Reviews:
 ·MSN
·Brand X Internet
·DSL EXTREME
4 edits | The whole thing is a JOKE! I am in the TV business and I've been predicting this kind of fiasco from day one. I live smack dab in the middle of Hollywood-hardly the boonies, yet can not receive local digital signals well without a $75.00 pre-amplified antenna in my living room. Even worse, I have to get up and move around the antenna every time I change channels. With analog, the 10 dollar rabbit ears worked JUST FINE in a single position!
COFDM worked MUCH BETTER with indoor antennas. At the Las Vegas NAB Convention in 1999 both 8-VSB and COFDM were being demonstrated using local off air signals. The 8-VSB setup required an outdoor antenna, 600 feet of coax and a preamp. The COFDM signal came in JUST FINE using a Radio Shack dual bow tie indoor antenna (why Radio Shack discontinued this great antenna I have no clue), located IN THE BOOTH!
Of course, the FCC screwed up (which is par for the course for them-after all there NEVER has been a Commissioner that is/was an engineer-they're all lawyers!) and picked the INFERIOR system-and for it to work properly, I'm going to have to put up an outdoor antenna...while rabbit ears worked perfectly with analog.
After all, I'm 18 miles from the TV transmitters!
PS: Of course, many of you don't know that come Feb 9th, many DTV stations won't be receivable any more. Why? because many TV stations plan to go back to their old VHF channels-and most people who have indoor antennas have bought UHF only models! These antennas won't RECEIVE VHF signals worth a damn! |
|
| Wow your in hollywood, Omg. |
|
 tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:5
·Fairpoint Commun..
 ·Hollis Hosting
| reply to qworster
Re: The whole thing is a JOKE! said by qworster: COFDM worked MUCH BETTER with indoor antennas. That may be the case but as someone living in fringe area I'm more concerned with outdoor reception. In your case I’m sure it is frustrating to have to install an outdoor antenna or use a preamp on your existing indoor antenna. However for those of us already using an outdoor antenna we need to best signal possible. Gain for reasonable sized UHF antenna is 16 dBi. If that is not enough we are dead in the water.
For interested reader here is the FCC report evaluating CODFM and 8-VSB. I assume you are familiar with it.
»www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_···eprt.pdf
»www.hdtvmagazine.com/archives/ms···sum.html
Given TV noise figure (based on various tests) is in the 6-8 dB range and good preamp has a noise figure of 2-3 dB just adding a preamp to an indoor urban antenna may improve signal at receiver enough eliminating need for an outdoor antenna. In addition newer tuners do a much better job dealing with multipath. That is a big problem here in rural New England and I assume in most urban areas due to signal reflection from buildings.
Bottom line all standards are tradeoffs of many competing things both technical and business. I think you overstate the advantage of COFDM vs 8-VSB. At this point it is a moot point. 8-VSB is the standard. Broadcasters, manufactures, and customers need to make it work.
/tom |
|
|
|
