Digital Aerials

Trev

Trev

The Dumb One
Why do people keep referring to TV aerials as 'digital aerials'?
What is the difference between a 'digital aerial' and a 'TV aerial?
Even the 'Digital Aerials' mentioned here are just high gain narrow beamwidth TV aerials. But his article does give some useful insights.
Or is it all advertising hype to sell high gain twigs when they are not necessarily necessary?
Discuss
 
I think it's to persuade you that you need a new aerial as your old one was pre-digital. it's a load of 'tosh' there's nothing 'digital' about it, what is carried at sub-carrier level maybe digital, but the carrier itself is not. So called 'Digital' aerials are often shown with much bigger / twin reflectors, but have yet to see an explanation as to why this makes it digital
 
Pre DSO (analogue switch off) the digital muxes were at a much lower power, so early adopters sometimes needed to upgrade the aerial.
 
I think it started in pre-DS days when the digital signals were generally lower power than the existing analogue transmissions. As such many people would need a higher gain aerial to receive digital, and you can see how it can get mis-reported. Then the cowboys pick it up and here we are today.

Edit: Black Hole got there first - again! (Are you ever not here? :) )
 
Hell, I've been out all afternoon and most of the evening, you've had an adequate window of opportunity!

There are occasions I get pipped to the post too.
 
Analogue transmission and a crap aerial didn't give a good picture, but as the aerial was on the chimney and worked after a fashion, the poor picture was tolerated. There was no digital signal before DSO for this transmitter. After DSO the same aerial produces a perfect picture, with no hint of pixellation or drop out so the aerial has a new lease of life. It is obviously in the region where the error correction on the digital signal is effective, and hasn't yet deteriorated to the point where the error correction can no longer cope.

Rogerh
 
The quality figure will tell you how much error correction is going on. Digital signals have a much lower threshold than analogue, but fall off a cliff rather than degrading into snow.
 
Rogerh said:
There was no digital signal before DSO for this transmitter. After DSO the same aerial produces a perfect picture, with no hint of pixellation or drop out so the aerial has a new lease of life.
Click to expand...
But it is/was still a TV aerial, not a digital one;)
 
gomezz said:
At the quantum scale everything is digital.
Click to expand...
Never heard of wave/particle duality? Oops - should have read previous post before reply!

I always think of a digital aerial as - lift your arm, raise one or two fingers (digits) and make appropriate gesture to the person advertising said device.
 
Ezra Pound said:
I think it's to persuade you that you need a new aerial as your old one was pre-digital.
Click to expand...
I agree that this has happened or at least some aerial installers have gone along with aerial misconceptions. In 2010 I met a network of friends who's local transmitter was Crystal Palace. I visited 3 of their homes and on each of them was tri-boom installed by the same aerial installer. I talked to one of these guys at length about his aerial installation. Apparently prior to the installation he could receive the Crystal Palace pre-DSO freeview channels fine but needed the digital aerial (his words) so that after DSO he could watch television. The aerial was located beneath the gutter and would have been easy to install. He was initially charged almost £200 but paid a further fee 6 months later as the picture was starting to break up and further work was needed on the aerial.

But ... where the DSO frequencies are out of band sometimes isn’t colloquially using the words 'digital aerial' simpler than saying "aerial suitable for all digital channels as my old one wasn't" or some prettier equivalent wording? It's an aerial that would probably not have needed to be installed if all the channels had remained purely analogue instead of being represented digitally.
 
I had a aerial amplifier on the end of my twig (in the attic). Then the samsung tv 14 months old started to switch itself off and on, my wife thought i was taking the p. Neh never , I got a new plasma samsung and left the amplifier out of the equation. just connecting the hummy via twig to tv. The upstairs tv carried on without a aerial ( got a 6mt coaxial only) going into it.
 
Luke said:
But ... where the DSO frequencies are out of band sometimes isn’t colloquially using the words 'digital aerial' simpler than saying "aerial suitable for all digital channels
Click to expand...
If some of your post DSO frequencies move out of band then there may be a need for a new aerial, but it's description should be Wide-band (or Group T to help avoid 4G) rather than Digital, but I agree that if you need a new aerial it doesn't matter how it's described, It is more of a concern that you are being sold a new aerial you don't need at all
 
Yes, they are wider band aerials, but for many that is too technical a description. The mass is too great for me too influence by using a different description.:eek:
 
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