| Lousy DTV transmission scheme The point most people seem to be missing in this DTV fiasco is that the United States picked a most inferior system for transmitting DTV. The 8VSB system used in this country is vulnerable to multipath, airplane flutter, and rainy weather. The result: Your pictures will freeze up, pixellate, or just disappear, leaving you with a blank screen. Contrast that with the European COFDM system, which is very robust. I saw the two systems demonstrated side-by-side in Baltimore nine years ago. I was in a condominium overlooking the Inner Harbor, with a window facing away from Baltimore's trademark candelabra TV tower. The analog on channel 45 was unwatchable on an indoor antenna, with multipath bad enough to obliterate the sync pulses, causing the picture to bend and tear. We could not receive 8VSB except by placing the antenna on the windowsill. Whenever anyone walked past the antenna or touched it, the picture disappeared. With COFDM, I had perfect pictures and sound. When a technician touched the inner conductor of the F connector on the cable going to the COFDM set-top box, there was perfect reception! Ironically, the groundwork for the COFDM system was laid by Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey!
Granted, the new chipsets in the DTV converter boxes and receivers are better than the ones that existed in 1999. But the same problems still exist with DTV reception in many parts of the country. As long as we are using 8VSB, rolling out a new chipset is like putting a Band-Aid on cancer.
Germany made a successful switch to DTV, using the COFDM system, in 2005. But millions of Americans will lose TV service in this country because a corrupt FCC and Congress have saddled us with such a poor transmission system.
In emergencies, battery-operated portable TV sets won't work anymore, as they are analog and there are no such DTV receivers available. A portable DTV set probably wouldn't receive anything anyway due to the shortcomings of the 8VSB system. Radio? There isn't much local service on radio these days, with a lot of stations being voicetracked by out of town, out of touch "talent" or simply running satellite-delivered programming. So much for serving the public interest, convenience, and necessity! The Almighty Dollar trumps all!
Could we be seeing the Great TV Riots of 2009? |
