How does picture and sound quality on Freeview compare with analogue?
Because Freeview television pictures are compressed using a “lossy” algorithm (a moving image equivalent of JPG), the quality is significantly lower than that of a good analogue signal. Most viewers will notice a slightly lower quality when viewing a high quality source such as a live transmission or modern broadcaster’s video recording. However, the Freeview picture quality is far superior to that of a poor analogue signal. For example, Channel Five on Freeview has a far superior quality of picture than most viewers receive on analogue. Channel Five on analogue is deliberately broadcast at a very low power to reduce co-channel interference. The degradation of picture quality is far more noticeable on some types of programmes, for example football matches. In addition, some Freeview multiplexes carry many more channels than others, with a resultant loss of quality. NICAM sound on analogue television is transmitted in digital form. However, the sound on Freeview is almost certainly comp
