why does digital cable look like ass?
 

on urban cable works' website, they make the statement:

however, on every person's tv that i have seen digital cable on, i can notice a ridiculous amount of compression artifacts, and terrible, washed-out sound from all the compression that is done to the signal. on some channels it's almost unwatchable because it's like watching a real media file.

is directv like this too?

that could be a result of many things, a bad Distribution amp on there part, or maybe bad cables (longer then expected or the Amp can really handle without losing good signal). you should check or ask them about the line, see if thats the problem.

Keep in mind that the only channels that will look good on digital cable are the digital channels. The analog channels actually look worse, as the S-video cable doesn't hide the artifacts like a regular coax cable does.

Because of this, I've got both connected to different inputs in my TV, and just use the S-video input for the digital channels, and the coax for everything else. A bit of a pain, but what can you do.

I will say this - HBO on digital cable is STUNNING on my set. It's the closest thing to HDTV I've seen yet.

HBO probably looks so good because they take bandwidth from the normal channels in order to give it to the premium ones so you get good quality premium channels and ass quality regular channels.

Satellite does the same thing.

My local cable company offers analog or digital cable. I tried standard definition digital for two weeks. It was simply unwatchable. In fact...a friend across town went digital at the same time...his signal was just as bad.

50% of the channels were filled with MPEG2 artifacts..clearly visible on my 36" flat screen...barely watchable. 25% of the channels were unwatchable due to the compression artifact. 25% had slight artifacting and were decent.

I dropped it and went back to analog.

If...standard definition digital cable looks like this in the future (and it probably will)...I may finally be weaned off my TV addiction.

Asabase is correct. I love the Golf Channel. On analog cable...it is the best looking feed I get. Clear...crisp images. On digital cable...the channel becomes unwatchable...severe compression.

Ever try to watch a sporting event in standard definition digital cable???? I did...looked like bad Real Media feed.

Alot of this has to do with your cable company as well.. I first went digital last year, right after I got my 55" HDTV. I was hoping for a noticable improvement, and instead got more artifacts with the S-video connection - Since I wasn't subscribing to any digital premium channels, it didn't make sense and I got rid of it.

I now work for my local cable company, and as a result get free service with all of the channels. So after a year, I revisited digital, and ALOT has changed. The picture is pretty good on the analog stations (you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference between the different inputs most of the time), and as I said, the premium stations look GREAT.

Give the cable companies a chance to upgrade their equipment at the headend, and upgrade their bandwidth, and I think you'll start to see improvements. Our HighDef service is still pretty bad from what I hear, but is rapidly improving.

I had digital cable and satellite at the same time a few years ago (free upgrade to digital cable by TW).

The difference was striking. Even my wife noticed it. However, it wasn't what TW said at all, it the digital cable was much, much worse. Don't even get me started on their crappy menu system. Given a choice, we always watched the satellite.

I do occaisionally notice compression on the satellite service, particularly on local channels, but I have 55" HDTV, and I work in the computer industry and I'm used to looking for compression, so I spot it pretty quickly. My wife doesn't ever notice it on satellite, but she constantly sees it on digital cable.

I have digital cable, and I've noticed that the HBO channels etc... look really good...but the other channels like FX, TNN, stuff like that are very bad quality...the pic looks better on regular cable in fact.

Because it is cable.

My parents was supposedly upgraded. After a "technician" came out the picture was worse than ever. He disconnected several cables telling my parents "they did not need them".

I am switching them to Direct TV this month.

Would someone mind sharing with the ignorant about compression artifacts, or maybe a link to a discussion?

I've never had problems with my digital cable reception. Though some channels don't look the best at times, the HD signal more than makes up for it.