Incoming President Requests DTV Cutover Delay

Sat Jan 10 01:17:54 CST 2009

HD and SD signals should be received equally good (or equally poor) over
DTV.  They are both just payload bits to the DTV transmission/reception
chain.  If the RF gets there and the bits are decoded at all, it is doubtful
that the demux/MPEG II part will fail more or less on one or the other.
There has been several proposals to improve the ATSC performace, especially
and SD channel, but they relied on special encoding and/or more
error-correction.  None of which is built into existing receiver hardware.

I don't know about any more, but it used to be that PBS sent HD at night,
and several SD "channels" during the day.

Remember my theory as you buy your set: if you watch a lot of "heads"
(people) shows, you probably need a slightly larger set than the old one.
The old 4x3 set is squarer, and a peson's face is more vertical, so the 16x9
will look a little smaller on the exact same size set.  If, however, you
watch a lot of sports or movies, you will probably be OK, as they all tend
to be shot more horizontally.

My vote would be with your wife.  You will be hard-pessed to "see the dots"
anyway.  Even on older SD singals.  Most new TVs have line doubles, or
quadruplers, or whatever, to reduce the artifacts.  If you still have room
on either side of the set, it's not big enough!!

Actually, there is a formula for how close to sit to the set, depending on
screen size.  I'tt try to find it.  Maybe George can chime in.

Good luck.
Terry

 -----Original Message-----
From: tacos-bounces+wb4jfi=amrad.org at amrad.org
[mailto:tacos-bounces+wb4jfi=amrad.org at amrad.org]On Behalf Of Alex Fraser
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:00 AM
To: Tacos
Subject: Re: Incoming President Requests DTV Cutover Delay

      That's astounding.  Do you get so many stations because of your
location?  Baltimore + DC? Do you use a beam antenna? If so do you rotate
it?  I live considerably south of DC in Woodbridge.  I'd love to get PBS
from MPT and WETA.  Anyone have any reception experience with this general
area? Do MPT and WETA both transmit in HD?  Do HD signals carry as well over
distance as standard definition DTV?

      I had to look up the HDMA connectors and was pleased to see that they
are DVI compatible and converters are available for computer monitors.  The
catch is that the monitors must have speakers and circuitry so you can hear
the sound.  Has any one made a break out box and device to pull off the
digital audio and pump it through a decoding device?  Will it go into a
digital input on a computer sound card?

    My wife and I are of two schools on getting new TVs.  We both want one
as we watch TV separately.  I figure you could get a smaller higher quality
set and sit closer as it is higher def and wouldn't look fuzzy.  She thinks
in terms or across the room viewing.  She is thinking furniture.  She didn't
like my idea of cutting a slot in the coffee table for a pop up screen.  BTW
I like the disappearing screen idea, could you post plans?

      I wonder if anyone has used a Computer DV card?  What brand and how is
reception?  I have used analog Hauppaug cards for years with cable and love
it.

  Bob Bruninga wrote:
If a TV station switches over to DTV
and nobody gets a free converter
box will anybody watch?

Well, I held off for 20 years.  Till last week we had only rabbit ears on a
13" TV in the closet that we only brought out once every 4 years to watch
the olympics.  With kids, we just decided to raise them with no TV in the
house except the 13" hooked to a VCR for the occasional movie.

But on sale last week, I went and got a big TV. and wow am I impressed with
off-air DTV.  WIth just a 6 dBi gain UHF antenna, I am getting 50+ stations
in unbelievable DTV quality, and not paying a cent.

But I agree, its 48 channls of worthless garbage, thank heavens for PBS.
Kids are gone, now, so I'mm ready for some relaxing TV.  But not quite
yet...

Wife insists that the big TV disappear when not in use.  THis is beacuse the
only place to put it is in the middle of our big bay window!  So I am
cutting a hole in the bottom of the bay, where the TV can disappear down
into the lean-to roof attic of the first floor below the window.  This and
60 lbs worth of springs and mechanism to make it easy to pull up and down.

Nothing is ever easy..

Bob, WB4aPR
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