S-Video and Comb Filter

[mjz]

Hi everyone I have a question.

I'm currently away at college and they do not allow dishes, so being a big Sopranos fan (And having a stoner roommate that also want a box and agreed to split the bill--I collect his half of it twice in month:) I got digital cable. First off I never thought I would ever say this BUT I MISS MY DISHPLAYER!!. This comcast digital cable is complete crap! It makes Dish look like C-Band!!! I can see digital artifacts on my 20inch tv!!! But here is my question. I currently have the TV hooks up the digital box with S-Video, the cable box outputs both the digital and analogue channels out via this. My Tv is a Samsung Dynaflat and it has a 3-Line digital comb filter. Which world get my better PQ on standard cable channels the S-Video from the box (S-video I understand bypasses the comb filter) or to split the signal and use the tv to turn in the standard channels directly?

[scooper]

That would depend on the quality in the cable box - All I could say is try both and see which one you're happier with...

[DoyleS]

Ah, one of the many misleading items regarding Digital Cable. Typically channels 1-99 are still actually analog but they get reencoded and thus have the nice delay when you switch channels so you think they are digital. All the reencoding does decrease the picture quality. If you see a difference between channels up above 100 and those below 100 then you are probably stuck. To get a better picture on the lower channels, you connect your TV directly to the cable and bypass the box. Try using the box only for the truly digital channels. I doubt whether using your TV comb filter will help. Do you have comb filter artifacts?? Look on the bottom of horizontal lines and see if you can see hanging dots or crawling dots. That would be an indication of a poor comb filter.

..Doyle