A technical rant
How about the big lie peddled by the broadcasters these days:

Digital is better than analogue.

Now, while I do prefer the sound of CDs to old scratched LPs or hissy, burbly cassettes, digital radio (DAB) sounds crap compared to FM, even with a 100% signal strength. I had a DAB tuner, having fallen for the hype about crystal clear reception (true insofar as it's noise-free, but the audio quality sucks), and hardly used it as I couldn't listen to it without becoming annoyed. So I sold it to another gullible soul on ebay. DAB+ is coming, allegedly, but when?

And digital television? Well, there are two factors to consider here - the signal, and the display. Let's take the signal first.

Standard definition (SD) video over an analogue link can give a good quality, albeit not high definition, picture, especially when viewed on a CRT. A digital SD signal is pretty much the same with a decent bitrate, although it is possible to see compression artefacts on fast moving action. But low bitrate signals are awful. Watching football for example is extremely distracting - the players are all fuzzy and the grass seems to be made of green blocks which don't move.

Watching an SD signal (analogue or digital) on an HD-capable LCD makes matters worse, as the LCD has to convert the resolution. Being a digital device, it can't 'smear' the signal across pixels as a CRT can, so the picture is pretty awful, especially with a low bitrate SD digital signal.

Until we can view all channels in HD (which isn't going to happen anytime soon, if indeed at all) then I'm afraid we're stuck with poor quality.

Rant over.

I know a lot of you will think, "Well I've got an LCD telly and it looks great". My sister is one of these people. She can't see the problems I'm talking about. Maybe I'm just too critical (I can see compression artefacts in HD signals too, on occasion). But it's a favourite rant of mine at the moment.

Apologies for length and lack of humour.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 9:35, 15 replies)

apparently
a friend works for a company that fleece the mobile companies and reckons the digital TV signal will improve when the network does not have to carry the analogue signal un all.

Don't know if that helps your day, not sure knowing would affect mine.
(Neostenine's maker, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 9:39, closed)

I don't think I understood one word of that
How is fm sound quality better?
(frankspencer, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 9:44, closed)

Can't help but feel the same way
People refuse to listen to me when I try to explain the issues with most modern technology (N.B. not because I'm a liar, it's that they don't understand!)

My parents for example, my dad wanted to get himself a nice LCD TV about a year and a half ago, but I recommended he wait a while until the 1080P televisions became available (he didn't quite understand this). I also explained to him that the viewing angle at the time on LCD TV's was atrocious as well as they fact that Sky HD was a while away, and most of the things he'd be watching would be in SD and blocky and ugly.

Did he listen? did he bollocks.

A fortnight later a 50" sony screen turned up (My dad doesn't go by halves, really). And thus all of my complaints held true, but my dad doesn't notice it.

He has sky HD now, and whenever he's showing it off (to whoever is in front of the screen, as it's all black to anyone at the side!) with his "This is high definition" crap, he never realises that he has Sky Sports 1 on instead of Sky Sports HD. Silly pops. He just can't tell the difference.

My goodness, I didn't realise that my little reply would be so long.
(Lythium deals in lead, my friend., Tue 4 Dec 2007, 9:47, closed)

Analogue switch off
When the analogue signal is switched off the transmitting power of the digital (terrestrial Freeview only) signal will be increased. This means that areas which can't receive a good digital signal at the moment will then be able to. However, assuming you can get a good signal already, the actual video quality won't improve, as that is determined by the bitrate, and hence the amount of digital compression.

Frankspencer - if you don't believe me, try it. Get a good FM tuner and a good DAB tuner. Connect them both to external aerials. Listen through a decent amplifier and speakers. The difference will be obvious. If it isn't, I recommend a trip to an audiologist.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 10:02, closed)

Ah, that's my mistake
I'm using a Technolec 'free-with-a-christmas-cracker' DAB radio.
(frankspencer, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 10:12, closed)

I must enter a busject
i prefer analog TV. We only have internal aerials in our flat the signal is ok but not brilliant. Yes the fuzz free quality when i can get it is brilliant. But at least a could watch a program with a bit of fuzz, and could usually see past that and get into the program.

Digital on the other hand as soon as signal is lost goes all jumpy and unwatchable and if too bad the tuner has to be reset by going up and down channel.

Living by a railway line this can happen evreytime a train passes. Anaolog, fuzz back, digital hppp upp errr black.
(manbear84, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 10:28, closed)

Video quality? What's that?
I've noticed that as well, wall-sized LCD/Plasma screens that can display 1080p, and they're displaying fuzzy, staticky analogue SD, and people don't realize that the picture should look better.

But what do you expect, people watch whole TV series on YouTube and it doesn't even occur to them to complain about quality (if it did, they'd be downloading their Dr Who, 24 or what have you via Bittorrent).
(julius, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 10:48, closed)

Too true
Years ago, when I was profligate, I bought a 50inch Pioneer Plasma. Yes, I know, the power usage fucks the planet. But this was 6 years ago. Anyway, watching sports on it was like watching a PS2 game. Not good. I'm now happy with a CRT and have no inclination to upgrade.
In my opinion all digital mediums suck:
- DVDs. I'm now on my 3rd DVD player trying to get one that is capable of handling errors on discs gracefully. In the days of VHS, if there was a dropout on the tape, you would get a blurred image / muffled sound for a short period, but unless the tape snapped or spooled, you could still watch the film. On DVD, if it goes wrong, the film stutters, stops - the viewing experience is ruined. In these days of mega-cheap memory, the disc should be buffering and handling errors gracefully - seeking out the next part of the disc that works and playing it, not stuttering / freezing etc. For God's sake, if there is (as there is) a time signal on the disc, it's not rocket-science to do this. And don't DVDs scratch easily ?
- CDs as with DVDs. I now don't use them, have everything streaming from an MP3 server using a Squeezebox. I'd rather trade the sound quality issues (I use 256k encoding) against having songs that skip. I'm waiting for HD space to become cheap enough at the terabyte level to make streaming DVDs possible
- Digital radio. Apart from Radio 3, it's compressed to fuck

Digital sucks.
( I_Was_Mordred, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 10:51, closed)

Dab is fucking shit.
The sound quality is awful. Freeview use 192k mp2 which is tolerable but really you need 256 because the compression method isn't that great. To further add to the problem the rest of Europe acknowledge dab is shit and are favoring compression methods that weren't dated a decade ago.

Cd's are great though, anyone who says they aren't durable enough must be beadlehanded or something.

Some freeview channels look like they are made of lego duplo.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 11:33, closed)

back home in london
the analogue signal looks a bit fuzzy on our CRT telly, where-as the digital freview signal is crisp and shiney. just my two pen'orth.
(notjustahatrack peeling a sausage..., Tue 4 Dec 2007, 11:43, closed)

K2k6
Hear hear!

Most of the digital TV I have seen is extremely poor compared with analogue. Especially the footy. I strongly object to being forced down the digi route when it seems to be such crap quality (in my experience).

Oh, and my brother in law treated himself recently to an absurdly-sized LCD telly recently (50" I think). Watching it is like watching normal telly through a Coke bottle.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 4 Dec 2007, 12:17, closed)

Bad signal
I don't mind seeing compression errors too much (I've not got a monster flatscreen) but having to listen to every other word because it's windy outside and the signal's buggered is very irritating.

I much prefer to watch a bad analogue signal with ghosting, snow and fuzz, than a poor digital one that goes blank, silent or (at best) blocky.
( e.m.m.y. foxtrot uniform charlie kilo india tango, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 12:48, closed)

Further reading
Here is a paper on DAB audio quality which may be of interest to the technically minded amongst you.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 13:47, closed)

I have a flat LCD because I have no shitting space for a CRT.
I wish I did -- the LCD might have more intense colours, but it's noticeably fuzzier than a CRT.
( Bob Todd whee, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 19:06, closed)

Finally
Someone who can see what I mean! I was wondering how to put this to a non-technical person... cheers.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Tue 4 Dec 2007, 19:28, closed)