Analog vs. Digital TV in Houston...Lines and More

[S-Man]

So all this hype on tv about people having to go to digital TV's by '09 is annoying me. Digital TV is not that great. You either have a signal, or you don't. If you have a bad signal, it either gets really pixelated, or just gos black.
Another thing I noticed, mainly on Channel 13 (ABC that is) is that they started putting lines on the analog channel. Flip over to the HD or digital channel and its clear. Channel 13 didn't used to have lines until maybe a month or two ago. They put them in there.
It just really annoys me that the stations do crap like this to make people thing that digital is so great. Why is it going to be law by 2009?

Edit: I don't have a cable box, just strait out of wall cable.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Sam,

I don't know what kind of TV you have but if you had a 1080p one, then "true" digital HD is freakin' amazing compared to "straight out of the wall cable". That's like saying, "I don't know what all this hype is about CDs, my 8-tracks are just as good".

- Wil

[S-Man]

LOL 8-track tapes...funneeeee
I have a Sony KD-36XS955. It's one of the last 4:3 glass-tube HD models made, especially at 36". It's a great TV, but it only displays SD, Digital, as well as 480p, 720p, and 1080i. My brother has a Mitsubishi 57" 1080p but he also has out of the wall cable. I understand that Digital HD signals can look awesome- for instance, one of the sweetest looking programs IMO is CSI Miami on CBS. CBS has some of the nicest looking HD signals IMO. Football games and other sports look amazing too.
However, when you're watching, say, Jimmy Kimmel Live on channel 13 on the analog channel, it didn't used to look different from the digital channel. The only difference was the sound was louder on the analog. If I flip over to the 13-HD station, it does look/sound better, but it's also a square in the middle of the TV due to the show not broadcasting in a 16:9 wide-screen HD signal.
With my TV, I have 3 ABC channels- Analog (ch. 13), digital (I'm not sure of the number but it's something like 81.4) and HD Digital (ch. 86.2 or something). The same gos for all other channels that broadcast in an HD signal.
Other channels like A&E, who do not broadcast in HD (that I know of) only come in channel 23, and it's digital counterpart, which displays in full 4:3 full-screen.
And that's another reason I like this TV. It give one of the best 16:9 1080i/720p pictures around due to the glass tube, but it also displays 4:3 broadcasting in 36" of full-screen glory.
Furthermore, I used to have a Cable box for 'digital' cable, and noticed no difference in the HD signals between out of the wall, and through the box.

Edit: sorry for such a long rant, i just feel misunderstood...

[toverman]

You feel misunderstood?

Try telling my 13-year-old Sony Trinitron that it will be as useful as a bottomless bucket in 2009! We don't have cable or satellite. We grab free TV with our little rabbit ears. I've got the $40 coupon to help buy a digital-to-analog box that I'll need to get anything as of next February. We don't watch much TV, don't want to spend the money but need at least local news to see if a tornado is coming.

This is only a partial answer, because I'm too lazy to look it up right now. The FCC is requiring the switch to digital because the signals can, I think, be more reliably sent over the broadcast spectrum than the current analog spectrum. Interference and cloud position won't matter as much. The percentage of people like my family who don't pay for TV is low but enough of a concern to offer the converter-box coupon.

[pavi]

I recently purchased the digital converts, two from Radio Shack and one Zenith. One TV I have was purchased in 1980, two more in recent years plus a Dell DLP projector. I have 31 channels that look like they come from cable. My tv antenna is on the roof of a 55 year old house and looks like it might be that old. The picture on the tv is smaller than the screen most of the time except when the broadcast is in 16:9 but the changing aspect is automatic. There is a zoom button on the Radio Shack converter that lets you fill the screen but you do loose some picture. I mostly watch the 60X80 projector so size is not a problem.



[QUOTE=toverman;709879]You feel misunderstood?
Try telling my 13-year-old Sony Trinitron that it will be as useful as a bottomless bucket in 2009! We don't have cable or satellite. We grab free TV with our little rabbit ears. I've got the $40 coupon to help buy a digital-to-analog box that I'll need to get anything as of next February. We don't watch much TV, don't want to spend the money but need at least local news to see if a tornado is coming.

QUOTE]

[Ronnie]

HD broadcast over cable or dish is only availible in 720p at this time. BUT 720p is still pretty dang good!

http://www.hometheatertips.com/2008/...0p-broadcasts/

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by toverman

...The FCC is requiring the switch to digital because the signals can, I think, be more reliably sent over the broadcast spectrum than the current analog spectrum. Interference and cloud position won't matter as much. The percentage of people like my family who don't pay for TV is low but enough of a concern to offer the converter-box coupon.

And that's what 'grinds my gears', as Peter Griffin would say.
My theory is that the FCC and the Cable/satellite companies are in cahoots with each other to 'force'-if you will- people to subscribe to cable or satellite to get even local channels. There's nothing wrong with having an analog signal. It's cheap, reliable, and easy. Digital is expensive, cumbersome and sensitive. If weather comes through and takes out my cable signal, (which has happened more times than I care to remember) I get no picture at all, anywhere whatsoever. If a tornado is coming in said storm, me and my family are SOL.
With an analog signal and rabbit ears, I would at least get a fuzzy picture with sound warning of impending danger, even in the aforementioned hypothetical storm.
Not only that, I believe they're also trying to control individuals who like to experiment and broadcast they're own little 'tv shows'. Now only digital signals monitored by the FCC will be able to be decoded according to the new "Law". But what can you do?
And that's what 'grinds my gears'.

Edit: And as I mentioned before, I have straight out of wall cable. I still get 720p, and 1080i signals on my TV. But yeah, 720p is good enough for me. In fact, it's even better for watching football and fast moving pictures, etc. When football is broadcast 1080i, I notice more blurring and pixelation during fast movement.

[kenw]

the bandwidth required to get you an analog channel is 3-4x that of a digital channel. IOW, you can get 3-4 times as many channels shoved thru the same pipe if they are digital.

Digital is also much less susceptible to line-induced ghosting from nicked or damaged coax or bad/corroded connections, and ghosting from structural interference for over-the-air digital signals. EMI/RFI interference is much less for digital signals of any kind.

However, in fringe areas, instead of a weak signal that you could squint and see with analog (air) signals, digital air signals have a marked knee-like falloff, you either have a useable signal or you don't. If you have a weak analog signal now, don't expect to have anything once the conversion is made, box or not.

[Digigeek]

"Edit: And as I mentioned before, I have straight out of wall cable. I still get 720p, and 1080i signals on my TV. But yeah, 720p is good enough for me. In fact, it's even better for watching football and fast moving pictures, etc. When football is broadcast 1080i, I notice more blurring and pixelation during fast movement."

That would be true for the earlier LCD tvs, but it is not as much with the newer 120hz units. Our Mitsu 46" 120hz LCD shows no noticable blurring or pixelation during motion when viewing a 1080i DirectTV signal, and football and basketball are awesome on it. It is even more impressive on our 58" plasma.

I had that 36" Sony XBR tube tv and always thought it was a great tv. In fact, I just replaced it this year. But, after having some of this new stuff, I have to say it's like black and white. The new panels are just that good and have come a long way over just the last couple of years. The good thing is the prices are coming down.

The HD offerings of DirectTV cannot be compared to those of the cable companies, and while the service has its quirks I don't think it can be beat. Nobody on our house wants to watch SD tv anymore.

BluRay movies are even more impressive - to the point that I won't buy a regular dvd anymore.

I don't mean to sound snooty, but it's kind of like upgrading from the IQ of a 2mp point and shoot to a 40D or equivalent.

[S-Man]

I agree about the picture quality of TV's these days. While I don't like projection TV's, my brother has a 57" Mitusbishi DLP 1080p tv, and I much rather would wait for a movie to come out on Blu-Ray and watch it in the comfort of his home, than to sit in a smelly theater with sticky floors, $10 drinks, trouble-making people and fuzzy-pictures with random hairs and scratches in the frame. The Blu-Ray picture on his DLP is awesome.
I wonder if they'll ever broadcast in 1080p...

[Digigeek]

Probably not since the difference in 1080i and 1080p is not that much different in most cases. I would expect the next move to be towards less compression or a better quality compression (if that's possible) or a much higher resolution. But, if you have much more resolution, nobody will want to have their mug on the screen since you can already see every little stray hair and blemish!

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by S-Man

Why is it going to be law by 2009?

Edit: I don't have a cable box, just strait out of wall cable.

It's about spectrum efficency. Digital signals are more efficent (you can get more signals in less space) There is more demand and going to be even more demand for frequency spectrum that there is availble spectrum. Think about all the wireless devices now in use that did not exist a few years ago, cell phone, wireless remotes (tv's, vcrs, garage door openers, etc) cordless phones, baby monitors, WIFI, anti shoplifting devices, rfi tags, wireless intercom, gps systems the list goes on and on. Sometime after the conversion the fcc will reassign the current analog tv channels for other use.

[Hanky]

resource for digital reception, provided as is:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp

http://geocoder.ibegin.com/

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/haz...eclination.jsp

http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/01/30...d-demystified/

http://www.radioshack.com/home/index...=&aid=24825228

http://www.tvfool.com/