The deadline for the switch from analog to digital TV for local broadcasters is February of next year. Some people who get their TV with an antenna will need a converter box, but not all converter boxes are created equal.

Consumers who use an old analog TV and a roof top antenna or rabbit ears will need a converter box to watch local TV next year. They may want to choose a converter box with a feature called "pass-through."

"It's very late in the game that the government realized that they had not required the manufacturers of these converter boxes to put the pass-through feature in there," Richard Wyckoff of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters said.

Pass-through means the converter box will receive a digital signal while still allowing an analog signal to pass through to the TV. Viewers would be able to hook up a converter box now and not do anything come February when analog transmitters are turned off.

Low-power TV stations can remain analog after next February. Harrisburg has one such station with religious programming. A pass-through converter helps there, too.

”If you want to continue to receive that station come February and you're using a converter box, you have to get a converter box that will not only take your digital signal and turn into analog, it'll also allow analog to pass right straight through,” Wyckoff said.

For a list of DTV converter boxes with the pass-through feature, CLICK HERE.

To get a $40 coupon from the government to help pay for a digital TV converter box, go to www.DTV2009.gov.

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