Digital TV and Radio

[Sam Barricklow]

Radar is available in the DFW area via digital TV (DTV) broadcasts. Small, portable LCD TVs with digital tuners are becoming available. Does DTV present an opportunity for chasers?

• Can DTV weather radar be used as a low cost alternative to ThreatNet or radar via a mobile digital connection to the Internet?
• Where is weather radar via DTV currently available?
• What typical signal coverage from the transmitter locations can generally be expected to a TV in the chase vehicle?
• How does the coverage of a DTV broadcast compare to the typical coverage of an analog TV broadcast?

And on a related topic, so-called HD digital AM and FM radio transmissions are spreading. Can someone comment on their experience with HD Radio with respect to coverage (reception distance and quality), and are any useful services being offered on the additional digital channels by FM broadcasters? HD Radio is in its infancy, but it holds some promise for unique programming, if the stations owners chose to make use of the possible extra capability.

 

[rdale]

DTV broadcasts "in general" have less transmission radius than a similar analog path... However many stations have used the transition with the ability to put the transmitter in a different (better?) spot. Digital requires a good signal to have enough data for your HDTV to decode, otherwise you get the sputters and dropouts where analog TV just showed you static.

I know of a few stations in Michigan that put either weather radar or a 24x7 localized weather channel on a subchannel.

 

[James Langford]

I've thought about getting a usb hd tv tuner for my laptop to access the HD channels in the DFW area while chasing. Something like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815302001 that includes an antenna. I don't have much room for a small tv in my truck, but I always have my laptop with me. I don't know what the range would be like, but I imagine it would work well for me as I don't chase too far from the DFW area.

James

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

I've thought about getting a usb hd tv tuner for my laptop to access the HD channels in the DFW area while chasing. Something like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815302001 that includes an antenna. I don't have much room for a small tv in my truck, but I always have my laptop with me. I don't know what the range would be like, but I imagine it would work well for me as I don't chase too far from the DFW area.

James

James,
Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements and preferably more. I bought a good HDTV USB setup and my laptop had over the minimum requirements. But with other programs running, the digital signal was maxing out the CPU. This caused the picture to be choppy and jumpy like a bad satellite signal. I treid a mess of adjustments, but nothing really helped. When it worked, it was great. Picture quality was awesome. Even with external antenna in the car, the reception distance is really very limited with the digital signal as others have said. I took it back and was able to get my money back. It seemed like a great idea, but I will wait and see if things change for the better in the future.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

The usb dtv tv tuners can be a bit slow on tuning. I have one and usually just use it when I'm sitting around for a while, before the storms fire. I have found that dtv stations are far and few between. I don't recal ever finding radar loops. I usually use it to watch tv to waste some time. It could be though I don't have the best antenna for it.

 

[Lou Ruh]

I played with receiving digital TV a few years ago while I was out on a chase (I chase in a Class B RV so I have plenty of room to have a TV) and one of the things I discovered is that receiving a clean digital TV signal while moving is very difficult ... at least it was a few years ago with the tuner I had at the time. Most of the time, the signal was not clean enough to produce any picture at all. Occasionally, I would receive a pixelated picture. A clean picture was very rare. To get a good picture (unless things have changed), you will probably need to be stationary (as well as relatively close to the transmitter unless you have a very good antenna).