In homage to the ever complaining Electrictroy I feel I must create a thread strictly devoted to his continuous regurgitation of nonsensical and baseless whining and moaning over the switch from analog signals to digital in 2009 which can be solved by........
(1)Purchasing a decent outdoor antenna probably around $100.00 to $120.00 Max....
(2)Subscribe to Cable thats what most folks do and is an easy solution to this problem...
(3)Go satellite and get the most HD available...
Now here are most of Troys posts from the past year whining about the same subject.....I thought a compilation to illustrate how tired this subject is was necessary and I apologize to other forum members who choose to suffer through the following examples...
Shall we begin. ah yes January 2007... I believe this is how Troy first introduced himself to our fine Forum....
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electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,164 Q: Is Digital over-the-air reception worse than Analog?
In my area (Lancaster PA), I receive ~20 stations with nothing more than a Set-top antenna.
Many of those stations are poor reception. Either:
(a) The signal is too strong & I get mutiple images.
(b) The signal is too weak, and I get static but still watchable.
Based upon feedback I've heard from Digital antenna users, many of these stations will no longer be watchable. (i.e. The digital decoder will just "give up" and display a blank screen.)
Any truth to that?
I'd hate to think that, when I switch to Digital tv, I will no longer be able to watch Lancaster tv (too strong a signal) or Philadelphia/Wilmington/Baltimore tv (too weak). Sounds like analog may have been the better system after all, since it will always produce a watchable picture even if reception is Not ideal.
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I just checked www.antennaweb.com ---- doesn't really answer my question of "Will I be able to receive weak stations?" ------ But I did notice some oddball things. A lot of the analog stations don't seem to have a digital equivalent. In other words, they're not listed for my 17602 zipcode.
WTXF-29, WPSG-57, WPHL-17 (my only MNT affiliate), WITF-33, WHP-21, WBAL-11, WJZ-13, WHYY-12 (pbs/classic movies channel)
So if I switch to a Digital Set, these stations will just disappear & I'll never be able to watch them again. That kinda sucks. :-|
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01-24-2007, 02:13 PM #6
electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
I hate paying the greedy _____ that work for cable & satellite. With taxes, they charge $50 a month! Nuts.
As for your list:
There are a lot of stations that I am currently watching, 29,57, 17, 11, 33, 13, 12, that you did not list. I assume that means, after the 2009 disconnect of analog broadcasting, I will no longer be able to see these channels.
Someone else said it better on rec.arts.tv: "When analog dies, so too will the days of DXing (long distance reception)." Very, very disappointing.
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Well ultimately depends upon the 2009 drop-dead date. Antennaweb.com is predicting my current ~20 station lineup (with analog) will drop to only 5 digital stations.
If that's true, I bet there will be a LOT of other people disappointed to see their channel selection so dramatically decrease!
As for the antenna mount, I have no objections. It's my wife that I have to convince & she doesn't like the idea because she thinks an antenna will "detract from the beauty of the house". For now all we have is the TV-top antenna to receive those aforementioned ~20 analog stations. Simple. And keeps the wife happy.
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Huh? (Sorry; not sure what the purpose of the link was?) I know a lot of my favorite stations are located in distant stations like Philly, or even other states like Delware/Maryland. They just happen to have better programming. ;-)
Below is the power output for each of my "missing" channels. It's clear now why some channels (WPHL, WITF-PBS) are not visible to a digital tuner (not enough power), but in other cases like WBAL or WJZ, I should be able to watch their DTV broadcasts, but antennaweb.org says I won't receive them. Puzzling.
Guess I'll just have to wait until 2009's analog shut-down & see what happens. Might have to subscribe to the greedy ____s at the cable company, even though I don't want to.
A marginal analog signal (like 17 in philly) can still be watched from my home, with nothing better than rabit ears, despite the degradation to black & white and blurry images.
In contrast, the same marginal signal broadcasting DTV won't show anything.
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If I can still watch the distant Philly station, even if it's pixelated, that would probably be okay.
ANALOG:
For me a blurry signal is watchable because:
(1) I think there are more important things than TV. Yes it would be great to have perfect crystal-clear images, but there are more important things to worry about. Like who's going to take care of my kids after I die? Or my wife? TV is actually one of the least-important things. A Luxury, not a necessity.
(2) It's free. I'd rather watch a distorted over-the-air PHL17 than have to pay Comsteal $600 a year to watch it clearly.
(3) If I had a giant wall screen, then the noise would be blown-up to the size of a golfball & not be tolerable. BUT my set is small (27") and a lot of the noise is too small to be seen. So the image looks better. The small set hides a multitude of flaws.
(4) The human brain is really good at reconstructing analog images, especially human faces, even when blurred. And so I can watch the PHL17 programs and still enjoy them.
DIGITAL:
As for "pixelated" I suppose it depends how bad it is. I find it difficult to watch pixelated images where half the picture is missing or frozen. A blurry picture (analog) is not too bad because the picture is still there, just downgraded in resolution. But pixelated/missing pieces are difficult for the human brain to reconstruct.
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Because the Philadelphia station is the only station inmy area that carries MyNetworkTV. ----- Because the Baltimore station is the only station carries Maryland Public Television. ------ I "settle" for the blurry and/or pixelated pictures from these stations, because I have no choice.
The MNT and MPT affiliates are ~60 miles distant & weak & fuzzy.
That's not within my control.
As for your RUDE response, implying that I don't belong here, you need to learn some manners: "In sociology, manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be cultured, polite, and refined. They are like laws in that they codify or set a standard for human behavior, but they are unlike laws in that there is no formal system for punishing transgressions." "Manners ease the stress of communal living, and mannerly behavior recognizes the right of others to share communal space. Many of our daily expressions of politeness reflect this function." - Continued - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manners
I came here to have a FRIENDLY conversation with well-mannered adults. If you want to tell me, "Well I wouldn't settle for blurry images" that's fine. Different people; different opinions. To tell me I don't belong here, is just downright rude.
I'm an electrical engineer who works for the FAA.
I have a lot I could contribute to this forum.
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05-29-2007, 10:49 AM #1
electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,164 I wish DTV was more robust
DTV ought to be able to show a picture, even if the signal is only 25%. (Same as analog tv works.) It may look like garbage, but at least you could see *something*.
__________________
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Which is my point..... DTV ought to be more "robust" and able to produce SOMETHING even if it is garbled. Sometimes I play-back partially downloaded movies (*.avi format) and even as low as 60% they are still watchable, because I can see actors and hear sound. DTV ought to be robust enough to do the same function.
I guess I'm just frustrated.
With analog television, even if the color signal was lost and the picture was a fuzzy black-n-white image, you could still hear it & watch it. Not so with digital television. Instead you just get a worthless blue screen.
I want to see my DTV, even if the picture is garbled.
Surely there's some way to override the "blue screen" to force the ATSC receiver to show whatever it gets? (As I can do with my VCR.)
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06-01-2007, 04:14 AM #6
electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
The same is true with Analog TV, but it still displays something. It doesn't just blank-out.
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I see nothing wrong with that..... at least then I can see *something*, even if it's a 6 o'clock reporter that resembles the blob.
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I'd like to see a citation on that. Where did you get the idea "most people" demand perfect pictures? (The consumer demand for 9-hour-long VHS tapes for home video, even though the picture looked very very poor...... and the wholesale ignoring of the Super VHS standard with its better quality images...... seems to suggest "most people" don't care about quality.)
Also:
For my own personal reason, I'd like to see a "blobby picture", because seeing the picture helps me to tune-in the image. A blank blue picture doesn't do that.
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(1) Why should the consumer have to spend extra money? The corporate dicks are rich enough; they don't need more of the consumers' money. A consumer should be able to "tune in" any station w/o requiring extra equipment (or wasting dollars he can't afford to waste).
(2) Like I said before, maybe I WANT to watch a blobby picture. (A blobby picture is better than no picture! At the very least I can LISTEN to the news, even if I can't see it.) It should be up to each viewer to decide when a channel is too degraded, NOT some arbitrary decision by a technician: 'Well this isn't good enough; I'll blank the image.'
No.
Let ME decide.
(3) And finally it pisses me off that I used* to be able to watch Baltimore or D.C. programming via Analog. Yeah sure, it looked bad, but a blurry Orioles game is better than no game!!! But with Digital broadcasting, that's not even an option. It's just a blank screen. Grrr.
The transition to digital is going to cut my number
of watchable channels from 20 to just over 5.
This is an improvement?
Hardly.
* (Come 2009, analog shuts off.)
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06-27-2007, 08:09 AM #25
electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
Well then I guess I need a tuner with a lower threshold (or better yet, NO threshold).
The one I have now is frustrating. I can't even tune in channel 11 in Baltimore w/o it going to a blue screen every few minutes. I am forced to switch-over to analog which, although fuzzy, it at least more-watchable. The analog doesn't blank-out.
When 2009 comes, I guess I won't be able to watch Baltimore at all.
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06-29-2007, 03:41 AM #15
electrictroy
Wii 480p looks good to me
I was watching the Daytona 500 with my parents, and my dad asked me to fix the antenna, so the picture was not fuzzy (it was clear but ghosting). So I hooked-up the digital tuner to create a nice clear picture. It worked fantastic!
Until the clouds moved.
The picture started cutting out around 4 o'clock.
My dad fiddled with the antenna.
It stabilized. He sat down again.
Thinking everything was good, I went to the kitchen to make some food. I was microwaving some popcorn when I heard a loud bang come from the other room. My dad had grabbed the Digital tuner box & tossed it across the room into the wall. I quickly reattached the analog TV while he swore like a sailor, cursed the government, cursed the greedy cable company, and cursed the new DTV standard saying,
"A fuzzy picture is better than no picture at all!!! Why'd the ____ ____ ____ have to change my tv with this ____ digital ____? I'm calling the ___- ____ senator tomorrow and it's about time the citizens of this nation rise-up & revolt like the blacks did in the 1960s. The blacks demanded their rights & got what they wanted. It's about time we stop letting the politicians _____ on us and demand our rights too."
Now.
Multiply that response by ~60 million in March 2009 when people in rural (or mountainous) communities can no longer see any tv, because the signal is too weak.
There are many more, but I believe this illustrates just how dead this horse is and any further whipping is most certainly not necessary
__________________
Bar Wench...Where's my Waffle!
You can checkout anytime you like but you can never leave.."
50"Pioneer KURO 111FD Pro Elite
Pioneer BD320 Blu-ray player
Pioneer VSX-919AH A/V Receiver
32" & 37" Olevia LCDs
Sony DHG HDD 500 gig DVR
Samsung DTBH260 Digital Tuner One Roll of Charmin Quilted Plus in each Bathroom...
Ditto....I am sick of the complaining....besides this is not the place to do it anyway....what can we do here?...we are not the ones responsible anyway...not to mention that most of us here are looking forward to more and more HD and analogs demise will help bring that about (well I think anyway)....
__________________ my antenna is bigger than yours...lol couldn't resist
02-18-2008, 10:14 PM
Diarrhaetic Diatribe
my antenna is bigger than yours...lol couldn't resist
