[Jeffhs]

wa2ise -

I didn't think that ghosting (as we used to know it with analog TV) was a problem with DTV signals (the cable system in my area, Time Warner, is 100 percent digital, has been for a couple years now, and I have yet to see any ghosts whatsoever on any channel I get here), unless you're referring to reflections of DTV signals off walls and such that cause dead spots and other reception problems, when trying to receive DTV signals over the air with an antenna.

I have no experience with OTA DTV reception, having had cable as long as I've lived here, but I do understand that it is much more difficult, even in strong signal areas, to find a spot for an indoor antenna that will result in said antenna bringing in a usable signal on any given channel. This is due, of course, to the all-or-nothing nature of DTV; there are no degrees of reception quality as there used to be with analog--with DTV, either you have a picture or you don't. This is not to say cable systems are immune to occasional signal dropouts or distortion; I've seen it happen on the cable system in my area, and I'm sure it happens with other systems as well.

I think the occasional dropouts, pixelizations, etc. that occur with OTA DTV may be just the nature of digital TV, and we're just going to have to live with it. Cable systems are set up to deliver strong, clear signals to their subscribers 99.9 percent of the time, but let us never forget that OTA DTV signal quality at the set is always at the mercy of weather conditions, as well as the antenna used to receive the desired channels. For example, I live in an area of northeastern Ohio that is some 40 miles southwest of the TV transmitters serving Cleveland. I don't really know what the OTA DTV reception situation is like in this area, as I have never had my TV on an antenna (except for very brief tests after the DTV transition) since moving here ten years ago, but knowing that I am quite a distance from the transmitters I wouldn't count on getting reliable reception from every Cleveland station with an indoor antenna. For example, channel 3 in Cleveland is the NBC affiliate for northeastern Ohio, but its signal apparently does not reach my small town; there is (or was, before the DTV transition) no picture whatsoever on this channel (in analog), either on my set or on a TV at the local supermarket three blocks from my apartment, in both cases using indoor antennas. I have no idea whatsoever whether the DTV signal from this channel (or any other Cleveland television station) would or would not be watchable in my area, as again I have never used an antenna for daily viewing on either of my TVs since I have lived here. There is a bowling alley down the street from me that has, mounted on a chimney, a high-power TV antenna on a rotor (as far as I know at this point, they do not have cable), but I'm not sure how good or bad their DTV reception is. I have never been in the building, so don't know how many televisions they may have. They may and probably do have at least one, if they have an outdoor antenna; if so, it may well be a flat-panel HDTV which, of course, demands a very strong, clear signal to produce any kind of watchable picture. The antenna being on a rotor makes me think that, in the days before DTV, they used to be able to get stations from 100 miles away (in my area, this radius would include Erie, Pennsylvania to the east and Toledo, Ohio to the northwest as well as Cleveland to the southwest), but these days I don't see them getting much other than Cleveland stations; even those may be iffy, even with that high-power antenna.