Originally Posted By: haertig
What you see today in terms of "fragile signal" is not necessarily what you'll see come switchover time. Actually, the digital signal is much more robust than the analog signal. The "fragility" that has been mentioned does not have to do with digital vs. analog (analog is the more fragile). It has to do with low power temporary transmitters and antennas. Or it could have to do with you having your over-the-air antenna pointed in the wrong direction. The digital transmission may well be broadcast from a different compass direction than the analog. If your antenna is pointed in the wrong direction for what you are trying to receive, you may still be able to pick up something if you're lucky (off axis), but you may also experience "fragility" because you're pointed incorrectly.


I disagree - strongly.

From July 1999 until late last year, I had no television at all. I decided to get an HDTV tuner card for a PC because we intended to watch the olympics over the air this summer. Along the way, I picked up a 13" color TV set for free at the end of a rummage sale.

So, I have an old Analog set and a modern DTV card for a PC. I wanted to test them both. I also got a DTV convertor box for the old 13" TV. I got a monster TV antenna, put it on a mast up way-high in the top of a huge tree (what an ordeal THAT was), so it's at about 60' AGL. I ran Quad Shield RG8 down. It's on a rotator and I got the coordinates of the transmitters down in Philly and over in NYC, as well as Allentown. I have an aim point for each station.

After all was said and done, the DTV was hardly worth the effort. I spent HOURS messing with the system, trying to get something like stable reception on the DTV signal.

I have found that there really is no "fringe" reception at all. With the NTSC setup, I could get and live with a snowy, ghosty analog image and still get something understandable out of it.

With digital, the signal level fluctuates for who knows why, a signal that was fine one day is on the next day stutter-bursts of image & sound, making it gibberish, or nothing at all. That's really frustrating - when a DTV channel that was showing a 48% signal on Tuesday simply vanishes on Wednesday.

With the old analog rig, I could point the antenna in the general direction of a major city and be sure to get signals on a number of channels. With digital, not only do I need a higher antenna, I need to aim it far more specifically, and even then, I found it to be unreliable.

I gave up and took the antenna down a few weeks ago, tossed the TV into the household hazmat pickup bin and I use the Tuner card as an input source for the camera in the henhouse, so I can keep an eye on the peeps we hatch out.

I'll get my Olympics online, I guess.

NTSC was flawed, indeed, but the market didn't cry out for something better, this change was forced. I don't think most people care for how the signal looks. Look at the dismal sales of Blu-Ray vs. upconverted standard DVD - look at all the wide-screens you see making 4:3 NTSC fill a 16:9 screen - nobody cares.

Anyway, there's no choice now, you gotta buy the DTV stuff and hope for the best. Did I mention ATSC does not work when mobile? Yeah, that's not in the spec.