What do you all think of Digital Cable?

[Bohrn]

I've heard pros and cons, so, what do you all think about it? Your experiences? I am with Shaw@home now, so I would like to keep them for my TV cable too, as it is 10 bucks a month cheaper for the internet if I use them for TV cable. The Digital Cable is only about 12 bucks a month more than my analog setup. I have a good ProLogic (Kenwood) reciever,and full 5.1 surround setup, with a JVC TV that can handle Component and S-Video,and a JVC S-VHS VCR with S-Video. Should I go with a StarChoice minidish, or digital cable and why?

Thanx alot guys

[Kruzin]

I'm on AT&T @home digital cable.
It rocks for downloads:


Also does great for the on-line games I've played on it. I can connect from here in Colorado to the Matrox game server in Monteral, and have <100 ping consistantly.

But it's no so great on file uploads. Here, they cap the U/L rate at 15KB/s, so large uploads are a pain.

I definatly like it WAY better than the 128k DSL line we have at work.

[This message has been edited by Kruzin (edited 07 June 2001).]

[Greebe]

@Home is great unless there is a problem. I had packet loss for 11 weeks straight before they fixed it and during that process the noroms they sent out to my place were nothing less than arrogate BSB's. If anyone here has troubles with @Home let me know, I have their VIP 1-800 PH# that way instead of going through Teir1 and then to tier 2 siupport you get the supervisors... and yes they do respond!

[Bohrn]

Thanx for the replies. Good info with that Phone number Greebe! But I was more after the info on Digital Cable for TV broadcasts. Is it better than regular TV? Does it have noticably clearer picture quality? Is it better or comparable to Star Choice or other minidishes? Thanx

[Helevitia]

I dont have digital cable but my wife's parents do. They ahve a 50" TV so the quality looks crappy to me because those projection tV's always looked like crap to me. So you pay ~30 more bucks a month to have 'cable box', and 500 channels(some of which are music channels, no video just audio). They also have some super package that gives them something like 20 premium channels. So if you like watching lots of TV & Movies, and you like listening to 40 different kinds of music at your leisure, than it is probably for you. As far as I understand, there is no real 'digital' signal yet so you can't really watch movies the way they were intended, which is in Dolby Digital. I'd rather rent or buy the movie and hook it up to my home theater. My 2 cents. Here is a link that will answe some of your questions:

http://www.attbroadband.com/services...LearnMore.html

Dave

[Kruzin]

I don't subscribe to digital cable television service. But I learned that when I signed up for digitial net service, basic cable comes in on the line with it, so I just ran a splitter off my cable modem to my VCR, and get free basic cable. It's very good quality (much better than an antenna), and 70+ channels more than I got with the rabbit ears

[RedRed]

hello

I do have digital cable. (I use NTL in Belfast - there is no choice). Cable is great on the cablemodem side (.5 megabit whohoo!!!! faster than my work connection).

However it can sometimes be a pain on TV...

The set top box will bluescreen on me a couple of times a month.... (Turn it off (at the power) and it returns......) Some channels dissapear for a couple of days at a time.... (Channel 4 is off at the moment, but its still ok on terrestrial) - though this is rare.... sometimes the pichture can freeze for about 1.5 secconds, but the voice keeps going!

I wouldnt change back though!
That cable modem is the dogs doodads!!!!

red
rushed at work!

[RedRed]

kruzin

How did you doo this?
I only really use the basic package anyway.... I would rather not rent the set top box ????

[Joel]

Our cable company has gotten wise to the free cable deal and what they have done is, that the cost of cable modem access by itself is more than cable modem and cable TV, added together, when subscribed to individually. So I have basic cable for my local stuff and an RCA DSS for everything else. The only draw back that I have found so far with the mini-dish is that sometimes sever weather can cause interference. Other than that the picture quality is excellent. Have not seen digital cable TV yet. They are just starting to offer it in my area.

Joel

[Reverend Maynard]

I live in southern California, and quite frankly, my digital cable is worthless. I signed up for it on a whim one day with moderate expectations, and I was dissapointed from the start. Here is what I get over the basic cable...7 or 8 channels of music, no video, just music streams, the option to PAY MORE for the standard movie channels, and about 5 new channels that I didn't have access to with basic cable. As for the picture, there was no noticeable improvement from what I can tell. So basically what it comes down to is what your cable company actually gives you with the digital cable. And to all of you with cable internet services, I envy you with all my being.

[Heed]

RedRed: Cable in N.A. is different than the U.K. I moved to the U.K. from Canada last year and was bummed to see all this "set top box" crap. In N.A. the signal is filtered before it enters the home (i.e. the channels you're _not_ paying for are "pre-scrambled" before entering the home), so all you do is connect the cable directly to your T.V. or VCR (no decoder necessary): this means you can "split" the line as many times you want and get cable on numerous T.V.'s that are independent from eachother (i.e. you use your VCR or T.V. channel selector to watch any program you want on each T.V.-- they're all independent from eachother).

Simply put, the line coming into the home has its "decoder" on it prior to reaching your T.V. set.

So, I doubt you'll be able to split your cable modem line and get T.V. channels from it-- you'd still need the set top box to decode the channels.

BTW, I thought the NTL (internet) cable line was capped. Can you tell me what "package" you're on?

Heed.

[This message has been edited by Heed (edited 07 June 2001).]

[cbman]

Yep Canadian Cable Rocks...

All I need is the cable internet now... (DSL Still works fast for me at 15KB/95KB up/down (in kilobytes not kilobits )

Oh and when in an apartment complex they pretty much have to offer free cable because everyone ends up with it anyways.

[ahartman]

Not sure if you're just looking for Canadian experiences w/digital cable, but I'll give you mine anyway...

We live in a high-rise and our basic cable costs $5.00 (bulk deal). The picture quality is superb. We don't have any of the digital music stuff though.

The best feature of digital cable, IMO, is the channel guide. We don't get the newspaper or TV Guide, so we use the channel guide all the time. It shows what's on 3 days in advance.

Pay-per-view is pretty good, too, with a large selection of movies & events (20 or so) but we like to be able to pause DVDs.

My mom & her husband have DirectTV and that's nice as well - picture quality appears the same to me, but they have a bunch of music channels and billions more channels available to them. It's also quite a bit more than dig. cable, but they're in the boondocks and can't get cable.

YMMV

[EchoWars]

Time-Warner makes a big ballyhoo anound here about how great digital cable is, so my buddy got it. He's a little clueless, and doesn't see much difference. However, I can see that programs now look like vid games rendered on a Rage 128 vid card in 16-bit color. A lot of banding that was never there before. And some channels seem to get a low priority for data flow, for instance, I like to watch Discovery Wings, but 50% of the time it is unwatchable. Picture freezes waiting for data, or breaks up into funky digital 'blocks' for lack of data. I told him to tell Time-Warner screw the digital service and go back to analog.

[xortam]

If you want the best looking TV in the U.S., get HDTV (satellite or OTA). For NTSC TV, the best is satellite again with BUD better than the little dish because it offers first-generation digital signals. I'm still on analog BUD (waiting to buy my big HDTV set) but it beats analog cable by a long shot. The really nice thing about BUD is that there are a number of programmers so you have competition that drives the package prices down.

Signed, happy BUD owner since 1991.