Going Digital community adviser Dan Murphy said some television viewers in Otago and Southland were unprepared for the old analogue television signal being switched off tomorrow morning, ''going by experiences with West Coast and Hawkes Bay, who have already gone digital''.
Most people had ''gone digital'' already but some had decided too late to change their signal, he said.
He had been providing information to people from a caravan in Otago and Southland for the past four months, he said.
Television watchers needed Freeview, Sky or Igloo decoders to continue watching television using the digital signal, he said.
TV Take Back senior communications adviser Laura Jones said the signal switch from analogue to digital would be made early tomorrow. Electronic stores in Dunedin have been kept busy with customers making the switch.
A Dick Smith Dunedin salesman said every second customer for the past month had bought a freeview decoder.
A Harvey Norman Dunedin salesman said staff had been ''flat out'' selling Freeview decoders for the past two weeks.
''People have been leaving it to the last minute.''
Cargill Enterprises general manager Derek King said its South Dunedin depot had reached its government subsidy quota to collect 1359 unwanted sets for the $5 fee.
Cargill Enterprises had returned to charging the old $25 fee and was redirecting customers to Smiths City Andersons Bay, Harvey Norman and Jacko's Yard, which had some subsidised quota remaining, he said.
Dunedin City Council spokeswoman Andrea Jones said Jacko's Yard, in Thomas Burns St, and Rummage, at the Green Island Transfer Station, had collected about 500 unwanted television sets.
University of Otago sustainability co-ordinator Hilary Phipps said 226 unwanted televisions were collected by university students and staff volunteers in Dunedin last weekend.
