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Cable is generally identical to or slightly worse than OTA. Some cable systems recompress, which can make it worse, while many just pass the signal through, so it will be the same. Satellite goes through a cross-conversion to MPEG-4 and is thus generally worse just from that process.

In very very rare instances, cable can be better than OTA or satellite. An example of this is KSTP which broadcasts Mobile DTV over the air in Minneapolis and compresses the ABC-HD very badly. However, they send a fiber feed to the cable company without the Mobile DTV which results in a better quality picture. As I said at the beginning of the paragraph, this is very very rare.

- Trip

andy_horton said:

Does OTA actually look better than cable? I know cable and sat compress signals and actually to me, it is a little more crisp looking when I'm using OTA.

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I'm running a fairly unique setup for cable and OTA on an Amiko A3 satellite receiver using 2 different HDhomerun tuners. Unlike with a Comcast Xfinity STB I can see datarates, compression and all sorts of goodies. I also get to compare the visual output on the exact same device rather than using 2 different tuners/decoders.

I haven't done an exact analysis of the Xfinity vs the OTA to say for sure that Comcast isn't messing with it but it appears that they are passing the OTA stream directly at least with the major networks. Bitrates and overall profiles appear to be the same whether it is the Xfinity OTA version or the actual OTA version. One of the OTA's (KMSP 9.1) causes some issues due to something odd KMSP did awhile back. This occurs with both the Xfinity and OTA sources. I've got no reason to believe that Xfinity is doing anything to the OTA signals. Both Xfinity locals and the OTA sources "look" the same when watching.

I do know a long time ago Comcast did mess with at least some of the OTA's here. There was one that I know for a fact was 480 yet from Comcast it reported back 1080i. They were upconverting it for some reason. In other markets they very well could be transcoding and compressing the OTA's. The satellite operators do this so I see no reason why cable operators wouldn't do the same especially if they are short on capacity.

I know cable and sat compress signals and actually to me, it is a little more crisp looking when I'm using OTA.

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Chances are that your cable is coming in using their STB and your OTA comes in using your TV's actual tuner. These are two different devices that will decode MPEG in different ways. One might smooth a picture differently or provide a "warmer" color profile. Even with an identical input source two devices can output a noticeably different picture on the same monitor. It comes down to personal preference as to which is "better" looking. This of course assumes the same input source. This is part of what is nice for me having everything decoded and output by a single unit: everything is processed the same so it is easy to spot variations.

Generally speaking if you have to choose a source the OTA is going to be better. You know it isn't being transcoded or messed with so it is at least as good as the cable or satellite source.

Thanks T134. Great explanation. Cable gives a warmer picture while OTA is cooler. But the quality is VERY close

andy_horton said:

Cable gives a warmer picture while OTA is cooler.

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That could be due to the settings for color, brightness, contrast, etc. for the different inputs. Most TVs have separate settings for the OTA tuner, HDMI and Composite inputs, so you have to make sure are all set to the same values if you want an accurate comparison.

larrykenney said:

Most TVs have separate settings for the OTA tuner, HDMI and Composite inputs, so you have to make sure are all set to the same values if you want an accurate comparison.

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Not just the different basic settings (color, tint, brightness) but also the "mode" (game, movie, TV, standard, etc).

Trip said:

In very very rare instances, cable can be better than OTA or satellite. An example of this is KSTP which broadcasts Mobile DTV over the air in Minneapolis and compresses the ABC-HD very badly. However, they send a fiber feed to the cable company without the Mobile DTV which results in a better quality picture.

Click to expand...

OMG so true!