Digital TV & Radio

[siddlem]

Why do we have to change from anolouge to digital? why cant we have both? whats the difference apart form better quality.

Thanks

Mark

[jenstar]

Digital is generally worse quality, actually.

[heathfield]

'Cos they want to use the analogue bands for other things. And the digital signal can contain all sorts of information in addition to the picture and sound you get on analogue. Think of BBC News 24, where you can 'Press the red button to see extended coverage of this item, and other stories in the news'. Digital TV transmissions will hopefully improve when the transmitter power presently used for analogue signals is transferred to boost the digital transmissions. But digital radio? Forget it. There are only three UK stations that transmit high quality programs. (It's all to do with the transmission bit-rate). All the other stations are actually better on an FM radio. To hear those other stations at a better quality than you'll get with DAB, listen to them on their digital TV channels.

[ugly_bob]

Digital TV uses less bandwidth than analogue. Simple as that.

Digital isn't necessarily worse quality. It's more robust against noise up to a point, where it then loses everything - as you may have noticed in certain bad weather. Whereas analogue picture quality may have deteriorated slightly, Digital gives you an 'all or nothing' transmission

[siddlem]

thanks - what do the want to use anolouge for heathfield?