Bye bye analog tv

They are going to pull the plug on analogy broadcast soon [sad]

we will miss you!

I thought they already did that.

Do you mean analog?

You mean they STILL haven't pulled that yet?

Dumb.

Is Digital so much better?

So, have the floods of people complaining about lost signal who missed the past 2 years of warnings started coming in?

It's been gone for almost two years in the US.

joeyjojo: In this case of implentation, it is superior.
Contrast: lets compare FM to the proposed British DAB standard, FM is ages old but wastly superior, yet some idiots considered it a good idea to attempt to implent a inferior standard.
Really quite the masterpiece of a example on how to not do replacements.

@joey: Yeah, digital television is better, assuming that you're living in the city. The downside, is that the signal doesn't go as far, so if you're in the middle of the boonies the broadcast signal might not reach you, and putting up a taller/bigger antenna won't help. It either comes in crystal clear or not at all.

The upside however, is that there's almost zero static, and there's no cross channel bleeding, so you don't get those weird bits where two channels start playing at once. The frequencies themselves are smaller and more specific, which opens up the spectrum for more channels to be broadcast, whereas the old analogue spectrum was full in some areas. They can now broadcast in HD, because of the ability to cram more data into the transmission.

Ceasing transmission in analogue also means that those bands are now open for things like local emergency services.

My grandparents out in the farm sticks have been stuck TV-less since the US transitioned to digital. It's not so bad for dense urban centers, but sprawling rural areas get utterly boned.

Yep. Though, to be fair, a lot of the people in my area have had satellite television (can't get cable out here) since before the switch, because the quality of the broadcast was pretty terrible in the days of analogue. Drunkscriblerian and I don't bother, because television never has anything good on.

edited 10th May '11 1:10:41 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Well, digital TV is quite good when one is not living in US.
B Ut then again, I have heard there is entire empthy large landscapes out there, with a ludricrus amount of pure wilderness.
Which means that the "bad in rural areas" might not be true in other countries.

And satellite isn't much of an option for said grandparents, because they're up in Washington and rain fade is pretty much constant.

I live in Washington, and all my neighbors have satellites bolted to their roof.

You know, they invented Cable for RURAL areas.

And then they back down when the cable companies go "wait, we actually have to string cables out there?" They jump at rural hubs and small towns, but tend to balk at the prospect of a couple miles of cable to supply a relatively small handful of households out on the actual farmland.

edited 10th May '11 1:50:01 PM by Pykrete

Who needs out of town cable companies? All the more reason to form your own utility.

Pretty much this.

Have fun with that.

edited 10th May '11 1:59:22 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Also, at least in the US, stations can "multiplex" their digital signals by adding "subchannels". They tend to be used for things like weather maps or giving other networks space, though. They seem to be the only ATSC country that has a habit of this; I assume the OP is referring to DVB and I'm not sure how that would work with them.

I'm more surprised at why they haven't mass produced converter boxes for the boonies.

Because there's no signal to convert. Digital signals just don't reach that far.

x4

We did. It's why I have fiber to the home.

And they did mass-produce converter boxes, and the coupons to acquire them.

The issue is signal, and that's been an existing problem, as I said, it's why Cable was invented.

Ah, I haven't looked them and was basing it on my knowledge of signal definitions.

And now they finally disconnected analogue in TV New South Wales. Good night sweet prince. Rest well.

edited 3rd Dec '13 4:39:52 AM by joeyjojo

The UK's been analogue-free for just over a year, now. More in quite a few places within it. <shrugs>

Don't see the whole nostalgia thing, myself, though.