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Analog Cable > Digital Cable

F

FrustratedUser

Lifer
I was over at a friends house and he has digital cable but I was disappointed.
I could see the compression artifacts :Q

Does that mean there are to many users hooked up?
 
Digital cable essentially compresses the A/V streams over the cable line and are decoded using the set-top box. This allow for more channels offered, but with the compression, there are those artifacts that you saw.
 
I heard some different boxes can affect how many compression artifacts you see.

Also, I only get compression artifacts on some channels, and not all the time either.
 
i get that also. it doesnt happen with the basic channels, just premiums like hbo, etc. it sucks, really.

not to mention the box is slow as molasses when changing channels, looking through the guide, etc.
 
Originally posted by: shimsham
i get that also. it doesnt happen with the basic channels, just premiums like hbo, etc. it sucks, really.

not to mention the box is slow as molasses when changing channels, looking through the guide, etc.
Click to expand...

The speed that channels change has to be the wrost feature of Digital TV. 500 channels but it takes a half an hour to see what is on half of them.
 
Originally posted by: Spencer278
Originally posted by: shimsham
i get that also. it doesnt happen with the basic channels, just premiums like hbo, etc. it sucks, really.

not to mention the box is slow as molasses when changing channels, looking through the guide, etc.
Click to expand...

The speed that channels change has to be the wrost feature of Digital TV. 500 channels but it takes a half an hour to see what is on half of them.
Click to expand...

i HATED how long it took to change channels.

-=bmacd=-
 
I am getting ready to ditch digital cable. I just bought a brand new big screen TV and you can see the damn artifacts like nobodies business in sports games. What a waste of money! And yes, changing the channel is driving me crazy.

Digital cable= AM TV.
 
Originally posted by: bmacd
Originally posted by: Spencer278
Originally posted by: shimsham
i get that also. it doesnt happen with the basic channels, just premiums like hbo, etc. it sucks, really.

not to mention the box is slow as molasses when changing channels, looking through the guide, etc.
Click to expand...

The speed that channels change has to be the wrost feature of Digital TV. 500 channels but it takes a half an hour to see what is on half of them.
Click to expand...

i HATED how long it took to change channels.

-=bmacd=-
Click to expand...

I have noticed this as well. Anyone know the cause?
 
I've never had problems with artifacting on charter cable with a motorola decoder box.

But changing the channels is too slow.
 
most of the time I don't see many artifacts on digital cable... some channels are worse than others. Here's what pisses me off about it: I seem to go through boxes like water. On Time Warner I went through 2 boxes before I got mad and cancelled. Now my Wideopenwest box is acting up. Tonight it just turned off and wouldn't turn back on.

However, I really don't like DirectTV at all. I saw way more artifacts with DirectTV, and the channel changing CRAWLED. At least when you hit the Info button on digicable it comes up right away, on DirectTV you just wait... constantly. And I don't care what they say about weather not affecting directTV... it goes out at least one a month, always when there's a big rain storm or snow storm. However, I think it's back to analog for me. I've had it with having to use these POS boxes for not many worthwhile channels.
 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
Originally posted by: bmacd
Originally posted by: Spencer278
Originally posted by: shimsham
i get that also. it doesnt happen with the basic channels, just premiums like hbo, etc. it sucks, really.

not to mention the box is slow as molasses when changing channels, looking through the guide, etc.
Click to expand...

The speed that channels change has to be the wrost feature of Digital TV. 500 channels but it takes a half an hour to see what is on half of them.
Click to expand...

i HATED how long it took to change channels.

-=bmacd=-
Click to expand...

I have noticed this as well. Anyone know the cause?
Click to expand...

I hated this trait of digital cable too...
My guess is that the box has to ping a central server every time you change the channel before the signal is sent to you.


 
I think the positives of digital cable outweigh the negatives.

Positives:
- Many more channels offered
- On-demand premium and ppv channels
- 5.1 surround sound
- On-screen programming guide <-- greatest feature
- Better parental controls

Negatives:
- Slower channel changing
- Artifacts on screen
- Larger and hotter cable boxes
- Slightly higher price
 
Most of the channels offered on my digital cable suck, though... other than VH1 Classic (the only decent VH1) and occasionally TechTV, I generally just stick to the lower 70. Yep, think it's time to have them come pick up their boxes.
 
Originally posted by: d0ofy
I think the positives of digital cable outweigh the negatives.

Positives:
- Many more channels offered
- On-demand premium and ppv channels
- 5.1 surround sound
- On-screen programming guide <-- greatest feature
- Better parental controls

Negatives:
- Slower channel changing
- Artifacts on screen
- Larger and hotter cable boxes
- Slightly higher price
Click to expand...


Big NEGATIVE for me on Comcast Digital Cable in Dallas:

not sure why, but seeing the TV GUIDE logo every time along with all of the other ads when using the guide or menus was @#$%% annoying as hell...

beside Picture quality difference between analog and digital were negligible on my tv...
 
I am far happier with DTV than Digital Cable. The DC picture always looked like crap and the service was really bad.

The DTV drops out maybe once every two months due to weather and it has to be raining like a son of a bitch to do so.
 
Digital cable blows. My parents had DirecTV with 7 year old boxes and it was 10x better than my cable. Now they got a new dish and boxes free from DirecTV and it's even better.
 
I have never really watched a sat TV. I guess I will ask around and see who has it, because I spend half a grand on a TV and its being held back by $50 a month service.
 
I think alot of depends on your local provider, the conditions of your cable lines and your cable box. In my experience in central Indiana the only times compression is very obvious is occasionally on channels that are not very popular (like G4). And my channel changing/channel guide ability is pretty snappy (I have comcast digital cable). It's much faster than channel guide offered by DirectTV (compared to my sister who has DirectTV). And Indiana weather tends to knock out DirectTV for a few hours each month. Where as my cable (including cable modem) has only gone out for a few hours in the year and a half I've had it.


Lethal
 
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