February 2009 is the date for the mandatory transition to digital TV.   Here is a great website to answer a lot of questions folks may have about this major transition in broadcasting and hardware technologies.

I’m still undecided about whether this will be a bang or a whimper.   Marketing efforts, Cable and Satellite have made many households “digital already” so by 2009 there may not be enough old TVs to matter much – they can install the digital to analog boxes and will be off to the races.