Digital TV, day four

[jhetley]

Digital transmissions seem to be as sensitive to "multi-path" interference as analog signals are.  According to the on-screen signal strength meter, that station is coming in just fine...so why the sound and picture freezes?

Wife has asked me to disconnect the converter on her set, because of this.  Only affects one station, but it's one that we watch often for news and weather.  She can live with picture ghosts...

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There were several alternative transmission standards proposed for over-the-air HDTV. The FCC, at the behest of the broadcast industry, picked the worst of them — the one most likely to be severely affected by multipath interference, especially in urban areas where most OTA HDTV reception is going to be, and least able to resolve and recover from it.

Why, you might ask, did they make this seemingly-aberrant choice?

Because no matter how badly the chosen standard sucked technically, it was the one that would cost the least to upgrade existing NTSC broadcast equipment to handle. So, yeah, sure, it sucks. But it sucks cheaply. And when you're a Harvard MBA, that's pretty much the only thing that matters. Why be good for a dollar when you can suck for fifty cents?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've held a ham radio license for nearly 50 years. I'm kinda used to FCC idiocy. Take "broadband over power lines." Please.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oy. Yeah, I know a fair few hams, and they are unanimous in their condemnation of it. Even just looking at it from a technical standpoint, frankly it's a really stupid idea.