[opendtv] Re: News: DTV Converter Prices Plummet
- From: Ron Economos <w6rz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:54:39 -0700
My old Samsung SIR-T165 gave up the ghost recently (after
being on pretty much 24/7 since I bought it in 2003). So I
thought I would look for a replacement on eBay. Come to find
out, these boxes are hot items! One sold for $210 and another
for $170. Both were auctions where the last bid is made at the
very last second.
Aside from the IEEE1394 feature, it's not that great of the
receiver (4th gen demod). Instead, I bought a Centronics
ZAT-502HD for $95 shipped.
Ron
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/85532
DTV Converter Prices Plummet
08.17.2009
DTV converter prices are collapsing like a flan in a cupboard. A new
Access HD DTA-1080D sold for $26 on eBay this morning. It was listed
for $45 at one online retailer. Other Access models are listed
starting at $9.99. A Magnavox TB110MW9 starts at $10.45. Amazon has it
for $35. A used Digital Stream DTX 9950 is going for $9.49 (less than
the $10.35 shipping price.) A new Artec T3AP-LS is at $6.50 after
three bids. Several online retailers have it listed for around $45.
All the above models are certified by the government's converter
subsidy program, which stopped taking requests for $40 coupons on July
31.
eBay has around 400 of the boxes up for auction, and bidding appears
tepid. Less than 1 percent of U.S. households had no TV reception
whatsoever at the end of July, according to Nielsen. The audience
measurement firm said 1.5 million households hadn't converted to
digital reception, but 60 percent of those were getting low-power,
translator and/or border signals.
Rougly 200,000 households per week were adopting DTV technology, per
Nielsen's last count. Adoption could entail subscribing to cable or
satellite, plugging in a TV set with an integrated digital tuner, or
hooking up a converter box.
The fed's final count on its converter coupon program was tallied as
of Aug. 12. More than 64 million coupons were mailed; 25.7 million
expired; 34.1 million were redeemed; and around 4.3 million remained
active. Thus, active coupons outnumbered analog households 3.5 to one.
The rate of coupon redemption has fallen over the last month as well,
from around 51,000 on July 13, to 13,000 on Aug. 11.
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