On 5/20/2010 7:04 AM, Sue Pearce wrote:
> Regardless of what you see with the best possible signal,
Well you see, that's what I have. All the DTV signals are broadcast from
a tower on a hill. I had a big directional UHF yagi antenna in the
basement from a long ago experiment to try to pick up the PBS station in
San Jose. So I put it up again and get full power signals from all the
local stations. In fact, now that the DTV signal allows multiple
subchannels, the SF station is repeating the SJ station I was trying to
get back when, so I get it over the air now
> there are some problems- Over the air reception is problematic. One
> local station had to add a second channel and transmitter and antenna
> to get out enough power to barely, and I do mean barely cover its
> former area. Others have had to increase power, and
> the FCC had special programs to speed power requests after the
> conversion.
I'm in a large market with a good antenna location for all the stations.
I don't know who had to do what upgrading, but all are solid now.
> Our local public TV station, already in a weaker position, simply
> doesn't have the money to increase power and has lost almost all its
> coverage in highly populated areas. Perhaps Sesame Street for cows is
> in order. Like all things digital, there is no "fringe" area, that's
> one of low signal, not one like in your community, the signal is
> either great or not at all.
That's a shame, our local PBS stations are on the same tower as the
commercial ones and found the money to do whatever was necessary. The HD
signal on the PBS HD programming is drop dead gorgeous.
So what you may really be saying is not be that the DTV standard is
flawed, but that technical and economic flaws in implementation where
you live lead to failure to deliver on its potential.
>
> With cable and over the air, we have ongoing problems with sound and
> picture being offset slightly sometimes. Sometimes pictures can
> freeze, and can pixelllate strangely.
I also have DishTV, at least until they lose their lawsuit with TIVO.
Comparing over the air and satellite signals for the same local
stations, I just don't see any difference. Well, maybe a bit of
artifacts in undifferentiated shadows on the more compressed satellite
signal, but I seem to be the only one who notices. It appears to me that
the latest compression algorithms differentially compress parts of the
same frame, concentrating detail on the brighter, more contrasty parts.
We do occasionally gets moments of pixelization or a brief dropout on
the satellite signal that I think occur when an airplane comes between
our antenna and the satellite. Very occasionally, something worse has
lost us several to many minutes of signal. But you know, the old analog
stations went out occasionally too.
I hope Dish wind over TIVO, as I love our DVR. With two Satellite and
one OTA tuner, it can record up to three programs at a time, while we
are watching yet a fourth that was previously recorded. Watching
commercials is a thing of the past. We virtually never watch anything live.
>
> Analog channels on the cable look worse than on an analog TV.
More precisely, you find that material originally recorded in analog and
now broadcast digitally is worse. Ain't no analog channels any more.
I've found a more mixed bag. A lot of old movies on our PBS stations and
the satellite movie channels seem to have improved. Apparently new
transfers to DVD are available and translate into images on my screen
better than I recall in analog broadcasts.
Then again, some old stuff does look pretty bad. Whether really worse
than before or now worse by comparison to the new stuff, I don't know.
Personally, I noticed an improvement in network and PBS productions even
as analog broadcasts as they upgraded their production in anticipation
of HDTV.
>
> Live things like sports, often look great, while programs that I
> watch, that are filmed or taped, can be a problem.
Not a sports watcher, myself. Still, PBS stuff produced in HD over the
last few years has excellent A/V quality here. We also watch a fair
amount of entertainment TV, and the quality is pretty uniformly very
good to outstanding here, on a 61" HDTV. I gave up on Survivor years
ago, but Carol is still hooked. You wouldn't believe how good those
jungles look in HD.
>
> When it's good, DTV is great. When not, it's awful.
Find somebody to donate upgrades to your local PBS outlet.
When the govt was handing out chits for discounts on converters, I got
one, just in case and was able to buy a good converter for just
shipping. Turns out our RV is a little out of date, A/V wise, with a
first rate LCD computer monitor/TV, but with only an analog tuner. I
tried hooking up the converter, raised and aimed the antenna and there
were all the local DTV signals. The converted pictures are nothing to
rave about, but not bad at all. Of course, we've yet to camp where there
is a cell phone signal, let alone TV, but we're ready if we need it. :-)
Moose
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