Help a Friend with the Digital TV Conversion

You're a techno-savvy Lifehacker reader, so you're probably more than ready for the digital changeover. What about your friends and family? Photo by daveynin.

While many of us usually prefer to keep the time we dole out for free tech support to a minimum, helping a non-techie friend or relative hook up their television for the digital TV conversion is pretty straightforward. Xin Lu over at the financial weblog WiseBread has a list of ways you can help smooth the transition, including:


You can also help a friend or family member by helping them pick out a converter box, hooking it up, and educating them on the finer points of what the transition means to them. Since the government ramped up public announcements about the digital conversion I've overheard many people talking about how they needed new televisions and not because they wanted a killer wide-screen HDTV setup for the Super Bowl. A lot of perfectly serviceable—and lead laden—tube television sets can be saved from the scrap heap with a little education.

For additional digital-conversion tools, check out AntennaWeb to find the best outdoor antenna for your house and the government's digital conversion site for information straight from the source.