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For the public, the advantage of digital is twofold: better reception, particularly in first-floor apartments like that of Mr. Engel's, where surrounding buildings can make broadcast signals hard to pick up; and more channels, though the magic of digital compression.
Most German cities have 6 analog channels. Berlin used to have 12 - 6 for West Berlin and 6 for East Berlin. Now, with digital compression, Berlin transmits 28 digital channels using only 7 of its 12 frequencies. That frees the rest of the spectrum for potentially lucrative wireless services or other uses.
Because basic cable in Germany offers only 32 channels and costs 15 euros a month ($17.40), digital broadcasting - free, once the box has been purchased - is quite competitive. As Mr. Engel sees it, he will pay off his converter box in less than a year.
Mr. Bakarinov estimated that 160,000 Berliners bought boxes by the Aug. 3 switchover - indicating that only a minority used the end-of-analog transition as an excuse to sign up for cable or satellite. About 6,700 of the converter boxes were sold to low-income households at a subsidized price.
Such government support is one of the differences between the German and American approach to digital television. As Phillip L. Spector, a Washington communications lawyer put it, "It's hard to imagine the Treasury Department subsidizing the cost of set-top boxes." Unlike in the United States, where the federal government retains primary control of the airwaves, Germany allocates the frequencies to its 16 states, which in turn assign them to public and private broadcasters. The states are helped in the digital transition because the publicly owned stations remain among the most watched in Germany.
In the United States, digital television has been caught in a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. Most consumers have little incentive to buy digital TV sets or converter boxes since there is little to watch, and broadcasters see little reason to invest in it since there are hardly any viewers.
Nobody expects the Congressional deadline of Dec. 31, 2006, for a digital conversion to be met, because Congress said it would exempt any local market in which fewer than 85 percent of the households were equipped with a digital TV or converter. That threshold seems unlikely to be reached in most markets until closer to 2020, some broadcast executives say. As long as millions of American households are still receiving their television over the air, many of them in remote areas, politicians are understandably loath to cut off even a single one.
