Monday, June 23, 2008

From the Mailbag: Is Over the Air HDTV Better?

From: Ross in Mayfield Heights

Q: I have seen both Channel 3 HDTV "off the air" on a friend's TV and through my own satellite company. There is a very noticeable signal loss by comparison. Is that really true or is it just me?

A: Maybe you need a better TV like your friend's!

Chances are the signal loss you notice is because both cable and satellite companies including Dish or DirectTV use compression methods (like MPEG-2) to redistribute the signals they get from us.

Because of the huge bandwidth involved, the cable/satellite companies must compress all the signals in order to offer subscribers as many channels as they do.

We would recommend that if you really want the best picture quality available, you get your signal over the air. And, remember, it's FREE!!

You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com