Ripped from the headlines this morning (well, from the sources that we read, anyhow), news that 681 of the nation’s approximately 1800 TV stations are planning on terminating their analog operations on 2/17 (that’s next Tuesday) if they’re not already silent; even though the deadline will be extended to June 13, pending President Obama’s signature to S.352. A surprising number of stations have already made the transition, primarily in smaller markets; but a number of stations have gone early due to equipment failures, power cost considerations (digital TV requires a fraction of the electricity to transmit a signal over the same distance as a comparable analog signal) and weather conditions (particularly if transmitters are located in the mountains), among other reasons.

All we can say is that this buys you some time if you don’t already have your converter box(es)… but seriously, there are plenty of boxes out there, and while there are differences between them, they don’t appear to be major at all. (Just keep your eyes open at what outputs they offer–if you need RF outputs for some TVs or if you want to have an S-Video outputs for other TVs, perhaps.) Need an antenna (or a new antenna)? AntennaWeb is your friend. And, of course, if you’re a cable subscriber or a satellite subscriber living in a TV market where local channels are available over satellite, you’re already golden.

Update, 4:16PM PT: President Obama has signed the bill into law.