Before the Senate vote for a delay was announced, Taylor expected another 10 million coupons to be redeemed before the February transition deadline.

Taylor notes that having a hard date for the transition is important. "It gives certainty" to the process he says, both for consumers and for consumer electronics companies. According to the coalition's most recent survey data, he notes, 97 percent of households know about DTV today and know that the transition was scheduled to happen in February.

If you do have a DTV converter box today, you'll have to take action on the presumed new transition day: You'll have to rescan the channels on your converter box. "When 600 stations move to a different frequency that night [of the transition], that affects everyone with a digital TV and an ATSC tuner," says Taylor.

Refer to PC World's to learn more about how the impending changeover will affect you.