Stephen Tyler of Tyler Home Center demonstrates digital television on the LG DLP 52-inch wide screen at his store in Gaffney. “The difference between analog signal and digital signal is like the difference between a candle and a light bulb — with analog, things can get wavy and hazy, but with digital it’s either on or it’s off,” he said. Quick, is your TV ready for HDTV?

Do you even know what HDTV is?

“Most of the sets we sell today are ready for high definition,” said Stephen Tyler of Tyler Home Center. “Only a few of our tabletop units or TV/VCR combo units are strictly analog.”

Tyler, like many local retailers, is used to having to explain the concept of High Definition Television.

After all, when digital television becomes the new standard broadcasting method, HDTV will be the new standard in television luxury.

“What it really means is that as the local channels switch to digital signals, analog, or old TV sets, will need a converter box to be able to receive programs,” he said. “The last time I checked on it, those converters would cost around $100, but the price could come down. And, it will be different if you connect your television to a cable or satellite dish receiver.”

The Senate has voted to set April 7, 2009, as the deadline for U.S. television stations to switch to digital broadcasts and free up analog radio spectrum for wireless broadband and public-safety uses. Auctioning off old television spectrum is expected to raise $10 billion or more, with $5 billion going to the U.S. treasury.

“HDTV gives a much clearer picture,” said Tyler. “It uses pixels, or tiny bits of information, to show pictures instead of lines like the traditional television set. An HDTV can have over 2 million pixels on the screen, so it has much more information on the images it shows. This will give it a kind of 3-dimensional quality, and make the signal seem more lifelike. There aren’t any more colors to be made, because it still just mixes red, green and blue like the projection televisions did, but the colors will seem more vibrant.”

And, contrary to many popular beliefs, there’s no special equipment needed to receive digital signals.

“Most of our local broadcast affiliates and public television stations already send their signal digitally,” Tyler explained. “I can pick up the programs with just a simple set-top antenna.”

Supporters of a hard deadline for the transition say first responders such as police and firefighters need additional spectrum to improve interoperability between the multiple emergency response agencies in metropolitan areas. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the U.S., the national 9/11 Commission recommended that emergency responders should have additional radio spectrum. In many cases, the multiple emergency-response agencies responding to the Sept. 11 attacks couldn’t communicate with each other because their radios operated on different spectrum bands.

Under existing law, broadcasters are required to give up their analog spectrum by the end of next year, but only in television markets where 85 percent of homes can receive digital signals. While cable-television service can convert digital signals for analog sets, some estimates say there are tens of millions of analog TV sets that receive signals over the air. Those sets won’t work after the HDTV transition unless they are connected to converter boxes