A side-by-side comparison of the two broadcast techniques used in Canada and the United States.
NTSC, on the left, is the old analog broadcasting format now phased out in the US, but still in use here in Canada.
ATSC, on the right, is the new digital standard capable of displaying a perfect picture and high definition formats through the same tv frequencies and antennae as NTSC used in the past.
As Canada is in transition to all-digital, both NTSC and ATSC stations are broadcasting at the same time. This clip was recorded simultaneously from the NTSC feed (CITY Toronto) and the ATSC feed (CITY-DT Toronto) using the same antenna and split from the same line at the recording device (computer).

As you can see, the new digital broadcasting technology is far superior to the old, providing a clear picture with very low signal requirements and with much less power. CITY-DT is currently broadcasting at 2kW, whereas CITY (analog) is at 310kW.

The picture on the right was actually in high definition (1080i) format, but it was cropped and shrunk to SD size to compare with the analog signal. The sound used is that of the digital broadcast compressed to 2channel mp3 from 5.1 AC3.

Note: The ATSC picture is perfect HD quality, it only looks bad because of youtube's encoding.

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