What did the world have against rabbit ears?

The switch from analog to digital TV transmission isn't something that I have spent much time thinking about over the past few years.  If memory serves me correctly, the most time I spent thinking about issues relating to the switch were associated with a digital antenna installation I assisted with a few years ago.

Of course when I purchased a device for a computer monitor that also has the capacity to be a TV and Jeannette decided to use it to watch this summer's Olympics the recent switch to digital suddenly became important.  Not only did we need to make sure that we had an appropriate antenna, but we also have started to have to contend with a few of the problems inherent to digital broadcasting.

Firstly, it seems that our neighbourhood's namesake, Sandy Hill, is itself something of a problem for digital transmission.  I gather that this hill blocks a good number of residents from receiving any of the channels that should be available in the area (when I was buying an antenna the salespeople were even kind enough to point this out).  I'm sure that the ever increasing number of tall buildings in the area aren't going to help either.

Secondly, my limited experience with this new transmission format seems to suggest that one either has a version of the channel or they don't, no longer is one able to accept fuzzy transmission if a clear version of the channel isn't available.  This is definitely a bit of a bummer.

Thirdly, though our experience is limited, it seems that channels intermittently appear and disappear.  For instance, just a few minutes ago Jeannette was watching Olympic coverage when all of a sudden the channel disappeared with no warning.  Despite the fact that we've moved the antenna around and reset the equipment we haven't been able to regain the transmission.  Back in the good old analog days I don't remember ever having such problems, unless, of course, someone bumped the antenna.

Given the cost incurred by broadcasters and consumers and the number of problems viewers are having with this new service I can't help but wonder why such a change was initiated?  Who are the beneficiaries of this change?

Anyway, I just hope we don't have too many more problems with this stuff.  We're less than a day into the two-week long Olympics and I'm already tired of fiddling with our antenna.