My experiences with ATSC HDTV

[MRX37]

Earlier today I came into posession of a HDTV tuner card for my computer. This card can receive both Analog and Digital signals. I have been playing with it for awhile and I want to share my experience.

HOOKING UP AN ANTENNA:

After I got the card installed into my computer, I hooked the simpliest and crudest antenna to the card, a 3 foot long piece of wire. The piece of wire is my desperate antenna, normally used to bring in a TV signal when nothing else is available. Normally I can bring in a few watchable analog stations.

The simple wire antenna failed to bring in any digital signals.

My next step was to lengthen the wire. This did the trick. I now can bring in several digital channels.


WATCHING AND CHANNEL CHANGING:

The picture quality on High definition channels is great! I can make out more details on people's faces, read smaller text, and the framerate is smoother then analog NTSC. Standard definition digital looks kinda crappy though. There are compression artifacts, and the detail isn't nowhere near as fine, but the framerate is still smooth.

Channel changing is fast. I have heard complaints here about digital tuners taking a second or two to change channels. The tuner in my TV card changes at a comparable speed to an analog tuner.

WEAK SIGNALS:

My software includes a signal strength meter, which I like VERY much! I used to guess at analog signal strength by how fuzzy the picture was. This strength meter tells me exactly how strong the signal is.

When signal strength drops to below 50% CORRECTION: 70%, the picture starts to go out. However, it does not take a second or two to come back. It comes right back right away once the signal is strong enough. There's no blockiness or artifacts. The picture and sound just stop, then come right back once the signal strength improves. A good antenna is necessery.

OVERALL JUDGEMENT: Over the air digital TV is not too bad. I can bring in local stations with a signal strength of 85 to 90% with a piece of long wire, in a basement no less. There is no ghosting or fuzziness, and no interference. Picture quality is certainly better for HD, but somewhat worse for SD. All in all, I don't think there will be a revolt after the 2009 switchover.

I will probably be putting a roof antenna up to see if I can bring in more channels in the future.