If you have been following my blog for any amount of time now, you will remember I said I was going to do a test of the DTV broadcast system and that I would report back with the results I found. I have since done so and I can honestly say, with a great deal of sadness, the results were not that wonderful. What I witnessed was actually worse, in my opinion, than watching the "snowy" analog channels, which will soon be no more. One might ask, "With all of this great new digital technology, how could it be worse than snow?" My friends, let me tell you, it can be!
I'll start by giving some background information on the equipment I conducted my analysis on. I have a new HDTV with a built in digital tuner, thus I have no need for a digital converter box. I also used an old pair of rabbit ears that I dug out of the back closet and placed them strategically on top of the entertainment center. After hooking them up and changing the settings on the television to scan air and not cable signals, I began my analysis.
At first glance, I was rather impressed on the way the picture looked. I was thinking this might actually be worth dumping the cable for after all. I flipped through the channels with amazement when suddenly I noticed the pixelation. I figured it must have been from bad reception, much like how the "snow" showed up in the old days. There is one key difference between the two types of bad reception though. With the "snow," you could still at least watch what was being broadcast with only the slightest frustration of not getting a very good picture. However, with the pixelation, the entire screen froze up and stayed that way until the signal came in clearer. Imagine this happening while you are watching a Monday night football game and you missed the game winning touchdown because the frame was frozen in place. That is a whole new level of frustration to deal with.
I understand this passage seems to be a little negative to the whole DTV conversion, but understand I am just reporting on what I witnessed on my first test of the system. After speaking with an engineer at a local television station, I realized there may have been some things I was doing wrong during this initial test, so I've decided not to give up on the quest to make DTV work for me. In the next few weeks I'm going to be upgrading some of my equipment and testing the system again. When I get my results, I will report back.
In addition, if you have tested the new DTV system for yourself, I would love some feedback on the the experience worked for you. Feel free to comment below!
I'll start by giving some background information on the equipment I conducted my analysis on. I have a new HDTV with a built in digital tuner, thus I have no need for a digital converter box. I also used an old pair of rabbit ears that I dug out of the back closet and placed them strategically on top of the entertainment center. After hooking them up and changing the settings on the television to scan air and not cable signals, I began my analysis.
At first glance, I was rather impressed on the way the picture looked. I was thinking this might actually be worth dumping the cable for after all. I flipped through the channels with amazement when suddenly I noticed the pixelation. I figured it must have been from bad reception, much like how the "snow" showed up in the old days. There is one key difference between the two types of bad reception though. With the "snow," you could still at least watch what was being broadcast with only the slightest frustration of not getting a very good picture. However, with the pixelation, the entire screen froze up and stayed that way until the signal came in clearer. Imagine this happening while you are watching a Monday night football game and you missed the game winning touchdown because the frame was frozen in place. That is a whole new level of frustration to deal with.
I understand this passage seems to be a little negative to the whole DTV conversion, but understand I am just reporting on what I witnessed on my first test of the system. After speaking with an engineer at a local television station, I realized there may have been some things I was doing wrong during this initial test, so I've decided not to give up on the quest to make DTV work for me. In the next few weeks I'm going to be upgrading some of my equipment and testing the system again. When I get my results, I will report back.
In addition, if you have tested the new DTV system for yourself, I would love some feedback on the the experience worked for you. Feel free to comment below!
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