Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Digital TV reception for over-the-air viewers in the U.S., a longtime worry, has made impressive strides, according to year-end articles from two DTV technology experts.

Inherent problems with the American digital television standard, while not widely known among the general public, raised early doubts within the TV industry about whether the cutover from analog to digital would end in disaster. As the 2009 cutover approaches, broadcasters may breathe a sigh of relief knowing that reception drop-out and multipath interference appear to have diminished significantly in the current generation of digital TV receivers for the ATSC standard.

Doug Lung:

“Fifth generation” demodulators have narrowed or eliminated the advantage DVB-T [Europe’s standard. –Ed.] had in multipath rejection. Mobile and portable reception is now possible….

The improvement in performance compared with older DTV tuners is amazing.

Pete Putman:

In short, the ATSC system has gone from a “works on paper, but not in the field” concept to a mainstream DTV transmission and reception standard over the past 10 years.

Earlier:
• Digital TV broadcasts ‘don’t work’
• As digital TV reception controversy dims, E-VSB gets another look
• Will digital TV reception problems doom broadcast TV?

• Links: TV Technology, Pro AV