atari2600land's Blog

Sometimes having a choice isn't a good thing - could you image the utter chaos if you got to choose which side of the street to drive on?

Hmm... The ATSC transition was all about $$. The conversion allowed the government to reduce the frequencies assigned to broadcast TV and then license ($$) the no longer used spectrum primarily to the mobile phone industry. The consumer electronics industry got the opportunity to sell new TVs to everyone and the broadcast electronics industry got the opportunity to sell new TV cameras and similar equipment to everyone. (And there's secondary and tertiary impacts too.)

 

As part of the frequency reallocation, almost all TV stations were moved out of low VHF (ch2-6) and in many cases out of VHF altogether and into the low UHF (13-51). This has several benefits including smaller UHF-only antennas and less problems of same channel interference over long distances (typical with VHF). Digital TV also has fewer problems with adjacent channel interference, which is good in densely populated areas.

 

However, as you've noticed, digital TV has similarities to FM radio. Great quality up until the sound disappears, the picture breaks up and your TV loses the signal entirely. The good news is a good quality antenna (i.e. the Channel Master CM4040 for indoor) may be enough to improve your reception. If you want more channels, you would need to put up an outdoor antenna.

there was a lack of voting in this... where has the democracy gone?!