The elderly, hermits and people too cheap to get cable weren't the only victims of the recent transition to the digital airwaves.

Apparently, the lack of an analog signal means that somewhere out there, an alien race that mankind has yet to discover will not know the winner of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

An astronomer from the SETI Institute has speculated that undiscovered alien races or other forms of intelligent life in the universe won't be able to watch Earth's television because of the switchover.

You've seen the commercials about the digital TV switch, set for June 12, 2009, and now you're probably wondering: what should I do next? But before you run out and buy a new TV, read through our comprehensive guide to find answers to all of your burning questions.

Why is the switch happening?
If you think this is the cable company trying to pull a fast one on you -- think again. The switch, which was passed by Congress through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, is actually designed to enhance your TV viewing experience. This includes improvements in sound and picture quality, closed captioning and multicasting, which broadcasts multiple programs using the same channel -- all the more reason to watch your favorite shows.

One of the first things most people do when they buy a TV tuner card for their PC is to throw away the PVR software that came with the tuner. Windows Media Center, BeyondTV, SageTV, MythTV or Media Portal do a much better job of letting you watch and record TV.

So I've never spent much time with Hauppauge's WinTV software, even though I've purchased 4 Hauppauge TV tuners over the years. Version 6 was just released, and it's worth taking a look at. The software includes a new streamlined (and skinnable) interface and a new taskbar for recording, pausing, and playing TV.

But more importantly, WinTV V6 includes a driver update that allows HD tuners like the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 to receive QAM signals. In other words, you can connect your PC to your digital cable and receive any unencrypted HD channels available from your provider. That probably includes most of the major broadcast networks.