Technical Articles

From my point of view as a Television Broadcast Engineer

Digital communications techniques had been is use for quite a long time before anyone thought to apply that technology to Television broadcasting. The reasons for doing so are many, and some of them will be outlined in this article. Television Broadcasting in the United States had stayed essentially the same since the adoption of the electronic form of Television broadcasting that we all knew as analog Television. Analog Television served us well in its 50 plus years of use, but as with many types of technology, it was destined to be improved upon by the digital information age, and that revolutionary change is now upon us.

The promise of the digital Television transition held many unknowns for Broadcasters and viewers alike until the development was well under way. The United States was not the first country to transition, but we are one of the earlier adopters. Even today, some of the worlds most prominent nations are still well behind the U.S. in regards to converting to digital Television Broadcasting.
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This is a current snapshot of eBay completed items prices. The prices are average range and do not include shipping costs which are usually $10 to $15. Not all boxes are represented here, just the ones that I highly recommend.


Cream of the Crop

Channel Master 7000 $30 to $50
DTVPal Plus Not Readily Available
Zenith DTT901 $35 to $45
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Examining MPEG & FEC Part 2: Signal Processing

ALL ABOARD!

Let’s take a ride on the signal train. Our journey ultimately begins at the source provider, but for out purposes well start at “Mid-Air Station” and see what kind of “reception” we get at “Receiver Station”.

It may surprise some of you that we’ve ...