubby is of the opinion that nothing needs replacing or upgrading, until it dies........ and even then, it's questionable.

When every household in the neighborhood owned a VCR , we had none. The luxury of "Pacman" was only ours when everyone else had tired of them, and couldn't give the stuff away to save their lives.
Same with DVD players. We actually own one, but because the main television in the Den area, is some twenty two years old, there is nothing to hook it up to, unless we are willing to give up our cable TV box, and forego my beloved BBC America .

Nah.

So, we plod along, in harmony, with our perfectly good Curtis Mathis console television, of which we paid a mere fortune for, and in turn, we're given almost a quarter of a century of viewing pleasure.

I really do not have a problem with all of this, after all, I don't like change. I like sticking with what I have, antiques, old pets, a long marriage, a daughter and her family within walking distance, the same job for thirty years.....it's just that often times we have NO choice.

On February 17 2009 we will all face change.

Some of us, will be able to transition to the new DTV without ever noticing, for others, it will be a major electronic investment, or the requirement of yet another one of those "black" boxes staring us in the face every evening.

There is help of course, but now that's looking questionable......we may all end up huddled around the radio every evening, listening and giving our own "take" on stories.
Come to think of it.......that may be a "good thing".

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the government is running out of the allotted money — provided to consumers via coupons — to subsidize the purchase of converter boxes.
The article cites an increase in demand. “Rattled by the recession,” Amy Schatz and Ben Charny write, “many consumers facing the upcoming switch to digital television are taking the cheap way out — buying inexpensive converter boxes instead of new digital TV sets.”
More from the Journal:
“As of Monday, consumers who request the $40 government coupons are being put on a waiting list, Commerce Department officials said. The coupons help pay for set-top digital converter boxes that allow older TVs to receive digital signals. The department is also warning consumers that some stores may not have enough converter boxes to meet demand. Consumers requested about 7.2 million coupons in December, far higher than the 4.3 million the administration had forecast.”
The DTV Transition takes place on February 17.





5 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Josephine, I think we used to have that same TV MANY years ago. We are more change-agents--and maybe that is because we have young adult kids who help keep us 'updated.' We have a wonderful bigscreen TV with High Definition... OH --how wonderful.

I think the congress defeated that bill that would postpone the move to digital.. Some were trying to get it postponed 'til May I think--but it was defeated. They've advertised the ba-duky out of it--so hopefully those with antennas KNOW by now. They've had plenty of time to convert.

Check out my blog today. Interesting --about Right Brain -Left Brain.
Hugs,
Betsy

Winifred said...

Oh I totally agree with you. Why keep changing things when there's nothing wrong with what you have? Your telly is great, much better than the stuff you buy now. Nothing is made to last anymore.

People here change their carpets and 3 piece suites on a regular basis. It's Margaret Thatcher's fault, she made everyone greedy, wanting everything and now! We've had our carpets over 20 years now, they need cleaning but I don't feel like replacing them, whatever we buy won't last long.

I think we have a while until the digital changeover. By then we'll have replaced our telly. We've only had it about 4 years but the picture is going. Typical!

When VCRs came out we didn't buy one for years. My daughter used to come in from school saying she was a deprived child. Everybody in her class had one and she felt stupid. Well she had to go on feeling stupid for quite a while.

George said...

I'm with you. We had a Curtis-Mathis television that lasted forever. My parents are still using a Kenmore refrigerator they got when they married in 1940!

Brenda Heisler said...

I went online to get one of those receiver coupons, and was told I'm on a waiting list.

We are sort of middle of the road people. We don't get the latest things just cause they're new and we don't have really old stuff. My cell phone doesn't take photos. I didn't have a digital camera until the grandson arrived. We don't have wide screen or plasma TVs. Just middle of the road stuff.

Janet said...

Like you we rarely up-date anything, preferring to stick with the old and familiar. We even had a telly like yours for several years, but it was second or third hand when we bought it, and it gave up the ghost a few years back. We just replaced it with a regular telly, no hi-def, or wide screen. But then, why bother, when we don't even have cable?

We can only get 2 channels on our telly, and though we did get a convertor box, I think they will disappear in Feb.

We get most of our viewing from www.thebox.bz, but it's peer to peer, so I guess it's only a matter of time before they make that illegal. :-(