Digital TV on par with DirecTv, are you kidding me!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Michael De Costa]

After making several posts about losing my DIRECTV to a line of sight issue in my new home, today Io Digital cable was installed. What a joke. First installation was to happen between 10 and 2 and the guy finally came at 7:15 after 4 phone calls and 2 months of free service! Then after the wait, I find a snowy horrible picture on my Toshiba 57". My bedroom TV at 27" still shows snow but it's not as noticeable. Digital cable are you kidding me! I had to hook up my old DirecTivo to watch some of my old recordings to ease my pain! Even HDTV on Cable was still not as good as DirecTv's signal. Digital cable is one thing, PATHETIC!!!!!!! Tomorrow I will be on the phone with another tree service and try cutting down some more trees to get a DirecTv line of sight! Give me back my DirecTv! Even my wife who never says a word about anything HomeTheater related wants DirecTv back!

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I have digital cable. The digital channels are worse quality than the analog channels. They try to cram so many channels into the set bandwidth that the video quality is pathetic.

 

[Doug_B]

I have Cablevision's IO dig service, and I'm less than impressed as well, although I've never before had any digital TV service. IMO, most of the channels I had with Cablevision's analog service improved with the upgrade to digital, but it wasn't a large difference. OTOH, the lower band channels (esp. the 2-6 range) seem to be even worse than before, and when I replaced their cable box with the HD version of the box in my media room, 2-6 became even worse. Prior to the HD box, football games on CBS (2) and Fox (5) were bearable on my digital projector, but I doubt I could watch them this upcoming season with the HD box (unless Cablevision expands their HD channel lineup; I'm holding my breath ).

Speaking of HD, I've been reasonably happy with their HD channel quality, although I rarely watch any HD material anymore now that hockey season is over (quality is a bit soft, IMO, but a vast improvement relative to non-HD on an 80" wide screen). If Cablevision doesn't increase their HD programming soon, I may just go the DirecTV route, at least for my media room.

Doug

 

[JeremyFr]

It's really sad to hear so many Cable companie's offer such horrid service. I guess thats what happens when little companies try to keep up with the big boys....they simply can't. I know right now here in Washington state were nearing the completion of Video On Demand services as well as launching quite a few more HD feeds. The service is getting better and better day by day I'm loving it I think I may finally sink my teeth into an HD set here soon.

 

[Mika-H]

I have a 53" HDTV for everyday viewing. I have had both DirecTV and Knology Digital cable. On digital cable the channels above 100, are in fact digitally transmitted and look as good as DirecTV. The channels under 100 are analog and look decent, but not nearly as good as those over 100. I actually got rid of my $60/month DirecTV because I was fed up with the pixelated image on ALL channels. I went to standard cable for about $25/month for about a year. I recently upgraded to digital. While the analog channels aren't as good as the digital ones, it is still very watchable, with none of that nasty pixelation.

 

[Mark Hedges]

I have Time Warner and the quality of the local network channels is terrible. Severe ghosting, horizontal lines climbing thru picture, etc. The digital channels aren't much better since they are compressed to an incredible degree. The only channels I have that look OK are some of the analog cable networks, with Food TV being the prime example.

One thing that I found that was strange was that the Fox Movie channel transmits audio in 24 bit 48 khz PCM! I would think the cable company would only want DD since the PCM bitrate is so high. It sounds great but the picture quality is so bad I rarely watch it.

Mark

 

[Rick Anderson]

I have Bright House digital cable and the digital channels look fine to me. Sound is very good too. The HD channels look every bit as good as the satellite ones.
The main problem I have is that the analog channels look horrible compared to the broadcast I used to have on satellite for those channels.

 

[Vin]

Michael, I know exactly where you're coming from....I dumped cable for DirecTV about 5 years ago and couldn't be happier about that decision. Somehow, I'm not surprised to hear that Cablevision (I'm assuming we're served by the same company) hasn't gotten any better! (They do offer great broadband service though).

Any insane thoughts I had about switching back to cable to save the expense of a DirecTV HD STB have suddenly vanished after reading your post!

I hope you resolve your line of sight problem.

Vin