A couple of television questions:

[capriuni]

The first is about content, the second is about the hardware:

1. Has anyone on my f'list seen any of that new show, The Mentalist? I've seen a couple of episodes (one tonight), but I can't make up my mind if I like it or not. And I'd like to bounce some first impressions back and forth.... I don't want to say any more, in case you haven't seen any of it yet; don't want to unfairly bias anyone.



2. On February 17th, next year, the USian government is mandating that all TV stations give up their analog bandwidth access and switch over to digital broadcasting (so that the govt. can use the analog bands for emergency communications, and stuffs). Ordinarily, I'd just buy a digital converter box, and keep using my old set. Except my old set is over a dozen years old, and the display is dying -- about half of the horizontal lines of pixels have gone dead. So that I either see black threads slicing the image on the screen, or All the lines that work squinch together, and the image looks like something from a funhouse mirror.
   
   And it's getting steadily worse. So I'm going to have to get a new TV sooner or later.
   
   So --
   
   
   • What's the environmentally responsible way to dispose of the set I have now?
   
   
   
   • And will I be able to use my VHF/UHF/FM rabbit ears I have? Or will I need to upgrade those, too.

And no, I'm not interested in subscribing to cable or satalite TV.