Digital picture and sound are excellent , but…

With analog television that we have been used to for the last 60 years, the further away from the TV tower, the poorer the reception or picture quality. The picture gets noisier, full of so-called snow and just disappears. Usually the sound holds up fairly well. Digital television is different with reception. See Figure 1. (click image for larger size)

The picture quality stays excellent even as viewer gets further from the TV tower. In fact the picture quality is the same as it left the studio. As one gets a good distance away, the digital receiver starts to pick up bit errors because of the low signal input. The TV receiver can actually correct the errors, but only up to a point. At some with a still lower signal level, the receiver cannot correct any more errors and the viewed picture will pixilate, large squares appear on the screen and the sound will go away. This is the so-called “cliff affect.” Digital TV is also more sensitive to multi-path interference. Multi-path is when the TV signal bounces off trees, buildings, or even airplanes. The digital receiver can get confused for specific TV channels causing the picture to pixilate or disappear altogether. But with a good antenna you should get excellent coverage in our area.