[DeltAlum]

The story here is about seniors, but reality is that a whole lot more people are going to have problems. A whole lot of people simply aren't technically adept. It will also be a burden to the poor.

But beside that...

My feeling is, and has been for years, that this transition to digital broadcasting was, a) totally unnecessary and b) handled terribly from top to bottom. It would take way too much time, space and bandwidth to explain it all.

There are two entities that are going to make out on this. The first is the government as they auction off use of the present NTSC spectrum, and the second is the TV set manufacturers.

I think that most broadcasters would agree with me, but at this point there's nothing we can do but comply with turning off the old transmitters at the mandated time.

ETA:

"Why do you need a new box?

From what I know, it's over the air signals that are affected (OTA) and that's a change from NTSC to ATSC."

I believe that if you have a digital cable box, you probably will not need new equipment. If you aren't on cable or DBS though, a standard analog television set (which MANY sets still are) will not be able to translate and show the new digital signal without some kind of additional equipment. Also, the aspect ratio (shape of picture) will change from 4x3 to 16x9 (first number is width of the picture and second is height). That means that older sets will make everything look tall and skinny because the new, wider picture will be "squashed." Newer sets may show the new programs in "letter box" with thick black lines at the top and bottom of the screen. You can already see that happening on some series if you're watching on an old 4x3 set.