The FCC mandated that all television stations move over to an exclusively digital by 2009, leaving those who don’t have cable or satellite in the dust. Many people are using this transition as an opportunity to pick-up a new and large flat-screen display from their favorite big-box store, but you’ll have to spend $500 to pick-up a television of any decent size. If you have an analog TV that’s doing you just fine and you don’t have any need or desire to get a high-definition television, you can keep your existing TV.

The prevailing wisdom is that those with analog television sets who pick signals up over the air will be just out of luck, however many of the major electronics retailers are making small converter boxes which will convert the digital signals broadcast over the air into analog signals that the television can make use of. These devices will sell for practically nothing since the government is subsidizing the price of their production.

After a 15 minute trip to Wal-Mart or Radio Shack and a $10 bill later, you’ll likely be able to have the exact same television experience that you had before. The companies which produce televisions would like you to panic and think that you absolutely need to buy a new TV because of the change-over, but that’s simply not the case. Just a few decades ago, families would often keep the same television for 20 years as long as it kept working! Only recently the electronics industry started to push consumers buy televisions on a more regular basis to get all of the new features that the new models had.

If you’re looking to purchase a new television anyway, go out and do it. Some people will genuinely enjoy a new and larger television, but that doesn’t mean you should throw your old one away and consider it wholly obsolete. Get a converter box and put that extra television in a family room, in one of the kids’ rooms, or give it to someone who doesn’t have a television at all! If you can find any way of avoiding just throwing the TV in the dump, do it! The last thing we need is more heavy metals obsolete technology to recycle.

With the digital broadcast deadline coming fairly soon, many people will transition to digital television sets, but you don’t have to. For under $25.00 and a quick trip to your favorite retailer, you’ll be able to have the same television experience you had before for decades to come.