Fergie's Tech Blog

DTV Storm Coming?

Clayton Sandell writes for ABC News:

As a meteorologist and storm expert who flies into hurricanes, Paul Flaherty knows how important it is to prepare for a disaster.

But as he looked over some of the emergency supplies in his closet a couple of weeks ago, he realized that one important item on his checklist is going to be useless in the next hurricane: his portable analog television.

It's one of the potential problems for people living in a hurricane zone, or any potential disaster area, as television stations make the government-mandated switch from traditional analog broadcasts to ones that are all digital.

When the power goes out in a hurricane, untold thousands of residents will find that their battery-powered analog TVs, which provide vital information including where a storm is headed and when the worst of it has passed, will no longer be compatible with the digital broadcasts.

posted by Fergie @ 2/07/2009 05:50:00 PM