If you circled the February 17 digital TV transition date on your calendar, hopefully you didn't use pen.

President Barack Obama signed legislation yesterday, finalizing the DTV move to June 12. This is a good and bad thing. Between Obama's initial response, the Senate, the House, and all of the other DTV drama, this delay has had more "will-they-or-won't-they" moments than all 10 seasons of Ross and Rachel on Friends. 

"Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned, and this solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV," Obama said in a prepared statement.

 

Of course, the delay is just a suggestion — and many aren't planning to heed the new President's the advice. According to The New York Times, about 500 stations will deliver the digital goods next Tuesday. Why? Because they can and they should.

While it’s hard not to be sympathetic to people that will go without The Bachelor finale, there has been plenty of time to prepare for the switch. Many local markets have been advertising it for months. They are ready and raring to go. Consumers, on the other hand, are not so ready. At last look, Nielsen was reporting that about six million people still were not ready for the switch.

Many blame those ill-prepared viewers on the big push. Others, including the Consumer Electronics Association, point their best remote finger at the government's DTV coupon program.

The idea was simple enough: Fill out a web form and you'd score two coupons in the mail for $40 off a DTV converter box. At least, that's how it was supposed to work. Apparently, someone underestimated how many people would need/want the coupons. The program soon ran out of cash, creating a longer waiting line than you'd see for Springsteen tickets. Currently, there are four million households on the waiting list. Of course, that wasn't the program's only problem. Many of the people that received coupons didn't realize they came with an expiration date — and it was not February 17.

The new switch date will allow the government to gather up more funds for the program. This could include the $650 million proposed by the House and Senate as part of the stimulus package. Either way, households should be allowed to reapply for coupons that have passed the expiration date.

Whatever happened to the old adage, "you snooze, you lose?" Supermarkets don't allow you to use expired coupons. The electric company doesn't wait until you have money. It's understandable that most people probably don't have an extra $40 kicking around for a not-so-shiny black box. Those involved need a sense of urgency. What better way to light a fire under someone's butt than make sure they miss American Idol?

Many broadcasters seem to agree. Many have already made the switch. However, come Tuesday, other analog stations will start going dark. According to the CEA, as many as 60 percent of the approximately 1,800 stations in the U.S. could transition before June 12. A complete list of the stations planning to switch on Tuesday is available on the FCC's website.

If you haven't prepared for the switch yet, you may have other worries besides coupon delivery. "As CEA has repeatedly cautioned, this date change will inject uncertainty into the market and may result in a shortage of converter boxes, because manufacturers and retailers planned box inventory based on a February 17 transition date," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro in a statement. "CEA urges Congress and the Administration to take the necessary steps to ensure converter box availability and to urge consumers to act immediately to enjoy the benefits of DTV."

Still need to prepare for the switch? Here's a peek at four of our favorite DTV converter boxes.

Voted one of the best by Consumer Reports, the Tivax STB-T9 ($50) includes closed-captioning features, an electronic programming guide, and support for both 4:3 and 16:9 TV aspect modes. The magazine also had nice things to say about the Zenith DTT901 ($60). This model includes analog pass-through, which will allow viewers to pick up those random low-power TV stations. The energy-efficient box also includes closed-captioning, a sleep timer, and program guide info. RCA's DTA800 ($50) doesn't offer a lot of bells and whistles, but should be relatively easy to score at your local Walmart.

If bells and whistles you seek, Dish Network has a sweet box in the DTVpal DVR. Of course, satellite TV users should be set for the switch; however, that's not keeping the provider from getting into the converter box business. The site says the box isn't shipping (it is), but it isn't cheap, at $250. Either way, this one is worth the effort and expense, offering high-def, over-the-air digital video recording. Promising to hold up to 150 hours of your favorite shows, the box also offers viewers the option to pause live TV.
 

[Image credit: Header image from Flickr user One Tree Hill Studios. DTV Coupon image from Flickr user ThisIsIt2. Both are used via Creative Commons.]