What no one will tell you about HDTV...

[digiblur]

Monster cables are da bomb. This dude at Circuit City told me that Monster HDMI cable would provide me the best picture eva!!!! :

Must have been the same guy that tried to sell me that gold plated fiber optic cable. "But its gold plated for excellent signal transfer!"

I asked him... "How much did you pay for your GED?"

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I agree that HD quality can be adversely affected by marginal signal strength - because with marginal signal strength you will lose your signal lock more frequently when it is raining. An installer should always seek to obtain the maximum signal strength possible from any particular location.

I have no respect for lazy SOB installers who leave a customer with a signal strength of 70 when 90 was possible.

 

[SatinKzo]

I agree with that Tom. But signal locks and dropouts are not the same things PQ. As long as signal is locked I don't care if it's 70 or 110% SS, the PQ will be the same.

yes, I also agree that installed should ALWAYS try for optimal SS

 

[John Kotches]

If you've tried everything and you still aren't convinced that your HDTV looks as good as it should (They should ALL look "WOW"!)

Make sure you have a strong, good quality signal!

HD quality IS adversely affected by:

1. Voltage that is too low,

Which voltage?

On a digital connection to the TV (assuming the last portion (ie device to display)) you don't have this issue. Voltage "too low" == no sync. I suppose that no picture (ie no sync) could be considered an adverse affect on the overall results.

On a component video connection to the TV this would mean an issue syncing to Y (luminance). I have never seen an issue with component video lie this before. I have seen out of spec voltages cause some picture degradation; but it has been quite some time for that.

If you're talking about the input signal to the set top box; you need to read up a little more on the technology.

2. Marginal signal strength (OTA or DBS Dish!), and

Or cable. No one is immune to marginal signal levels.

3. Poor signal quality.

The beauty of digital is that it's a datastream. If you lose lock you get breakups and/or macroblocking. Otherwise; the concept of poor signal quality is a non-issue.

Just because you have the digital picture, doesn't mean you have the HD quality you deserve!
There IS such a thing as variation in the quality of a digital picture.

See previous.

How many installers that can really point a dish have heard from their customers that the picture got better? I heard it enough to get uncomfortable about it! I even thought I had seen it a few times and left scratching my head...

You should be confused.

Some of you will see the "WOW" for the first time in your own home!

Some of us are saying "Wow" because our BS meters have tripped the overload warning indicator.


Happy HD Hunting!

Read about "bit loss" and observations in the field.

HDTV Help!

It's too bad you didn't actually understand the paper you link to so casually.

 

[lakebum431]

It appears that the OP has gone into hiding...

 

[Tampa8]

I first thought the post was meant to be a joke. Apparently not. So sad.

 

[Hall]

If one or two people disputed his comments, he might "fight back" a bit. I believe that almost EVERY response has disputed what he said though.

 

[SatinKzo]

If one or two people disputed his comments, he might "fight back" a bit. I believe that almost EVERY response has disputed what he said though.

Like I stated earlier, I am not sure why it took 2 hours for people to initially response, but man, when it started, it sure picked up momentum.

 

[Foxbat]

Some of us are saying "Wow" because our BS meters have tripped the overload warning indicator.

As I used to say (while raising my left arm), "Save your watches..."

 

[tsduke]

I seriously hope the OP's info is a joke. If not please go do some more research before advising others on HD PQ.

With OTA or sat, as long as the signal is strong enough to hold lock there will be ZERO difference is PQ no matter what the signal strength is.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Like I stated earlier, I am not sure why it took 2 hours for people to initially response, but man, when it started, it sure picked up momentum.

I read it right when it posted, and was like - wow, where is this coming from? Decided it wasn't worth responding to, but having fun reading the responses.

 

[8bitbytes]

Somebody is getting analog signals mixed up with digital...

Come on HiDefJeff, trying to be helpful is a noble idea. Getting the correct info is the only way to do that though.

 

[highdefjeff]

No joke...

There is no joke here.

The low voltage I refer to is in systems operating lower than their operating parameters.

The marginal signal strength and poor signal quality can be applied to cable, satellite, and OTA.

The oversized Monster cable ends have been known to damage inputs on equipment.

I should have used the words "bit depth loss". This is a commonly discussed topic in the audio realm, but is all about digital processing.

Here's a link:

bit depth Definition: TechEncyclopedia from TechWeb

And the following excerpt comes from the link below it:

"The continuous audio stream is digitally encoded in a similar way to a movie camera capturing motion by recording an image frame many times per second. The higher the sample rate (and bit depth), the more accurately the original sound can be represented."

What does the bit depth and sample rate refer to? | Dolphin Music

No jokes here, better signal makes better HD.

 

[highdefjeff]

I know what a VIP 622 and 222 is, but what the hell is a 221? I like how it says a Coaxial RF connection is for both HD and SD, and yet HDMI is for HD.

The author of the referenced link smoking some good chit. Hook us all up so we can see a more vivid picture the way he/she does.

Seriously the whole signal strength the way it's been drawn out, I don't buy it. I suppose a test of this would be to watch a program before/during/after a rain shower since SS will be reduced.

Coaxial RF connection delivers HD when you use an OTA antenna.

Regarding a 221, perhaps I've a typo. Sorry.

 

[8bitbytes]

No jokes here, better signal makes better HD.

What that means is that the ORIGINAL signal is what is important, what audio and video is being captured and the bit depth that it is captured at.

Data that is transmitted at the depth captured will either work or not work depending on some of the variables you are addressing but it will not lower the quality to another bit depth. Your data is either intact or not intact.

For example, you use a low quality HDMI cable and try to send a 1080p signal over that cable. Because the cable is not able to support the bandwidth required to stream that digital data adequately, you get NO picture, not a reduced quality picture.

On a DBS system, if your signal strength is low, you will get dropouts and other artifacts, or worse, Signal Lost and no picture/audio at all.

The behaviors you are describing are for analog signals, not digital.

 

[lakebum431]

This is nonsense. Do you even understand what you linked to? It has nothing to do with the way that you are trying to relate it. As long as the signals are strong enough to remain constantly locked there is no loss. You are implying that a 100% locked OTA signal will give me a better picture than a 75% locked OTA signal, you are nuts. Same goes for the satellite signal strength. A 99 signal on an E* box gives no different picture than a 70 signal. Now if the signal is too low and it is blocking or dropping out all together then there is obviously a problem, but that is not what you are talking about.

As far as the Monstor Cables, I would never buy one because they are a ripoff (I always use www.monoprice.com), but have used them at a friend's house that didn't know any better. The connections are tight, but shouldn't damange your connections unless you were being an idiot while hooking things up.

 

[SatinKzo]

Coaxial RF connection delivers HD when you use an OTA antenna.

Coax RF does not deliver HD in OTA, it delivers the signal which is sometimes has programming in HD or SD. Signal is tramistted Analog (for now) and digital.

heck, by your logic with that statement, it delivers HD via sat too since Coax connects to the sat box.

 

[highdefjeff]

The signal you get from the satellite or the air is analog. Not my words, but from a different thread, posted by an engineering supervisor for a broadcast station, puts it this way:

"Now on to your last question. We know NTSC, ATSC and you ask about QAM. Forget NTSC and lets back up to ATSC. (DTV). Digital televison is digital right? Well, yes and no. When it comes down to the RF signal coming down the coax into your house delivered by whatever means - off the air, cable, sat, etc. the signal at this point is ANALOG. ( I see the flaming replies now ). It is ANALOG. Unlike NTSC TV which is a video signal with a modulated chroma signal ( a sinewave a 3.58MHz) Digital TV is a WHOLE BUNCH OF SINE WAVES MODULATED REPRESENTING DIGITAL LEVELS."

The satellite signal that you are reading with your signal meter is analog, too. This is part of the reason that an analog meter is faster to give you an answer because the signal is analog. Digital meters have the "wait time" because they convert it to what it is "saying" digitally.

You will notice that the digital broadcast channels are picked up by the same antenna you used to use, only they are coming in at mostly the higher numbers of UHF signal. Cessation of the "analog" signal is not really ending analog transmission. It is about freeing up the bandwidth that the lower numbers (TV channels) represent.

 

[Tvlman]

That would be true with analogue TV but with digital you either get the picture.....or you don't.
PERIOD!

 

[digiblur]

You will notice that the digital broadcast channels are picked up by the same antenna you used to use, only they are coming in at mostly the higher numbers of UHF signal. Cessation of the "analog" signal is not really ending analog transmission. It is about freeing up the bandwidth that the lower numbers (TV channels) represent.
[/COLOR][/COLOR]

(Buzzzzzzer sound)... wrong again. You might want to do some reading. It was first about freeing up the the VHF Lo band and the upper portion of the UHF band. The VHF Lo part was later abandoned.

Plain and simple... as long as you are above the threshold for the FEC to do it's part you will not see a difference between say a 70% signal versus a 125% signal(speaking in dish meter terms).