Here’s another annoyance with digital television: many of the stations here in DC are using the multicasting capabilities of DTV to deliver several channels at once. For instance, WRC-DT broadcasts one HD channel and one SD channel featuring 24 hour weather.
But what this means is that the bandwidth has been reduced for the HD channel, resulting in a severely pixellated, messed up picture when there is a moderate amount of movement — the opening titles of The West Wing have become a huge, blocky mess.
Maybe having a 24-hour weather channel, with constantly changing graphics, is not the most efficient use of that bandwidth. I suggest that NBC rethink their Weather Plus service and present more static images…
You mean you DON’T get UPN!!!! What do you do with the cultural void that must create?
Anyhoo, does that mean the signal WON’T be getting any stronger in ’06?
The flipside to that coin is what I’m going through now.
Here in the sticks local chanels are simulcasting their over the air analog and digital signals. thus resulting in a very weak digital signal. The outcome for me (since I live kinda out in the country) is that I have a big ol’ Terk 38 on my roof that will only pick up ABC in high def. NBC,CBS and can’t reach me at all. FOX even gives me trouble with their analog signal.
Hopefully this will all be cleared up in ’06.
Simulcasting digital and analog shouldn’t have any effect on the strength of the digital signal — they’re broadcast on different channels.
That said, we had the same problem here at the beginning of DTV — and still do in one case. The FCC mandates that stations broadcast a digital signal, and give different time tables for different markets. I’d wager that your small market hasn’t yet met the mandate to “duplicate service area” — in other words, they are still at the point where they have to provide a digital signal, but they don’t have to put out enough power to completely cover their service area.
In DC, we still have one station that’s holding out — our UPN station is actually on the air, but it’s putting out only 1 watt or so… you probably couldn’t receive it if you were standing next to the transmitter.
If only the FCC would stop chasing wardrobe malfunctions and crack down on lazy broadcasters…