# Digital CATV really impressed me....



## STXJim (Apr 22, 2002)

Last week I was on vacation on the mainland.
Part of that time I was in North Carolina visiting my parents and my wife's parents in the same town.
My father-in-law had Time Warner digital CATV.
My dad (only five blocks away) had TW analog CATV.
They both have 27" TVs, apx the same age (3 yrs old) and apx the same quality (Sony and RCA).
Believe it or not, this is the very first time that I have ever seen digital CATV; and being able to compare it to analog CATV within five minutes, I was amazed.
I don't want to start a fire...but ...............E* PQ ?????????
On the other hand, like I said I compared these two on a 27" TV and I have a 55" RPTV. I sure would like to make my comparision on my TV to see how I feel.
Bottom line...I thought Digital CATV really blew away Analog CATV.
Too bad the EPG is the same on both and they really suck.
I mean it really sucks!


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## Guest (May 29, 2002)

I have TW Digital Cable and The Dish, there is no comparison.... TW beats them easily.... But the Dish has a very good picture... The digital cable seems to handle the compression better.... I'm no expert on this but I figure they have more bandwidth to play with than Dish Network.... The reason I keep the Dish is I hate TW cable.... I get tired of their BS but right now I have both because of someone else in the house  ... If my locals ever get added on Dish, I'm sure I can talk my better half into cancelling TW.... If I had my locals on the Dish, the package would be about $10.00 cheaper than TW Cable's package....


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## Guest (May 29, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Keith4USC _
> *I have TW Digital Cable and The Dish, there is no comparison.... TW beats them easily.... But the Dish has a very good picture... The digital cable seems to handle the compression better.... I'm no expert on this but I figure they have more bandwidth to play with than Dish Network.... The reason I keep the Dish is I hate TW cable.... I get tired of their BS but right now I have both because of someone else in the house  ... If my locals ever get added on Dish, I'm sure I can talk my better half into cancelling TW.... If I had my locals on the Dish, the package would be about $10.00 cheaper than TW Cable's package.... *


The reason your digital cable has so much better picture quality than Echostar is because your digital cable probably uses a much higher bitrate thand Dish Network does.
It's the same reason as why a DVD has better picture quality than a VCD.


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

I think we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Echostar 8 will be our PQ savior.


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

Well, the only caveat I'd point out is that at EITHER place, any channels 99 & under are ALL analog anyway, so there really CANNOT be any difference in picture quality on THOSE channels between the two places. 

But I agree though, I was VERY impressed with the line-up on the TW Charlotte channel line-up on their website - they have the east feed of EVERY premium channel, as well as most of the west coast feeds as well. The analog/digital basic line-up was pretty impressive as well. All the line-ups put either DBS system to shame - wish I could get this service at MY house!


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

If TW is anything like AT&T, only the upper Digital tier channels are acutally digital, everything below channel 100 is still Analog and looks like dog doo!

How are the Analog channels on TW? Or do they send everything Digital?


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## Guest (May 31, 2002)

My digital channels start at 100.... The analog channels are ok.... I wish they would send them all as digital but they can't because some people just want the cable hooked to their TV without the converter box.... I would say in few years, they all will be digital..... I do get the MLB package and had the NBA package on my digital cable.... You can't notice the compression on digital cable as you do on Dish.... I had the ESPN Gameplan on Dish and alot of the games were unwatchable because of the compression.... The digital cable seems pretty good for sports..... My only reason for having Dish is TW wouldn't run cable to my house a few years back because of the number of houses on my block.... My neighbor right behind me had cable and it really ticked me off..... After a few more homes were built they ran the cable... Well my ole lady got tired of waiting on the locals so she ordered TW and we got the High Speed Internet and Digital Cable for 80.00 a month for one year to join up..... I have 2 more months left on this special and I'm sure if my locals are not added on Dish, TW will win out... My ole lady loves the soaps..... They also have an Icontrol channel where you can watch the movie and pause/fast forward/or rewind while watching it.... They also have an HBO channel like that..... The IControl is a PPV Channel.... The HBO channel is where you choose to watch anything shown on HBO when you want to.....


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## Brian Rector (Mar 25, 2002)

One thing to remember: there will always be those who will never drop DC for DirecTV, Dish, or even BUD because they do not want to go through the hassle of having a dish on the roof or spend hundreds and hundreds of bucks on hardware. 

The disadvantage of VOD is that the movie is only available for a day. DirecTivo and Echostar's PVRs have that beat by a long shot.

When I dropped Digital cable for Dish and eventually go to DirecTV, I had to have some channels, such as Comedy Central and Fox Sports Midwest. Insight Cable back in 1998 didnt have those channels. However, today things are different. The PQ matches DirecTV, IMHO and the channel selection even surpasses DirecTV. Granted, I dont have the sports packages till next year when Insight gets an upgrade, but I really dont find myself missing DBS that much.


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## Lew Stead (May 22, 2002)

Just a note, by law, they can't remove all the analog channels. The basic service has to be receivable without a converter box. If my memory serves me, it's worded in such a way that it includes not just "life line" but what in most areas is "basic" or "extended basic" ie, all the basic cable channels. 

And yeah, I had AT&T digital cable and the PQ on the digital channels was fine. OTOH the analog channels were HORRIFIC plus while they may be stereo enough to make the stereo light turn on, the channel separation was horrible and my receiver was unable to generate basic "pro logic" surround sound. 

And the box was extremely primitive -- the guide made DISH look good (and had advertising) and it was slower than even the early RCA boxes for DirecTV. It also had no s-video, no dolby digital, etc.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2002)

Cable companies do not have to remove any analog feeds. They can easily duplicate every analog channel in digital for those who have the Digital Box and even map them to the exact same channel numbers as the analog feeds. On my cable system the analog channels are superior in PQ to many of the Digital channels. It really depends where you live and who your provider is and the type of amplifiers they use as well as your distance to the optical node which determines the amount of noise in the picture.


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

Dish is improving! Last night I was watching the Laker game on our local NBC Digital and thought I would compare it to the local NBC via Dish and guess what? The Dish picture looked better! 

This only applies to the SD channel. They were simulcasting an upconvert on the HD channel and that was no contest, but the Dish picture did beat the SD channel by a fair margin. The SD picture was a bit sharper than Dish, but the Dish picture did not break up with fast movement like the SD channel does.

Overall, there has been a vast improvement in PQ on Dish, especially the channels off the 110 satellite.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

I've got Cox Digital Cable in Omaha. Two of the TV's in the house receive only the analog channels. The other two get their signal through a Motorola DTC2000 receiver. The biggest TV in the house is a 27" Sony Wega. It receives the cable signal both from the receiver and through a direct cable input so I can do the PIP thing. With this setup I can obviously do a very quick A/B switch. The signal coming from the Motorola box is fantastic on all channels. The analog signal is very good on most channels, but a little weak on a some. Overall, I have been very happy with Cox. They supply us with the digital cable, telephone (including long distance) and the internet. We get a better deal by getting the whole enchalada, and we only have to write out one humongous check each month.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2002)

> _Originally posted by DarrellP _
> *Dish is improving! Last night I was watching the Laker game on our local NBC Digital and thought I would compare it to the local NBC via Dish and guess what? The Dish picture looked better!
> 
> This only applies to the SD channel. They were simulcasting an upconvert on the HD channel and that was no contest, but the Dish picture did beat the SD channel by a fair margin. The SD picture was a bit sharper than Dish, but the Dish picture did not break up with fast movement like the SD channel does.
> ...


You're comparing apples to oranges.
The SD channel picture was 720x480 and the Dish picture was 480x480.
It's easy to not have the picture break up when you're a a very low resolution, but the higher the resolution the higher the bitrate you need. 
If the SD channel was at 480x480 resolution too, then it would look much better than Dish did on that game.


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## Ray_Clum (Apr 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Bogy _
> *The other two get their signal through a Motorola DTC2000 receiver. *


Has Cox set a time to come change out your STB because of the Motorola recall??? If not, you may want to give them a call - something about occassionally causing a fire


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Ray_Clum _
> *
> 
> Has Cox set a time to come change out your STB because of the Motorola recall??? If not, you may want to give them a call - something about occassionally causing a fire  *


My boxes are not included in the recall. And AFAIK the problem is one of a possible shock because one of the pins where the power cord plugs in can come loose. Since I have never unplugged the power cord I don't see that this would be a big problem. I suppose someone who had one box they moved from room to room might have develop a problem. Have you got any evidence that a fire has actually ocurred, or that anyone has been hurt? My information says the problem was discovered in the lab, and that most of the boxes are still in the warehouse. What I do know is that later this year Cox will begin distributing HD boxes.


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