Digital TV doesn't degrade "gracefully" like analogue does

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paragonOfGeek

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#101317 28-Apr-2012 17:23

I have been finding that, maybe because I am in a marginal area, digital TV looks good most of the time.

However when there is some interference that the picture turns to giant pixels, this is not a huge issue. It is the audio that really ruins the experience for me, in the old analogue signal the picture could get mega-fuzzified (I just made that up) but the sound would still be fully understandable.

I find that I switch back to the fuzzy pictures just to get reliable sound quality.

Maybe the fix is just to watch everything from the internet and forgo the "pleasure" of broadcast TV????

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sbiddle

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#616661 28-Apr-2012 17:29

Digital can't really degrade gracefully. Once you get a poor BER (essentially the same as SNR in the analogue world) things just turn to custard and the so called cliff effect takes place.

If you're getting a good signal most of the time the most logical things to do is look at your setup, ensuring that you've got a good quality aerial, balun, good RG6 duo coax, radial or compression connectors and decent quality F style hardware if you have a splitter (or tap).

paragonOfGeek

95 posts

Master Geek

#616666 28-Apr-2012 17:33

Oh yea I understand WHY it does it.....doesn't mean that I'm happy about it....

I am just having a rant really, I will need to look at my setup and maybe get a higher aerial / trim some offending vegetation...

Thanks for the quick reply though. :)

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sbiddle

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#616672 28-Apr-2012 17:39

For many people digital TV offers significant advantages over analogue. There are large areas of Wellington for example that now get crystal clear FTA channels, when previously with analogue they suffered poor quality pictures or ghosting. Because DVB-T is COFDM based some magic does occur and it can deliver rock solid signals in areas where traditional analogue pictures may essentially be unwatchable.