nicadair

Is all the latest hype about high definition TV justified?
Won’t the broadcasts be compressed to bits and the quality lost?
As for digital TV be it a satellite receiver, free view box or whatever, the picture in my opinion is not so impressive as a strong analogue signal.
The colours on an analogue broadcast seem much more natural and rich.
Added to that during heavy rain the digital picture breaks up (blocking), the analogue picture is far more resilient to the elements.
The same is true to camera’s, the only real plus about digital is it’s easier to work with, example archiving, e-mailing photo’s etc.
It’s only my opinion of course.

greg42

Yes - but it's not as if broadcasters have any choice. Ideally would be a high definition non compressed digital signal but we both know that is science fiction for now - in order to be able to fit all those channels into the same coax cable across different frequencies, they have to compress the signal. From what I gather, digial cable is severely compressed and much more than even an original DVD, not all broadcast are also at DVD resolution, which is sad. BUT..... Once they get rid of the analog signal they will free a lot of room to be able to offer either more channels or a higher bit rate / resolution.

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As for digital TV be it a satellite receiver, free view box or whatever, the picture in my opinion is not so impressive as a strong analogue signal.

Actually it depends on a lot of factor. The analog cable's reception is VERY sensitive. Analog cable has a "grainy" look. Now eventhough digital is compressed, if you have the right TV and right decoder you will get a decent enough picture. I have seen demos of many plasma and regular TVs plugged to a quality digital cable receiver box and most channels were vibrant and much better looking than analog, however given my trained eye, I DO notice artifacting around edges in some scenes, but overall the signal is clean, free from the slight "grainyness" of analog cable, especially in darker areas. If you have a poor TV and a poor digital decoder box, you will get an average image. It will also depend on the broadcaster & cable company. Some cable channels are more compressed than others, some are severely compressed, others are nice, example, the TMN or HBO channels usually have a much better image than the regular cable channels, they have a higher bit rate and resolution.

Personally I have a 27' TV and I am also on analog, and I agree with you on many points. While some digital channels ARE indeed better, it is not ALL channels. Until companies start to boost the bit rate and provide higher resolution and better compression I will also stick to analog.

Another alternative would be to get a high definition decoder, more efficient compression, higher quality video, but then you need a HiDef TV and not all channels are HD yet....

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The colours on an analogue broadcast seem much more natural and rich.

That is usually something you can adjust on your TV. On newer TV sets you have preset options for picture quality - Set it to "VIVID" or "DYNAMIC" instead of "STANDARD". I have seen TV sets in stores plugged to digital cable and high definition and it was the opposite, colours were vibrant, rich, and CLEAN.

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Added to that during heavy rain the digital picture breaks up (blocking), the analogue picture is far more resilient to the elements.

Not supposed to. What area are you in ? Are you using a SATELITE, yes I have heard those are a bitch in the winter time. My neighbours have digital cable through the same coax as analog and the picture is crystal clear no matter what the weather. If you have poor cabling, poor insulation, humidity, water, etc..... will affect signal reception and cause blockiness on digital broadcast and grainyness on analog.

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The same is true to camera’s, the only real plus about digital is it’s easier to work with, example archiving, e-mailing photo’s etc. It’s only my opinion of course.

Consumer / cheap cameras yes.... Higher-end digital cams are absolutely amazing. I have a Canon PowerShot A530 here and the photos I take with it are razor sharp - with software like Jasc PaintShop Pro or adobe photoshop you can fine tune it to make it look just as good even better !

nicadair

Analogue rules, down with digital

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....21#post1454787