Digital Television: Our Annoying National Upgrade

Not as good as the average Tedium article.

The funny thing was the converter box thing was a bust. For one thing, nearly 90% of people around that time got TV from cable or satellite and were not directly affected. Cable was the "backup plan" for people who kept SDTVs.

Also, the benefits of HDTVs over SDTVs were large enough that most people got HDTVs even before the broadcasts were fully available. I remember my baby boomer relatives in a competition to have the hugest TVs in their living rooms.

Retrospectively the upgrade went easily.