I can't believe it but I switched back to cable..and I'm happy.

[robert luzzi]

or you are cheap

[stevesmall]

I must tell you that I have VOOm and I get 36+ HD chanels and I love it D is behind and if they had HD I would of stood with them.

I have VOOM too oh wait, if it doesnt work do i really have it ? does a bear *hit in the woods, the only viewing ijm getting on my crappy voom equipment is the lights that flash when you reset the box
OH BY THE WAY, i also have directv they dont have as many hd channels BUT THEY WORK ALL THE TIME
so im cancelling VOOM and ILL STICK WITH DIRECTV

[mike123abc]

mike,, youve said this time and time again.

mike , ANALOG SUCKS

directv pq is the best in sd, read 90% of the posts

my opinion and im entitled to it , analog my butt, if you have an antenna on your house you are living in the last century

I have an antenna on my house and receive 4 ATSC signals. 2 of which carry the HD feeds (ABC/CBS). I can bet you that the OTA signals are *FAR* better than standard definition channels you might get on DIRECTV.

You need to read up on how DIRECTV works. They have uplink centers where they receive the ANALOG cable channels via satellite, they then MPEG encode them and uplink them to their own satellites. Here, maybe you will believe DIRECTV
http://www.directv.com/aboutus/pdf/facts/5337SYST.pdf

BROADCAST CENTERS: DIRECTV employs two state-of-the-art
Broadcast Centers (one in Castle Rock, Colorado, and
one in Los Angeles, California) that transmit digitally
compressed programming directly to five satellites.

Note they say DIGITALLY COMPRESSED programming. They do exactly the same thing that Digital cable does. Note that YOUR LOCAL cable company may do a poor job and over compress compared to DIRECTV, but just because your local company does it, does not mean that *EVERY* cable company has worse PQ. A high quality cable company has *FAR* less compression than DBS.

I have never said your ANALOG cable channels in your area are better PQ than DIRECTV. But, in some areas of the country they are better. Yes it is possible to have a better analog delivered channel than DIRECTV. High quality cable systems have fiber optic networks that have a *LOT* less compression than DBS companies to the neighborhood.

[Mike Greer]

My analog channels from Comcast are better than the 100% Digital quality local channels I receive from DirecTV by far. I can't watch the Salt Lake locals from DirecTV on my big screen TV's... I can only stand it on the 14" TV I have in my office (mostly because I don't look at it!). The Comcast analog channels are different but about the same PQ as the best digital from SD from DirecTV.

When it comes to HD my old fashioned antenna on the roof and Comcast are tied for the best HD available. Dish Network (when I had it) was second and DirecTV is by far the worst HD I can get. I'm not sure what DirecTV does to their HD (other than lower the resolution and bandwidth on some) but there is no question that Comast in Salt Lake beats the pants off of DirecTV for HD. For me Comcast has more channels and they are REAL HD not the wanta-be HD Lite stuff from DirecTV.

I spent an an afternoon at a friends house comparing the Sci-Fi channel between C-Band, Digital Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network. We ranked them in the following order:

1st - C-Band.
2nd - Dish Network
3rd - DirecTV
4th - Comcast Digital

The analog C-Band was way out in front. Better color, higher resolution, better contrast, no digital artifacts.

Dish Network and DirecTV were close but we gave a slight edge to Dish Network as it had a little less artifacting but both were pretty washed out and nasty looking compared to C-Band.

Sadly - Comcast Digital had the least amount of detail. A little less digital garble but the softest picture of the 4. I say sadly because when it comes to HD Comast, OTA and C-band are all tied for first!

Just because something is digital doesn't make the picture better. I'd say its possible to get a better digital picture than an analog picture but non of the providers consider SD PQ important enough to do it well. They care more about quantity the quality so the picture quality suffers.

[walkerjs]

Around these parts, (SE PA) I think Comcast intentionally gives customers in New Jersey the good stuff, and leaves the crappy stuff for this area. Our area's digital cable had poor PQ, digital boxes with slow, cumbersome navigation menus, advertisements in the menu, poor channel lineup and it was expensive. Hence our switch to D* which we have been extremely happy with, save the occasional spontaneous receiver resets, rain fade, and that mysterious half hour locals outage a few weeks ago.

My father-in-law lives in NJ, and while visiting there I got to sample his 62" HDTV with the New Jersey version of Comcast. The menus were quick, intuitive, and the picture was awesome. Still could tell that there were artifacts in the HD broadcast, but it was pretty minimal. Also told us that when they had a problem with the signal being insufficient resulting in some problems Comcast was right out there promptly to fix it. Their channel line up was pretty extensive as well. Had we had that level of service in this area I doubt we would have been compelled to switch to D* other than the price.

However now Comcast has thouroghly pissed us off and now having experienced the pleasure that is D*, it is highly unlikely that we would ever switch back. They would just about have to give us a year for free and pay us for the privilege of being their customer and even then I would have to question surrendering my beloved dish. Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with NFL ST next year.

[tdti1]

My analog channels from Comcast are better than the 100% Digital quality local channels I receive from DirecTV by far. I can't watch the Salt Lake locals from DirecTV on my big screen TV's... I can only stand it on the 14" TV I have in my office (mostly because I don't look at it!). The Comcast analog channels are different but about the same PQ as the best digital from SD from DirecTV.

When it comes to HD my old fashioned antenna on the roof and Comcast are tied for the best HD available. Dish Network (when I had it) was second and DirecTV is by far the worst HD I can get. I'm not sure what DirecTV does to their HD (other than lower the resolution and bandwidth on some) but there is no question that Comast in Salt Lake beats the pants off of DirecTV for HD. For me Comcast has more channels and they are REAL HD not the wanta-be HD Lite stuff from DirecTV.

I spent an an afternoon at a friends house comparing the Sci-Fi channel between C-Band, Digital Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network. We ranked them in the following order:

1st - C-Band.
2nd - Dish Network
3rd - DirecTV
4th - Comcast Digital

The analog C-Band was way out in front. Better color, higher resolution, better contrast, no digital artifacts.

Dish Network and DirecTV were close but we gave a slight edge to Dish Network as it had a little less artifacting but both were pretty washed out and nasty looking compared to C-Band.

Sadly - Comcast Digital had the least amount of detail. A little less digital garble but the softest picture of the 4. I say sadly because when it comes to HD Comast, OTA and C-band are all tied for first!

Just because something is digital doesn't make the picture better. I'd say its possible to get a better digital picture than an analog picture but non of the providers consider SD PQ important enough to do it well. They care more about quantity the quality so the picture quality suffers.

I agree with all of what you posted here 100% I can't quote Voom but heard there sd is a bit better than dtv/dish and HD is pritty good but still not as sharp and clear as big dish and of course OTA, cable I seem to see it depends on where your are and who provides it.

[ScottChez]

On my Cox cable system the Sci Fi channel is not digital. ITs channels 1-70

And it ilooks real bad compared to Direct TV and DIsh.

Like you said, I depends on where you live.

[robert luzzi]

by 2007 c band is dead, washington WILL resell the spectrum

in areas that are either flat land or a compressed area, antennas work fine , try that in pittsburgh

[Neutron]

robert, don't you have anything positive to say?

[tdti1]

If C-band went away so would pizza dish and cable, where do you think they get the programming from...