HDTV or High Definition Television offers many benefits over traditional analog television. High definition television has excellent digital superiority, crisp detail, progressive scanning, digital audio, a wider viewing area and better quality DVD playback. With congress pushing for a complete switch to HDTV by midnight December 31, 2006, will we really say good-bye to analog-hello HDTV?

The issue of choosing HDTV over analog television came about in 1987 when the FCC issued a ruling indicating that all analog televisions would become obsolete in 2006. The Japanese had developed a successful high definition television and the United States wanted to edge them out. As a result a group of American electronics companies formed the “Grand Alliance” by inventing digital HDTV.

In 1990, the FCC announced that HDTV would be broadcast at the same time as existing NTSC broadcasting service. The idea was to give television broadcasters additional channel space to broadcast in both analog and digital. The old channels would then become obsolete. To make this work, all televisions would have to convert to digital. All televisions made since 1946 would suddenly become obsolete unless a converter was purchased and installed.

Part of the HDTV plan worked. Over 1400 broadcasters currently transmit in digital and analog. Consumers, who were supposed to be buying HDTV sets to get ready for the big switch, were not so eager to change.

Currently, most HDTV sets that are available for sale are big screen and they are generally expensive. Smaller-screened televisions with digital capabilities are slated to hit the market in 2007. It is estimated that only about 30 million televisions in the United States have digital tuners, out of the several hundred million sets already installed in homes.

There is a loophole in the HDTV switch plan, though. Congress decided if that 85 percent of homes did not own a digital television set, then the analog televisions would not be obsolete. But, what happens to analog televisions that are still being purchased by the thousands, even as the 2006 HDTV switch date nears?