Using ATSC Set-Top-Boxes with vintage sets.

[peverett]

From my "not so great" experience when receiving HDTV, even being pretty close(30 miles) from the transmitters, I agree with MRX37. Analog has served us well for around 60 years. I think that it is stupid to throw this away without a little actual experience with digital. Perhaps things will become better when analog is turned off and transmitter power increases, but what is the problem with keeping some analog, at least for a few years, until we actually know how well digital broadcasting will work under all conditions.

I also enjoy the one Digital subchannel(PBS) that is sometimes broadcast. All the networks and the local independent broadcast nothing on the subchannels, so I do not see any benefit. (If some of the cable channels, History, Discovery, etc were broadcast on these subchannels, I would change my tune. I do not want any more of the network stuff-I do not watch most of what is broadcast now).


(One more issue with turning off all analog channels that is just now coming out is the massive recycling or landfill issue that is being created by all of the newly obsolete TV sets. I have just seen a TV news report on this and have read a couple recent arcticles about it).

As an example of my reception issues, recently, I had a 1960s vintage TV on UHF analog channel 36 running at the same time as my HDTV tuner was receiving the channel 36 HDTV broadcast. The analog TV was using the UHF loop while the HDTV tuner was using rabbit ears. A cold front had just passed, so it was a little windy. The analog was working just fine, while the digital was pixelating, and losing sound every minute or so. I sure hope digital does work better than this once analog is turned off-my digital reception at that time was unwatchable.

In less windy condtions, my digital reception so pretty good. As my antennas are inside, it must be related to transmitter tower movement.

From my experience with running my HDTV tuners( two different types), I have noticed a couple of interesting things. Here, at least, the analog signal is a second or two ahead of the digital. If you play HDTV and analog side by side, the analog set is always a couple seconds ahead. I have also noticed a slight difference in my two different types of HDTV tuners. One decodes the signal slightly faster than the other, so is slightly (less than a second, but noticeable) ahead of the other.