It is January 1, 2008 – and that means the federal government’s coupon program for digital TV converter boxes is up and running. You can apply for your coupons starting today, up to two $40 coupons per household. The boxes are expected to retail for $50 to $70, so you’ll pay $10 to $30 after the coupon. You must purchase one of the eligible boxes.
Remember, you only need these if you use an antenna to receive your TV signals and you do not have a TV or other tuner (like a high-def TiVo) that can already tune OTA digital TV signals. The converter boxes will allow older, analog-only TV’s to tune the digital signals from antenna. If you use only cable or satellite then you don’t need to worry about this at all. See DTV2009.gov for details, and NTIADTV.gov for a bit more technical info.