Are digital signals harder to acquire than analog?

Question

I'm in a suburb of DC within about 10 miles from most transmitters. Our rabbit ears pick up all TV stations with analog signals, as well as one in Fairfax, Virginia, and another couple in Baltimore. The non-DC stations are fuzzy but viewable.

The TV is in a walk-out basement without much natural lighting (a few small windows). We also have a medium size, thin evergreen tree near the corner of our house.

I hooked up the digital-to-analog converter box and found all of the DC stations, but I cannot consistently maintain a signal for some of them for any extended period. They come in, freeze, get lost, come back, etc.

Is the TV location probably the problem? I've been reading that signals can't be received well in a basement, so I am wondering whether that was different with analog (where I got lots of stations).

Thanks for any explanation.

Answer 1

Digital is unique in that there is basically no bad picture it is either good or OFF.  Rule of thumb if the picture looks good on analog it will be good on digital if it is not so good on analog it probably won't be there in digital.

TV signals can not be received well in a basement, and weak analog signals will display a fuzzy picture. Not so with digital, if the signal is below what the TV needs it will simply not be displayed.

The best thing to do is buy an outdoor antenna. NOTE there is NO such thing as a digital antenna.  Just buy one that has good gain and is make sure it is for the channel(s) you are trying to get. Point it in the direction of the stations you want to get. You may need more than one.

Answer 2

The problem is that digital signals do not degrade as gracefully as analog ones. They are strong enough, in which case sound and picture are great, or they are not, in which case usually nothing works, or you get the problems you describe.

It is the placement of the aerial that must be right. The TV can be anywhere you want.

Maybe you need a signal amplifier.