Digital TV Apocalypse Upon Us

It's official. Finally. After over 12 years of waiting since the FCC announced the US transition to all digital TV broadcasting in late 1996, the switchover has finally arrived. Analog TV broadcasts have been turned off and all full power broadcasts in the US are now digital.
The 15% of the population that still watches over the air TV now needs a set made in the last three years or a set-top digital tuner box (or alternately, sign up for cable or satellite.)
It's hard to imagine anyone still unaware of the transition at this point. Numerous stations have already switched to digital and had their analog signal turned off for months. Anyone watching TV broadcasts have seen crawls during programming and endless news segments and PSAs for about a year now regarding the switch. However, Nielsen statistics released just last week supposedly indicate 5% of central Texas households (about 30,000) are still unprepared. It seems awareness and understanding are two different things.
There are local resources available in cities all across the country. Free walk-in and in-home assistance is available, as well as free phone support; all being provided by TV stations, electronics stores, and non-profit organizations nationwide.
To find local resources for assistance, as well as broadcast coverage maps detailing what channels you should be able to receive, go to dtv.gov.
If you are tech-savvy, volunteer to help at one of these places after making sure your family and friends are all set to enjoy DTV.

A word about DTV tuner boxes: they are not all the same in features or quality. Having used three myself, I can say that they all have unexpected idiosyncrasies. For example; some have buttons on the actual unit and others don't; requiring you to have the remote even to turn it on. If remotes get misplaced in your household, this can lead to several minutes of scrambling to find it while your show already started.
Some units have significantly longer startup times than others. Some are heavy enough to remain stationary on top of your set under their own weight; others are small and light enough that the cables attached to them make it hard to have them sit in any one place without doublestick foam tape.
A pretty complete list of models and features can be found at Consumer Reports.org.