Did you know that you can get HDTV for free? That’s right. There is an assumption that when something is free that others are paying for, it’s either being stolen or it can’t really be a deal. But this deal is for real. In fact, Clark is proof. At his vacation home in Florida, Clark has a high-def television but he didn’t pay for program because he gets it for free. How? The modern equivalent of rabbit ears makes it possible. Here’s how it works. Clark signed up for the poverty cable package with the local provider. It’s called “Broadcast Basic” or something similar, and it costs about $10 a month. The package includes the broadcast channels, Bravo, Home & Garden and a few more specialty channels that are in standard definition. Then, Clark purchased a high-definition antenna and the picture on those channels is amazing. It’s possible through something called digital compression, which Clark doesn’t really understand. But the free picture on the HDTV set at his vacation home is much better than the picture at his regular home, where he pays the cable company for high-def programming. In the old days, you got kind of a snowy, grainy picture with rabbit ears. But now, if you have high def and the antenna, the picture is great. Your TV must have a high def tuner, and about three-quarters do. You can figure out if you get the good signal by checking
antennaweb.org.
In other TV news, HDTV prices will go up around Superbowl time. You don’t want to buy one now. Wait until about two weeks after to buy. Also, standard-sized models continue to drop in price. Those include 42-inch plasma models (under $1,000), 37-inch and 32-inch LCDs ($under $500) and 50-inch DLPs (under $1,000). Salespeople are going to try and steer you into much larger models, but don’t feed into the hype. The smaller models are the sweet spots in the market, so look for them.
