Distorion to Static

Everything should be designed.

I've gotten into the habit of watching FreeView (Broadcast digital TV) at night before I fall asleep. Broadcast digital has the advantage of perfect image and stereo sound, without the analogue artefacts such as snow and ghosting. However, broadcast signals are still subject to the same rules, so at times the signal degrades.

When that happens, the audio suddenly sounds like experimental electro music gone wrong. It's choppy, grating, and not exactly what I want to hear when I'm trying to approach sleep.

While static noise is not ideal either, a half-second of static is a smoother transition over the loss of signal than no sound at all.

The creators of Freeview boxes don't seem to have thought of this -- because I'm sure the elimination of static noise was the goal. But I think they should have programmed it back in. Perhaps more gracefully -- you can imagine the sound of the ocean replacing the random white noise, but it would have the same effect of handling the loss of signal and giving the viewer a better experience rather than making them feel like the receiving end of a modem.