# Satellite vs cable



## blocko (Dec 28, 2009)

Which has better picture quality?


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I don't think you can answer that... every cable operation has its own quality standards.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Here that is easy. The cable here sucks. There is ghosting on the local channels and the PQ on the other channels is okay. D* is way better at least from what I have experienced here.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Definitive answer?

_It depends._


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Stuart Sweet said:


> I don't think you can answer that... every cable operation has its own quality standards.


To elaborate, the large cable companies like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, etc. actually bought out and continue to maintain thousands of small local cable franchises. These franchises are their own self-contained cable systems, and each one will have its own head-end system, its own channel line-up, and its own set of features. Picture quality, in the form of compression rates and bandwidth allocation, is also set by the local franchise, and may be limited by the equipment used at that franchise.

As such, it is very possible for a house with cable to have a vastly better or worse experience than a house just several blocks away, depending on which franchise serves which house. You could have one city with 60 HD channels, tons of OnDemand content, 20 Mb/s Internet, etc., while folks in the next town over suffer with 10 HD channels, no OnDemand, and 4 Mb/s Internet.

DirecTV and Dish Network are nationwide providers, and national channels are the same quality for every subscriber. So, a person getting HBO-HD in California is going to get the same picture quality as a subscriber in Dallas, or in Miami, or in Boston.

Because cable is so regional, it is very difficult to compare the sat companies to "cable", because most people won't have access to the specific cable service that you have.


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## Jon Ellis (Dec 28, 2003)

Considering that most cable systems are still a mix of analog and digital, cable would presumably lose on signal quality, unless you're only comparing their digital offerings with satellite.

The aforementioned ghosting problem should be gone now because of the end of analog broadcasting. It was a common problem when a local VHF station was carried on its actual channel. The over-the-air feed would leak into the coax and interfere with the cable feed.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Judging by the link in the OP signature, I'd say they prefer satellite.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

BattleZone said:


> DirecTV and Dish Network are nationwide providers, and national channels are the same quality for every subscriber. So, a person getting HBO-HD in California is going to get the same picture quality as a subscriber in Dallas, or in Miami, or in Boston.


True in theory, but not necessarily true in practice. Too many variables in installation, location, atmosphere, obstructions, etc. If the installer screws up for example, the customer may get a lesser quality picture.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

sigma1914 said:


> Judging by the link in the OP signature, I'd say they prefer satellite.


Thanks for pointing that out ... One less spammer in our midst.


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