Digital TV: more channles, better picture

[bountyhunter]

Just bought a digital converter box for my TV because I get mine off the air. The guy told me most stations now broadcats in both DIG and Analog. It seems that's true, but what I didn't know was:

Most digital channels broadcast more than one channel... the basic channel plus a couple of more. On the PBS channels, they have as many as five channels on the main channel. Like: channel 9 will be 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 wih all different programming. The ION channel has four channels.

So, besides the added programming, the upside of DIG is a clearer picture. In fact, the picture on my Sony 32" Trinitron is so good it looks like HD from six feet away. No rush to buy an HD set now.

The downside is that all DIG broadcsat is in the UHF band, which beams mostly "line of sight" so you are pretty much limited to about 70 mile range by Earth surface curvature for ground level reception. You either get the channel or not... can't watch a "snowy" but stable picture. If it comes in it's clear, if not it just shifts to "no signal".

Anyway, the converter box is $60 and the government is handing out $40 coupons so it only costs $20. It's definitely worth it to get the extra programming and perfect picture quality.