Compare analog to digital DTV signals

By Tom Lavery

National News: If you have been curious how well a digital TV station will come in compared to the current analog station you may watch over the air, check this site out courtesy of the FCC. Go to http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets. You can choose any market in the country and compare a station's analog coverage area to it's digital coverage area. It will also show areas gained or lost with the upcoming transition as well as areas served by another network affiliate that could fill the void of losing another station. Thanks to AVS forum for this useful tip.

National News | four comments | Link To This Entry

Posted at December 29, 2008 at 12:06 pm by






Readers’ Forum

I wonder what the loss of coverage is going to to for the advertizing rates for these outlets? All that additional expense to reach fewer viewers.Plus the loss of viewing quality due to lower bitrate ‘links’ in the processing chain resulting in macro blocking and pixellation. Such a deal ! :(

RJ
RJ Kanary - December 29, 2008 at 7:18 pm

According to those maps, I should be able to receive 4, 16 and 19 on my Pittsburgh DTV. As of now, I am still unable to receive them at all and 13 (all three sub-channels) is hit or miss depending on the day/time or whether I hold the rabbit ear or not. If this isn’t fixed by February by a signal increase, there will be a lot of unhappy campers in TV land.
Troy - December 30, 2008 at 09:42 am

Remember the early days of U sually H ard to F ind TV ?
What goes around comes around…...... :(

RJ
RJ Kanary - December 30, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Overall it will depend on your location within either circle and if you are in a low lying area or surrounded by trees, etc. An estimate by the FCC cannot be 100% accurate with location and obstacles to consider. By their estimate, I shouldn’t be able to get digital versions of KDKA, WPXI or WPGH near Cochranton but I do. I’m also waiting for all of the full powered analog TV transmitters to be shut off in order to see how that may impact interference issues. I hope it doesn’t turn out to also be V ery H ard to F ind. I’ll be curious to see how well WICU DT 12 comes in with their power output of 5.4kw.
Tom Lavery (URL) - December 30, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  
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