Digital Cable - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Taxi]

I've had TCI Digital Cable for about 4 months now, and I must say that I am NOT impressed. Here's my list of gripes:

- Doesn't support any digital audio format. (DD 5.1, DTS)
- No noticable increase in picture quality over standard cable.
- No noticable increase in audio quality over standard cable.
- Unless you subscribe to premium services, there aren't that many new channels to choose from, and what there are are for the most part pretty lame. (The exceptions being the discovery channels, the game show channel, and the independant film channel.)
- Some channels are not available for several minutes when I switch to them.
- Channel surfing is a chore, because it takes at least 2 seconds for the image to display, usually longer.
- On screen channel info is often incorrect.


Well, that's about it. I must say that the on screen info is a nice feature. Taken as a whole, though, digital calble just isn't worth it, especially considering the price, and all the negatives listed above.

Anybody else have digital cable? What do you think?
------------------
Taxi

So there really isn't anything 'digital' about this is there? I was considering signing up for the same service through TCI - might have to reconsider.

I just recently dumped TCI for DSS. I am so much happier. I would not TCI for anything. Here in Denver they have terrible customer service, except when disconnecting service. Hell the tech to disco arived the day after I cancled my subscription.

------------------
Istagi *Feather Head*
Moderator of In the Theater
DDS-351

[Chromy]

Yeah, I saw my brother-in-laws digital cable reception and was glad that I decided to go with a dish. The only thing that you miss out on is local channels... which around here you aren't missing much...

Chromy

I'd have to agree with you all on these points. Here in Phoenix, a buddy of mine has Cox digital cable. While it's enticing to have all of those channels, it is not very convenient for the channel surfer. The picture takes at least 2 to 5 seconds to "load" up on the tv. I can tell there is a somewhat noticable difference in picture quality. The pros just don't outweigh the cons, though.

[Chromy]

When I first got my satalite dish I was annoyed by the time it took to display a channel (usually about 1-2 seconds) but recently when I went to my parents house I was annoyed by the fact that when channel surfing on a non satalite dish I didn't have a program guide.

With Satalite TV I channel surf by just looking at the show names. However with the Dish Network the names and shows are really accurate. I guess on digital cable things aren't that accurate.

Chromy

Do it man! Just go out and buy a DISH or DSS today. You'll be glad you did. I haven't even thought about all those cable headaches until I saw this thread. (Over two years)

You can't put a price on mental health

I was really disappointed with the picture quality, all they have done is digitize the analog picture, so you get both analog and digital artifacts in the picture.

Is the picture quality using a dish better then the digital cable?

Sure wish I could get local channels with a dish.