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On Feb. 17, 2009, people in the United States could turn on their television sets and see nothing but a dark screen.

This is the date set by the U.S. Congress when all television broadcasters of high-power television signals must cease broadcasting analog signals and broadcast exclusively in digital signals. While digital signals allow for many more channels and higher quality picture and sound capabilities, they cannot be processed by older analog television sets that exclusively receive their signal over the air, either through a set-top antenna, commonly called rabbit ears, or through a connection to an outside antenna.

Those television viewers who have older television sets but receive their television signals through a cable or satellite television system should have nothing to worry about as any signal conversions necessary should be handled by their cable or satellite provider. Most of the cable and satellite providers are already sending their television signals digitally, so the set-top box provided by them converts their digital signal to an analog signal that older television sets need to display a picture and broadcast sound.

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