Ok, the main point of this thread is to get everyone's opinions on whether digital cable is worth it or not.

I am looking at getting a Sony Wega XBR, HS, or FS series 36" tv, and am wondering if I should invest in the $60.00 a month for digital cable or just use the "free" analog cable that could come out of getting Road Runner.

I would look at digital dish service, but I don't like the idea of not getting local channels through it.

Your thoughts and ideas are more than welcome.

I love the on-screen guide digital cable offers. It's so easy to use and useful. It's like having the TV guide built into the system. You can scroll through to see what's playing when, set reminders to say "Show 'x' is on now." and such like that.

However, digital cable is only $5/month more than regular cable for me.

it sort of depends on your tv watching habits. i got digital cable for a few reasons...
1. i love sports and digital cable offers more sports channels
2. i love film and digital cable has good film channels like IFC as part of the basic service
3. the on-screen guide is definitely nice and can certainly spoil you if you ever have to deal with not having it again

Dear God yes! It's worth it! I used to live in Rochester, NY and got the service since Digital was offered there a few years ago. I recently moved to Alexandria, VA and they don't have digital. Digital Cable is like crack... I can't wait to go back it sucks that Cox Communications doesn't have Digital here...
The picture quality increase is marginal, the audio quality difference is noticable, mostly because with digital set top boxes you have better output options. The guide is (was) great, the MusicChoice channels ("cd quality" music only channels) are great, I loved those and used to leave them on for hours. The channels offered, especially the Discovery suite are great.

Cox sucks. Digital is great.

...That's just my opinion of course.

I have it, but only because my landlord won't let me put up a satelite. The boxes are crap, and can be problematic. The digital channels look great, however only 101-136, with a couple missing in between there, are digital. 2-69 are still just regular cable, with the same picture and sound quality. However, digital cable is only $8 more, and for me it is worth it for the on screen guide, which I needed when my TiVo died, the extra sports channels, Much Music, and the audio only music channels. If you have the option of Direct TV (satellite) I would go with that. You can probably get more channels at a comparable price, and have better picture and sound quality as they will all be digital.

Keep in mind that the signal isn't digital, but an analog signal converted to a digital.

You can get satellite for about $31 per month, plus you should be able to get just the local channels from your cable company for another $10. You'd have the best of both worlds for less money than digital cable.

No way would I spend over $60 a month for digital cable! A friend of mine got digital cable a while back, and the picture was incredibly pixelated, and ranged from fair to poor looking depending on which channel you were surfing through.

Also in many cases you can't get Dolby Digital 5.1 (some cities do have it)

Like it was said before, for around $30-40 you can have a BUNCH of great channels on Directv including several cool music channels. Not to mention that now you get DD 5.1 on HBO, Starz, and Showtime.

Go with the Directv, (or DISH) I love my system, and I'm sure you'll be MUCH happier with DSS (IMHO)

Alfer

Unless that price includes a lot of extras, I would say that it's too much. Digital cable isn't available in my area, but in the surrounding area, it's only a few dollars a month more and at times they are doing switch over promotions where it's the same price for the first couple of months.

I rent as well and had to give up my dish. However I would check with the FCC I think it is illegal for the landlord to not let you put up the dish. I have no patio here so it is not an option. Also Time Warner had a special for old Direct TV customers I pay 115 a month for two boxes and road runner and all the movie channels. It is about a 25 dollar savings off of what I was paying. Plus Dolby Digital is nice.

I LOVE our digital cable. It's around $60-70 a month, but that includes just about every movie channel you can get. And as mentioned before, the on screen guide is fantastic, much better than Direct TV's IMHO.

Hey Meteu185,

I'll throw in my two cents on this one. Our digital cable is only $5 more a month, so it was a no brainer for me. As everyone else seems to agree, the cable guide is worth it alone for this price. I haven't got a cable box for my new digital TV yet, so I don't know what kind of difference I will see in picture. The place the digital cable really shines on my system is audio, especially when we watch the movie channels. Our cable boxes have a connection for digital audio -- they look just like an RCA connector, but they require a special cable. My Yamaha receiver automatically detects when digital audio is present and switches to it. My Denon must be switched manually. While it is a slight pain to switch the Denon, it does let me hear the difference between the two. It rocks to switch a movie over from stereo to 5.1! The $60 additional cost you are facing would be hard to take though.

I think you need to look at what additional channels are available in the digital lineup. Mine is mostly a lot of "second tier" stuff like DIY, Biography Channel, and History International. BUT . . . there's also TechTV, BBC America, and IFC, and for me those are worth the extra 10 bucks a month. I also find myself listening to the Music Choice channels more than I thought I would.