The digital TV transition

In about a year and a half, analog broadcast TV will be ending and the transition to digital broadcast in the US will be complete. The New York Times carries an erroneous article about the transition, claiming "The V-shaped rabbit ears ... risk going the way of the eight-track tape player" because of the transition.

That's complete rubbish -- antenna use will increase, not go away (as some cable companies might claim), as people see huge quality improvements and the allure of free HDTV over-the-air. Instead of paying extra in order to get HDTV channels from Comcast, they'll re-discover the broadcast networks in HD, for free.

Some may argue the argument was for the VHF rabbit ears to go away, not the antenna in entirety, but they failed to note that at least here in Chicago, a major network (WBBM-DTV) broadcasts their HD signal on channel 3, in the low-VHF band, absolutely requiring the use of the so-called "obsolete" rabbit ears. See a long discussion about the HDTV situation here.