Is cable quality better than Satellite?

[EAO]

OK. Now that I know that Dish Network quality sucks.

What has better picture quality.

Or... if you can... place these in order of picture quality... and if you want also in order of customer service.

1. Dish Network
2. Direct TV
3. Cable
4. Digital Cable
5. Voom
6. Antenna
7. Did I miss any?

[teegee420]

I would imagine it is Voom(HD).

[EAO]

But sooo limited in channel selection.

[lordsmurf]

What's VOOM ? I've heard it 3 times here today. No such animal where I live.

[shmorq]

Voom is a satellite service that offers about 40 HD channels. I believe it's available nation wide since it's satellite even though the company is headquartered in the NY area.

[mikel]

Lordsmurf,
It's a satellite service that specializes in High Def channels.
mikel

Edit.. Wow...shmorq...you're fast!

[Capmaster]

I've had various analog cable services and of course antenna. I don't know about digital cable, but our DirecTV service bitch-slaps the old cable in quality. The captures from DSS to the Panny E50 are indistinguishable from bought DVDs

[pyrohydra]

Voom, aka Rainbow DBS, is trying its best to upstage Dave and Charlie in the HD market.

However, I think Voom needs to either offer a package with JUST the HD channels, or just drop the standard definition channels entirely to make room for more HD. If they can get their service down to $30/month or less, I think many people would subscribe to complement their current cable/sat subscriptions, rather than to replace it.

They do offer quite a bit HD content now: Voom channel lineup. However this doesn't specify whether a particular channel is 1080i or 720p.

[Defcon]

I have digital cable and pretty big tv, so quality is very easy to judge. When I ran coaxil from the wall to the box then to the tv, it wasn't that great even with expensive coax. What I did was run the coaxil to the digital cable box and then used the component cables (Red, White, Yellow) from the digital cable box to the tv. There is hugh difference and the quality is almost (to me) that of a DVD, actually it depends on the station but most are VERY CLEAR.

For sure though, if you have digital cable, use the component cables (good ones) from the box to television.

[Culley]

Component cables!

Why didn't I think of that!?!?

[seinman]

The quality of cable varies widely depending on where you live and who your provider is. Some providers have old systems in place and try to cram tons of digital channels on where they won't fit, and so the quality suffers. Others do a good job on upgrading their systems and they look as good as, if not better than, DirecTV. You're probably better off asking people in your neighborhood how good their cable looks.

[glockjs]

well even with the digital cable i have in my area is not 100% digital. so thats a rip in itself. most satellite companys offer 100% digital service.

[seinman]

well even with the digital cable i have in my area is not 100% digital. so thats a rip in itself. most satellite companys offer 100% digital service.

Digital isn't always better. I prefer the analog channels myself... they look just as good as the digital, but don't have those annoying dropouts every now and then. Digital could look better, but they compress it a lot in order to fit 300-something channels on there, which is a big mistake in my opinion. I'd rather have fewer, though higher quality, channels than hundreds of channels of crap.

[DTSL06]

I have HD digital cable. I use a sony HD 53" hi-scan rear-proj TV that upscales to 960i all normal TV 480i at 4:3 and for 16:9 at 480p and 1080i HD via component or 480i/960i via S-vid.

Quality wise:

HD cable (1080i) is very good depending on the original source. Alot of network shows are just 16:9 pics and maybe a little bit better then digital cable and only if its right on. Most of the time the network HD singals are not the best HD can offer. My cable company's preview channel (Rogers in Canada) and most of the times the PBS HD channels are real good tho.

Digital cable (960i) is very sharp, almost on par with most network HD sources on my TV. Actually they look simular except not 16:9. The only probm as with the HD is the occasional drop outs. :P

Analog cable....PQ is so so, but not drop outs...TV either gets a pic or not. Too bad not all the chan's from my cable supplier are digital.

Friend has Sat TV, (Bell Exp Vu), pics is good but has more drop outs then I get from cable. Big advantage is that all chan are digital.. along with the disadvantage of drops and some weather related issues. Only probm is that he also has to get seperate service for his hi-speed internet cable service from the TV cable guys...

[FulciLives]

I have found that my local cable company is very hit or miss in quality depending on the channel.

For instance my CARTOON NETWORK looks awesome but COMEDY CENTRAL looks like shit.

SCI-FI looked awesome until SPIKE TV came along (it's one channel up from SCI-FI) and now SCI-FI looks like total shit. The cable company told me that the problem with SCI-FI was some interference with the new SPIKE TV feed and that it would be fixed. Several months went by and still no fix.

Currently I don't have anything but over-the-air and I don't miss it all that much thanks to my large collection of videos be it VHS or LD or DVD etc.

I rent a lot more now too.

Not sure what I'm going to do ... I guess Dish Network is out ... maybe try DirectTV but I rent don't own so I doubt know how easy that is to deal with plus I'm not even sure I'll be where I am for another whole year.

Nothing more annoying than having some channels look great while others like like ass pudding.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman