TV audio Q

[cd637299]

OK....

So's I was reading on another board about the loss of use of the "TV-audio" radios, come 2009 when digital kicks in.

Somebody please clue me in here. I live near Miami, and come 2009, my locals 7 & 10 (which are temporarily on 8 & 9 respectively, planning to return to 7 & 10) will be digital.

I admit, my current analog TV is not getting sound from the DTV 8 & 9....but can someone explain why my "TV sound" Walkman won't get audio of 7 & 10 come '09? Will the audio *not* be on the same frequencies? What will make the audio-only so secret? It's only sound!

BTW I have not tried 8 & 9 on my Walkman, but I trust I am not gonna get anything if I tried. It's somewhere around this messy house....

And....mainly.....when in the world will digital "hand held" TVs either begin to roll out, or (if already out) be priced to be consumer-friendly?

Heck....that FCC article in the last VUD hits a sweet spot with me....

Any help would be 27773242833 (that's digital for "appreciated", if using a phone dial) :D

cd

[Mike-CT]

OK....

Somebody please clue me in here. I live near Miami, and come 2009, my locals 7 & 10 (which are temporarily on 8 & 9 respectively, planning to return to 7 & 10) will be digital.

I admit, my current analog TV is not getting sound from the DTV 8 & 9....but can someone explain why my "TV sound" Walkman won't get audio of 7 & 10 come '09? Will the audio *not* be on the same frequencies? What will make the audio-only so secret? It's only sound!

BTW I have not tried 8 & 9 on my Walkman, but I trust I am not gonna get anything if I tried. It's somewhere around this messy house....

cd

Let's see. Your 7 and 10 are analog right now, correct? So, if their digitals are on 8 and 9, they'll return to 7 and 10 as digital TV.

Your analog receiving Walkman won't pick up digitally transmitted sound either. So you won't hear any sound. Somebody's going to have to come up with a Walkman for digital TV sound. This means more obsolete analog equipment for the landfills of America. :-( -Mike

[w9wi]

OK....

So's I was reading on another board about the loss of use of the "TV-audio" radios, come 2009 when digital kicks in.

Somebody please clue me in here. I live near Miami, and come 2009, my locals 7 & 10 (which are temporarily on 8 & 9 respectively, planning to return to 7 & 10) will be digital.

I admit, my current analog TV is not getting sound from the DTV 8 & 9....but can someone explain why my "TV sound" Walkman won't get audio of 7 & 10 come '09? Will the audio *not* be on the same frequencies? What will make the audio-only so secret? It's only sound!


No, it won't be on the same frequencies.

An analog TV station doesn't really have one transmitter -- it has two transmitters. One for the picture, 1.25MHz into the channel - the other for the sound, 5.75MHz into the channel. Channel 7 is 174-180MHz, so their analog picture transmitter is on 175.25MHz and their analog sound transmitter on 179.75MHz. (actually 175.24 and 179.74 but that's another subject...)

Digital TV stations transmit a single signal, a series of numbers. Some of those numbers represent the color and brightness of spots on the screen, some represent the pitch and intensity of the sound. Some provide the program guide data, or the "text ID". In any case, at any given instant, a digital TV station is transmitting one number, not a separate picture and sound signal. It's all transmitted on the same frequency - 174.31MHz, in the case of a digital station on channel 7.

So, there is no signal, sound or picture, on 179.75MHz for a digital station on channel 7. Nothing for the TV sound radio to pick up.



BTW I have not tried 8 & 9 on my Walkman, but I trust I am not gonna get anything if I tried. It's somewhere around this messy house....


Yep. You might notice the open-channel hiss is a bit louder than normal - to an analog receiver, a digital transmission sounds like noise, just a bit louder.



And....mainly.....when in the world will digital "hand held" TVs either begin to roll out, or (if already out) be priced to be consumer-friendly?


As Mike suggests, as soon as someone gets around to designing it:confused:

I don't know of any right now.

[cd637299]

<Arte Johnson> Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry inter-es-ting! </A.J.>

Thank you both.....

cd