Every once in awhile, someone asks me about the United States' transition to digital television scheduled to take place two years later than originally planned in February 2009. Given the enormous sum of money the government has spent on public service announcements, coupons and other publicity, it always surprises me just how little the average person knows about the upcoming changeover.

That is, until I paid a visit to the FCC's digital television information website at dtv.gov. The government — or at least the FCC — must think Americans are incredibly stupid. I could not find a video, article or advertisement that actually explains the difference between analog and digital broadcasts. The page titled, "What's DTV?" completely misses the boat. It begins:

This makes me think, as most uneducated consumers do, that moving to digital from analog television is really a transition to high definition television. It's not. (And it's not their fault they don't understand it either.)

Rather, the DTV transition will move over-the-air broadcasts in the United States to a digital method of transition from an analog transmission system. I can describe the delight of eating a box of Moonstruck chocolates in English or in French. But regardless of the language I choose to speak, the intrinsic meaning of my prose remains the same. "Moonstruck chocolates are delicious," conveys the same message as, "Les chocolats de Moonstruck sont délicieux." In the same way, broadcasters will now transmit a 480 line, interlaced picture via digital broadcast rather than via an analog broadcast. The picture remains intrinsically the same.

Of course, my choosing to speak in English rather than French has some benefits. For one, I have a much stronger command of English than French. I could describe eating a Moonstruck truffle as, "A blissful experience that sends one into a transcendent state of nirvana." But, without a French-English dictionary handy, I cannot describe the experience of eating a Moonstruck truffle with as much metaphorical detail. So too can broadcasters, by virtue of the digital transmission method now beam fuzz-free standard definition and beautiful high definition pictures with 5.1 channel surround sound into people's homes.

Consumers, however, may need one of those mythical converter boxes if their television doesn't have a digital tuner. It would be as if I asked one of my non-French speaking friends, "Connais-tu une bonne boisson pour accompanger des chocolats de Moonstruck?" An older television glosses over the digital signal because it has no idea what to do with it or what it means. The converter box acts as a sort of translator that could step in and convert my previous statement into English: "Do you know a good drink to go with some Moonstruck chocolates?"

See? It's not that complicated! Would it kill the FCC to actually explain the technical difference between analog and digital television? Their oversimplified explanations only serve to make me and everyone else befuddled and confused.