Satellite : DTV questions answered: The Real Deal

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Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) – For 30 seconds Wednesday night, we pulled the plug on our analog signal to let you know whether the TVs in your home are ready for the 2009 switch to digital.

If you never lost picture and sound, you're in the clear. If you did, you probably need to buy a converter box. Of course, we got a lot of follow-up questions about the switch after Wednesday night, and here are answers to some of them.

We've heard from some DirecTV customers who lost signal during the digital TV test Wednesday night and are wondering what's up, because we've been telling you anyone with cable or dish will be all set.

Well, you will be ready to go come February, but right now Dish Network and DirecTV are still taking our old analog signal.

They're in negotiations to retransmit that signal to digital for all their customers. To find out exactly when that will happen, call your provider.

This next question is a very important one to campers and boaters. You've got the little portable TVs and are wondering if they'll be useless come February. If they’re battery operated, then yes, you'll be out of luck.

If you can plug them in, you still have a chance, but you'll need to buy a converter box and likely have an antenna on the outside of your camper or boat.

But even then, if you're traveling to a place that normally only gets a snowy analog signal, you probably won't get the digital picture at all.

And a lot of people want to know whether we'll be running this test again. Like we mentioned, we only did it for 30 seconds Wednesday night; hopefully that was enough time to run around and check all your TVs, but if it wasn't, we will be doing it again -- probably several more times before February 17 of next year.

We'll let you know well in advance so you can be ready. In the mean time, if you're not a cable or dish customer and you saw static last night, now is the time to order your coupons from the federal government for the converter boxes and get them hooked up.

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