To test the capacity of some rechargeable batteries, I plugged them into a little portable LCD TV via a Turnigy power analyser.
The TV has three modes: analogue TV, digital TV, or Aux input – for using it as a monitor for a VCR or camera. I was a bit surprised at the power readings for each mode:
| Aux input: | 2.1W |
| Analogue TV: | 3.7W |
| Digital TV: | 5.3W |
Subtracting the Aux input power from the other readings shows digital telly takes double as much power to decode compared to good ole’ analogue. On this telly, anyway. Those extra gazillion channels don’t come for free apparently…
Digital presumably involves firing up some sort of computing device, no? You’re not feeding it with decoded signals?
Yep – it’s just interesting to see the comparison between analogue “decoding” and digital decompressing in power terms. It’s not really fair – after all, the digital signal is much more compressed than the analogue one, so you get a lot more channels at the cost of the extra decoding juice.