Judging by the number of TV commercials I saw leading up to the digital TV transition, it must have been one heck of a confusing issue for a lot of people. It’s hard to imagine that anyone living in the U.S. could have possibly avoided hearing about. it.

The DTV transition, as I expected, is not working out all that well for some consumers. I began noticing a while back that the digital TV signals seemed more susceptible to interference from bad weather and other atmospheric events. Digital signals have little tolerance for being interfered with. Since it is essentially a torrent of ones and zeros that makes up the digital signal that is ultimately shown on your TV screen, a good picture depends upon virtually all of those ones and zeros making it from the broadcast location to your home. If some of them are missing, you’re picture will suffer from smudge-like distortions at best and a lost signal at worst.

Unlike the old analog TV signals where a weak signal was more easily tolerated and would often result in a “snowy” or otherwise poor-quality picture, digital TV is just not as forgiving. For some viewers, a snowy picture was better than no picture at all.

I noticed some rather strange fluctuations in the quality of the digital signals I was receiving at my house before the DTV conversion. Many TV stations have been broadcasting both a digital and analog signal for quite some time, so those equipped with a digital-capable TV or an analog TV with a converter box were able to watch digital programming in many areas.

What I noticed in the time leading up to the transition date that finally occurred this month, was that I could receive some stations digital signal fine on one day and then worse on another. At times it seemed like bad weather may have been causing the problem and at other times it did not seem to be a factor at all.

The good news is that things have improved after the transition and I am now receiving virtually all of my local TV stations quite well. In some cases, the signal strength has improved from a reading in the 60′s to a reading in the 90′s. I’m not sure what the broadcasters did on the day of the transition, but it is clear to me that they did something.

Perhaps turning off their analog transmissions made it possible to boost the power output of their digital signals. Perhaps it had something to do with FCC regulations or something of that nature. All I am sure of is that my experience viewing over-the-air digital television signals has improved significantly since the transition.

There are others, however, who have lost most, if not all of the local TV stations they used to watch. This is particularly true for those using indoor antennas, like “rabbit ears.” In these cases, mounting a good-quality outdoor TV antenna on the roof of the house or in some other elevated location may solve the problem. That’s certainly no guarantee, and it might be an expensive experiment.

Some have decided to switch to cable to cable or satellite TV, which will solve all the digital TV problems. Just make sure that whatever provider you sign up with offers the local channels that you want.

I’ve been a satisfied DISH Network customer for more than 10 years, so I do not hesitate to recommend that solution as long as you have access to an area where the satellite dish antenna can be mounted in line with the satellites. That’s something the DISH Network people can help you with if you contact them. You can call the number at the top of the page or click the “Learn More” link if you need contact information.

About a week ago, I received my analog-to-digital converter box from DISH Network. There was a lot of confusion when DISH first announced plans to offer a $40 converter, and then ended up releasing one for about $60. A while later, DISH promised that they would be coming out with a $40 converter, making it essentially free for those who have the $40 government-issued coupons that are being issued to help ease the transition to digital TV in February.

Although I do have DISH Network satellite service, I do have another TV in the lower level of my house which is simply connected to a roof-top antenna, which means that I would not be able to receive anything on it after the digital switch without the converter, other than some low-power stations that are reported to be remaining on analog, but I am not sure if there are any in my area, and if there were, they are probably not of much interest to me anyway.

I opted for the cheaper unit, which DISH Is calling the TR-40 CRA and is the one that sells for $40. The unit was very easy to set up and seems to work well so far. Other than the 20-minute process I had to endure on the telephone with a customer service rep who I’m guessing was in India, and having her share of computer problems, I’m pretty happy with the deal.

DISH, like so many other online retailers I have done business with, does inflate the cost of “shipping and handling,” however. They are charging $9 to ship a single unit, which is way more than the actual cost they forked over to UPS to bring it to my door.

So far, I’m quite satisfied with the unit, although one slightly annoying “feature” is that it goes through the process of downloading programming data for the on-screen program guide each time you turn it on. This can be stopped if you want to start watching something right away though.

It is rather cool to have a program guide on an over-the-air TV. It looks a lot like the one on my DISH Network ViP622 DVR, but with fewer features, of course.

It also has a nice feature called “Analog Pass-through,” which allows you to press a button and bypass the converter and watch the plain old analog signal if you wish. Due to the nature of the way digital TV seems to operate (at least in my area), this is a handy feature because we’ve seen our share of problems with digital TV signals here.

We’ve actually been watching digital TV here since the beginning of 2007 since our DVR is able to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts using a standard TV antenna and most, if not all of the stations in Boston have been broadcasting in both analog and digital for a while.

From my experience, the digital signal does not seem as reliable, and may be much more susceptible to weather conditions than the old analog signals.

Just this morning I was watching my local Fox channel’s digital broadcast via my new converter box, and suddenly the picture just became totally distorted, and then was lost completely. I had to use the “Analog Pass-through” feature so I could continue watching the program via the analog signal. The weather was clear and dry, so it does not seem as if bad weather had anything to do with it, and I could see from the converter box’s on-screen signal strength indicator that the signal strength was indeed lower than normal.

Although we do enjoy much better picture quality when watching the digital broadcasts here, it does seem like there will be occasional problems with reception due to factors I do not yet fully understand. I’m even more pleased that I recently decided to add our local broadcast channels to my DISH Network programming package so that we can view those channels via the satellite now. I suspect we will have that need from time to time depending on how the over-the-air digital broadcasts are coming in at any given time.

DISH is planning to produce a unit called the DTVPal Plus that is supposed to have a more sensitive receiver, but buyers will pay a premium for that at $70. Perhaps that is what we need here for more reliable digital reception, but I do not see myself ordering any of those new improved converter boxes anytime soon.

The analog-to-digital TV converter box currently being sold by Dish network is called the DTVPal, and it has received a nice review from at least one source.

The reviewer seemed most impressed with the DTVPal’s electronic program guide, which offers several days of data. Not having any experience with these analog-to-digital converter boxes myself, I was not even aware the program guide was an option.

My HDTV set receives digital signals as well as my Dish Network VIP-622 DVR, but neither of them seem to have the ability to provide a program guide for over-the-air digital TV signals, like the DTVPal seems able to do.

The DTVPal is one of many brands of converter boxes that will be required by anyone who uses a TV connected to a conventional antenna to receive local over-the-air TV broadcasts. In February, 2000, all TV signals will be switched to digital mode and all the older analog sets will not work without a converter box.

Television viewers that have cable or satellite TV service will not have to purchase a converter box.

Check out the DTVPal review here.