Digital Cable box question.

[durl]

I know this is a DBS forum but for comparison sake (and my own information) I have a question about digital cable.

I hear people talk about their digital cable boxes and they say that they have composite (RCA) jacks going out to their TV. It seems odd to me to have "digital" cable and the only output jacks available are near the bottom of the quality scale. Other than being able to get extra channels, I question why you'd get digital cable when the picture going to the TV is going to be mediocre.

Am I off base in thinking this?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Many people can not get satellite due to their location (cant put up a Dish or can't see the satellites) so therefore Digital Cable is a viable alternative to satellite in this regard.

When someone asks me if they should get Digital Cable or satellite I advise them to try Digital Cable first, for some it fits their needs, for others it makes them run faster for satellite. :)

Usually to try Digital Cable most cable system have specials so you can try it out for a month or two for free or next to nothing.

We may be a DBS site, but I believe that we should ultimately let the members decide for themselves what is best for them. :)

[durl]

I have a couple of friends who have digital cable and when they mentioned the RCA jacks out of the back I told them that they might as well go to satellite. Digital cable didn't seem to offer anything picture-wise as a bonus so it just made me curious.

On a side note, It's been quite a few years since I've had cable so when I saw saw people mention the PQ of cable and I thought that in many cases that cable could offer a better picture than satellite due to the compression issue. But I went to a friend's house this weekend to help him set up his OTA HDTV and he put locals up on his side-by-side display with satelllite on the left and cable on the right. Cable picture was HORRIBLE. I was reminded yet again why I'm fan of DBS.

[Mike500]

I am a professional dbs satellite installer. Many of the customers for whom I install previously had the Motorola digital cable box. They almost always voluntarily comment that they were disappointed with digital cable. Every unit that I had seen or disconnected, even those hooked up to high end HDTV ready sets, was hooked by the installer through the 75 ohm coak connection through channel 3. Although all boxes hand RCA connections, I've never seen them used by Charter, the local cable company.

Charter was sued locally last year for selling digital cable and renting digital cable boxes, when all the customer wanted was basic cable.

[waydwolf]

I know this is a DBS forum but for comparison sake (and my own information) I have a question about digital cable.

I hear people talk about their digital cable boxes and they say that they have composite (RCA) jacks going out to their TV. It seems odd to me to have "digital" cable and the only output jacks available are near the bottom of the quality scale. Other than being able to get extra channels, I question why you'd get digital cable when the picture going to the TV is going to be mediocre.

Am I off base in thinking this?
RCA composite jacks are perfectly fine when you're watching SD content and much better than RF out to ch. 2, 3 , or 4. S-Video *IS* availible on many digital boxes in many systems. Sometimes you have to specifically ask for it, but most people cannot see a difference in quality between that and composite. Most of the people I've installed DBS for have used RF out for their video and they've all spoken glowingly of the picture despite it being NO different than the same channel on digital cable through RF out.

Many systems are now running HD and those boxes do have the component outputs. Remember, you're not likely to see HD locals on DBS until the Winter Olympics are held in the seventh circle, and when your locals go ALL HD, DBS will be hard-pressed to keep carrying locals without tossing on another dozen satellites. Cable will carry them along with all the HD content DBS has, eliminating a present advantage of DBS. (sorry, but it is true and the DBS industry needs to wake up and adapt NOW before this happens)

[waydwolf]

Although all boxes hand RCA connections, I've never seen them used by Charter, the local cable company.

I've installed for Charter and the boxes are almost never issued with RCA cables. A few are issued to each tech and they use them if they have no RF connection availible or the customer specifically request it. (BTW, the issue of passing through analog channels via bypass is still real and many people want that. Charter uses compression fittings in almost every system whereas over 9 out of 10 DBS installers do not and I still catch some of them using Radio Shack screw-on fittings, and Charter's jumpers are far superior in most cases. Their installers also are issued proper strippers, whereas many DBS installers are to this day using razor cutters. http://www.dbstalk.com/images/smiles2/allg045.gif)


Charter was sued locally last year for selling digital cable and renting digital cable boxes, when all the customer wanted was basic cable.

The country's cable systems are required to go all digital by the FCC to free up spectrum space as well as improve television by a specific, although previously changed deadline. Charter has made the decision to hit that deadline come Hell or high water by dropping analog box useage and trying to get as many people as possible over to digital box use pending the transition and aftermarket digital box, TV and VCR sales where people will no longer have to rent boxes.

[gwynnebaer]

I just recently "re-configured" my in-laws setup in the Seattle area (was ATT, now Comcast), and the Motorola digital box they had used COMPONENT outputs to the HDTV (although the cable box was still SD and not HDTV signal).
It's pretty much overkill signal/quality-wise, but you can't argue with quality from the connectors at that point.

The funny thing was, though, that the cable installer set them up with COAX until I went out and bought the component cables for my in-laws. They said they couldn't tell the difference, but I chalk that up to the fact that ditigal SD on an HD TV usually looks pretty bad anyway. I thought it looked a little crisper (which actually made the overall picture look worse), but color and overall quality made up for it. Plus, with the new receiver head unit I installed, they can run all of their component-capable units from one system.