[bassguitarman]

OK, Ive had OTA HDTV for about 2 months so its time for my rants.

1. Just like digital phones , when the signal is marginal it drops out entirely

which means its unwatchable. "They" shouldve designed the transmission scheme so as the signal flaked out resolution decreases but it NEVER drops out entirely. In place of mpeg2 somebody shouldve designed something new that works. Mpeg2 was never designed for radio based transmission. I think this is the application of the "computer model" to broadcasting which is going to totally be hosed. "They" think since computer users accept 20 reboots a day for their pc they will accept the same for tv.

Last night I tried to watch The Whole Nine Yards in HD. It dropped out so often I recorded the remainder on my Tivo analog and switched over to Dragnet which worked. Guess what broadcasters, when there is no more analog and this happens you have just lost a viewer.

2. Another problem is the marketing types have convinced the broadcast stations that they only need 1/10th the power for effective HD. The truth is its probably the other way around they will probably find they need 10 times the power of analog to insure no dropouts, at least with present technology.

 

[ponnie1996]

the frustrating part for me is that a number of these stations are transmitting low power,making it difficult for the suburbanite to get these channels and 2 - the lack of availability of network HDTV ffeds on the cable systems.

 

[Ratman]

Patience!

It's new... it costs money... they are complying with mandates. They a) have to satisfy the FCC b) they have to sustain the majority (existing based of "analog" viewers) for the time being.


In time, power will increase, cost/maintenance of outdated analog equipment will be phased out and the elimination of transmitter redundancy will free up bandwidth and $$ to allocate to digital OTA.


Contact your local stations and make yourself heard! The more feedback from you and your neighbors, the more they may focus on accelerating their pace.


OTOH...Cable and satellite HD is a luxury that you pay to view. And... as long as you continue to feed the wolves, the costs of HD programming will only continue to increase. Why... because the precedent has been set by the 'eager' consumer.

 

[Matt L]

Well you're pretty vague there, you don't post your location or equipment. It sounds like you are having problems related to signal -why blame MPEG 2? Either you are in a marginal area or you need a better antenna. I'm sitting here 60 miles from most of the 12 HD/DT stations I watch and have very few drop outs, but I have a well designed antenna system.


If you are having problems and want help fine, but don't condemn an entire industry because you get drop outs during a movie.

 

[bassguitarman]

Well I am trying patience. Also I'm using the same directional antenna that has been very effective for analog OTA reception. The frustrating thing with the dropouts is they come and go so much. Last night I used my completely seperate WINTV HD card to actually get a reading on the dropouts. WKYC DTV channel 2 which is the worse offender would go from perfect to hundreds of errors per second over the period of a few minutes.

Incidently my main STB is a Zenith 420 and antenna is a radio shack yagi.

 

[dswallow]

Is your antenna on a rotator? Or did you just aim it at a fixed position where you'd generally found good signals at the time you aimed it? How far are you from the transmitters?

 

[Tron]

You probably need a better antenna. Something along the lines of an antennacraft D9000, or MXU59, possibly with an antenna mounted preamp, and good RG-6 or RG-11 cable. A rotor may be useful as well.

 

[Lyle O]

bassguitarman,

I think you are from Cleveland. I have seen your posts. If that is the case, I don't think it is the antenna. Cleveland's CBS has had a lot of problems lately. They always seem to blame their setup and say they can't fix it. The thing that frustrates me is that during critical times they all of a sudden come up with a fix. For example, last night the two shows before the NCAA final were horrible, unwatchable. Just before the game starts, the signal goes out for 30 seconds and voila, the picture and sound come back and are fine for the game. It seems that if they really want to fix it they can, but they don't want to take the time normally.

 

[bryan27]

Quote:

Originally posted by bassguitarman 2. Another problem is the marketing types have convinced the broadcast stations that they only need 1/10th the power for effective HD. The truth is its probably the other way around they will probably find they need 10 times the power of analog to insure no dropouts, at least with present technology.

I was thinking about this today so I did a little experiment. Since it had been a few years since I actually watched the Pittsburgh stations on analog I connected the antenna to the TV to look at the analog. The signal level on the 1000-5000Kw analog stations were very low, some were so very snowy to the point of no audio. When compared to the digital signal level on my STB the little 20-54Kw Digital UHF stations had higher signal level than the analog behemoths.

 

[Matt L]

When I first got my HD unit I was sure my trusty Channel Master Quantum antenna would work fine as it did for analog, wrong ! I tried a RS yagi, don't recall the model, UHF only about 9' long, got a few blips but not much. I finally broke down and got the Televes and a Channel Master 777x series pre-amp and I get great reception now.


I've said it before but it is worth repeating, HDTV reception is part science and part alchemy, sometimes the weirdest tweak will work wonders.