Audio Video News

Say goodbye to outmoded TVs that stand in the way of progress. Best Buy is taking out the garbage, becoming the first big electronics chain to banish analog TVs from its stores. You go, mega-retailer!

Best Buy stopped selling analog sets on October 1, 2007. No longer will confused low-end consumers take home obsolete TVs. A bright new DTV world is dawning.

Have I mentioned that I really like this?

A Best Buy press release states that the stores will offer consumers three options: buy a set-top converter, get cable/satellite/telco TV, or (somehow I think this warms Best Buy's heart the most) buy a brand-new DTV with federally mandated built-in digital tuner.

It would be churlish to knock Best Buy for making the move months in advance of January 1, 2008, when the federal set-top box coupon program begins. U.S. households continuing to use analog TVs may ask for up to two $40 coupons to defray the cost of the boxes that would convert digital broadcast signals to analog. Look at it this way. Every hapless consumer who might have bought an obsolete TV between October and January had the temptation removed.

Will the disappearance of analog TVs trigger still more scare stories in the popular press over the DTV transition? Not yet, in this instance, though Best Buy may be exposing itself to criticism by jettisoning lower-margin analog products in favor of faintly more lucrative digital ones. You can bet your bottom dollar that the cessation of analog broadcasting on February 17, 2009 will cause more than a minor flurry of controversy.