Almost a year since analog TV died

[Jeffhs]

Analog OTA television has all but disappeared here in northeastern Ohio, with the exception of a few low-power stations. The switch has also rendered the auto-clock-set function of my Panasonic PV4022 VCR inoperative, though I can't see why it wouldn't work with either type of signal as long as the extended data signal is still there. I get two PBS stations on my cable, but only one of them had the XDS signal; now, with everything digital, that signal is apparently gone. Is there any reason why a DTV signal could not carry the XDS signal as well? Closed captioning still works although, with my cable service, the DTV signal is converted to analog NTSC; therefore I do not use or need a cable box. I have two analog CRT televisions here and do not want to spend upwards of $50 per month for digital cable.

BTW, I don't know where sampson159 in Columbus (in a post I read this morning) got his information regarding converter boxes selling for $300. I have yet to see any DTV boxes priced anywhere near that much; in fact, most boxes can be had (if they are still being sold) for well under $100--and I mean well under. Just after the DTV transition I was seeing, in newspaper ad flyers, ATSC->NTSC converter boxes selling for dirt-cheap prices in pharmacies, department stores, etc., and even in analog's last days the boxes had very affordable price tags as well. After all, if DTV converter boxes sold for anywhere near $300 at any time before or after the transition, a lot of people with older analog sets would be without TV today.