[Jeffhs]

This is a very common misconception regarding the DTV transition. Not all unmodified TVs will be totally useless after the end of analog full-power telecasting. Your Sharp TV (and all others with built-in antennas) will continue to work even after 06.12, if your area has or is within range of one or more low-power or translator TV stations. The only stations required to switch to 100 percent digital (at this point in time anyway) are the full-power broadcast stations.

I can see your point, however, as not all areas of the US have LP or translator stations. The use of a converter box or cable ahead of a set like this, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of such sets; they were meant to operate on batteries as portables, not to be tethered to cable or to OTA D/A (digital to analog) converters. Of course, the sets will work with cable or converter boxes, but the portability, which again is a big reason most people buy these sets in the first place, will be lost. I hope someday, after DTV has been the standard for TV transmission a few years, manufacturers will introduce battery-powered small-screen sets with LCD, LED or OLED screens (the last meaning organic LED, a new twist on LED flat-panels). Once the problems with backlighting are resolved (almost all LCD FPs have a backlight that must operate if the TV is to show a picture bright enough to view) and these new TVs are made to operate hours on a single charge of a battery pack, the dream of truly portable HDTV will be realized, but for now, the idea doesn't even seem to be a gleam in the eyes of the TV manufacturers.