DTV over the air viewer-put back in loop

[Al Tobia]

I sent a letter to TV Technology magazine which was printed. I suggested that DTV set makers put the viewer back in the loop by allowing via the remote control to either MUTE ( CLIFF EFFECT ) or NOT MUTE ( see it ALL as TV tries to make a picture ) as the viewer adjust their TV antenna.
I feel the "so called signal meter" is useless.
Hopefully the set makers will read this and do it,I hope.

I heard from a friend who helped develop the 8-VSB standard and told him my idea ,he does not think that DTV set makers will do this as long as there is this "so called " signal meter.
He did seem to indicate there are issues with this signal meter indication,I told him it is useless.

I think what has happened here is since we are talking DIGITAL now and micro processor ( which the TV is now ) there is this " sterile thinking " the viewer can't see anything bad.
It is either good or "hidden from viewer ".

Al ( northern CA )

[spunker88]

I had an idea for fringe DTV reception. I was relating to wifi, which is also wireless and digital. When a wifi signal gets low it still works fine, just with lower bandwidth. Im assuming the same thing goes for tv, and eventually the bandwidth gets too low and the channel gets cut off, ie: cliff effect.

So why not allow tv channels to use their extra bandwidth to sent lower bitrate streams of their channels. The picture would have very noticeable artifacts and be low quality, but if DTV works along the same lines as wifi, the LQ channel would come in where the HQ channel could not. Im not sure if digital tv spectrum/tech works this way, but it should be redesigned to.

Basically there would be a HQ and LQ carrier for each channel. The tv would take the HQ channel first and fall back to the LQ channel if the HQ channel was having issues coming in. Many people will settle for LQ channels in fringe areas. Something is better than nothing. There were many people who were just fine watching a super snowy analog picture, but now cannot get that same channel to lock in DTV.

[Al Tobia]

Spunker88,

yes this idea has been tossed around for DTV and I beleive is what is going to be used in the upcoming mobile DTV standard.
We suppose to start seeing mobile sets that'll work at these lower bitrates someday soon ( I hope ) ,but when I do not know.

I think the low bitrate idea has been around for DTV, to allow fringe area reception be it at less quality ,before the mobile TV standard was adopted but I've never seen anybody use it.

I'd still like the choice of being able to select CLIFF EFFECT or NO CLIFF EFFECT , SEE IT ALL modes . . . it is MY TV !!!!

Al ( northern CA )

[spunker88]

Spunker88,

yes this idea has been tossed around for DTV and I beleive is what is going to be used in the upcoming mobile DTV standard.
We suppose to start seeing mobile sets that'll work at these lower bitrates someday soon ( I hope ) ,but when I do not know.

I think the low bitrate idea has been around for DTV, to allow fringe area reception be it at less quality ,before the mobile TV standard was adopted but I've never seen anybody use it.

I'd still like the choice of being able to select CLIFF EFFECT or NO CLIFF EFFECT , SEE IT ALL modes . . . it is MY TV !!!!

Al ( northern CA )

Yes, kind of like analog tvs that had the blue screen option when the signal is low. Many people who use their tvs for analog dxing would turn off the blue screen to see it all. Having the same thing on DTV would be a good idea. Also as tvs get better, they are able to "draw" a picture with less signal. So the cliff effect is being lowered. I compared a new tv to an older tv on digital and the new one is able to put up a pixelized picture on a low signal where at the same time the older tv will have a black screen.

The LQ channels would be useful for cellphones. It would be easier for them to pick up with the smaller antennas that could fit in a phone, and the LQ channel would require less computing power to decode and render than the full signal, so phones would be able to do it better.