It depends on where you live and who your cable company is.
Good digital cable can beat DirecTV.
Bad digital cable can look much worse than DirecTV.
Good analog cable can beat them both, but doesn't exist in many places.
OTA (with proper antenna) and BUD (big ugly dish) satellite destroys them all.
Any idea how Insight is? They took IFC off of basic cable...and I've been thinking of upgrading just for that...not to mention ESPN Classic, ESPN News, and Sundance Channel.
We've got Comcast "Digital Cable", what a joke. Converter box is labelled "Dolby Digital", and on the back are 2 covered-up areas labelled "S-Video" and "AC-3". Only outputs are L/R Audio and Composite Video.
I feel like suing for false advertising.... "Dolby Digital" my arse...
Picture is no better than analog (which it is !) But gee- at least I get to pay a ton more per $$$ for a cable modem.