There is plenty of hype now around the digital television deadline in February 2009. What is the University doing about it? The University is exempt from this deadline, but we still want to get you the best quality picture and services available. We are planning to make the conversion in the summer of 2009, after the dust settles a little in the television industry. We have spent the last year conducting research and surveys, and will have the project underway later this fall to begin the nine month conversion process.
If you are going to be bringing that the old television from the basement, it will work just fine for the entire 2008-2009 academic year. Your television will have to be "cable ready" to receive all of the channels. If it is not, you will only receive channels 2–13. You might need a convertor box in the fall 2009 to use that same TV. We will let you know more about that when we have the details.
We are exploring a number of really exciting new options for delivering multimedia to the residence halls. If you are going to purchase a new television, we hope that you will select a television that will be the most flexible far into the future. You should consider a television that has at least one HDMI input and an ATSC tuner in it. You will want to consult the side of the packaging, the user operating manuals or ask the sales associates at your favorite television store. We are attempting to find a solution that will be the best for everyone and will provide compatibility to as many televisions as possible.
For more information about digital television, please visit: http://www.dtv.gov/
.
If you have any questions about your television or the television service, please e-mail frednet@uwrf.edu
for assistance.