To be sure, I’m not the only one complaining. So I conducted a little test: I live 20 miles from one of the top 20 largest cities in the US, and according to the FCC, I should be able to receive eighteen DTV stations with a strong signal. I outfitted my analog TV with a DTV converter box and an amplified indoor antenna. My TV is located on the second story of my town house, so the antenna was as high as I could possibly get it without putting up an exterior antenna. I re-positioned the antenna a couple of times, performing a channel scan each time; I then cycled through each channel and noted the picture quality and signal strength of each station. Of those eighteen “strong” signals, only one was what I would consider watchable:

Channel	Station	FCC Estimated Signal Strength	Observed Signal Strength	Observed Signal Quality
2-1	ABC	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
54-1	CW	Strong	Moderate	Watchable with occasional freezing and skipping
45-1	FOX	Strong	Very Weak	Frozen image, no audio
24-1	MYTV	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
13-1	CBS	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
14-1	UNI	Strong	None	None
22-1	PBS	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
5-1	FOX	Strong	Very Weak	Frozen image, no audio
11-1	NBC	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
66-1	ION	Strong	None	None
4-1	NBC	Strong	Weak	Choppy, skipping image, some audio
67-1	PBS	Strong	None	None
20-1	MYTV	Strong	None	None
7-1	ABC	Strong	Very Weak	Frozen image, no audio
50-1	CW	Strong	None	None
32-1	PBS	Strong	None	None
9-1	CBS	Strong	Very Weak	Frozen image, no audio
26-1	WETA	Strong	None	None

So what do I define as “watchable”? Well, a signal that doesn’t freeze and skip like a burnt DVD every 5-15 seconds would be nice:

DTV Picture Quality

Interestingly, here is the exact same program from the same station, only this time on the analog side. Perfect picture (note that the red horizontal line is the picture refresh being picked up by the camera and was not visible to the human eye) and audio:

Analogue Picture Quality

In fact, nearly all of the analogue signals that I can pick up are watchable; most are not perfect, but even the worst are watchable; clear audio and an intelligible image:

Channel	Station	Observed Signal Quality
2	ABC	Snowy picture but watchable, clear audio
4	Unknown	Very snowy, watchable with some difficulty, clear audio
5	Fox	Very snowy, watchable with some difficulty, clear audio
7	Unknown	Poor picture, understandable audio
11	NBC	Snowy picture but watchable, clear audio
13	CBS	Slightly snowy picture, easily watchable, clear audio
20	MYTV	Clear picture, clear audio
22	MPT	Clear picture, clear audio
24	MYTV	Clear picture, clear audio
32	Unknown	Very snowy, watchable with some difficulty, clear audio
50	CW	Snowy picture but watchable, clear audio
67	MPT	Very snowy, watchable with some difficulty, clear audio

So using the same equipment I have significantly more viewable stations with analog than I do with digital. Now, to be fair, this test was conducted on a cloudy day; no rain, no thunderstorms, just cloudy. On a perfectly clear day, I can watch one or two other DTV stations, but even that says something: if DTV is so badly affected by clouds, heaven help you if you run into any real interference.

DTV is great…when it works. Unfortunately, unless you’re sitting right next to a TV station, it probably won’t work very well. Good-bye local broadcasters, hello Hulu.