The cable company in my area is Adelphia. I decided to write them to see if HD was in their future. Here is the response I got:
Thank you for taking the time out to write to Adelphia. It is always a pleasure to communicate with our customers.
The transition from analog to digital is a complicated, evolutionary process that will take time and will vary greatly from market to market. Cable operators are investing $6 billion a year to upgrade their facilities to deliver the digital programming our viewer's want. Most broadcasters (like NBC, CBS, etc.) still do not have definitive programming plans and initially will deliver at most only a few hours of digital programming a week; key technical and compatibility issues are yet unresolved.
While cable operators and broadcasters are involved in constructive discussions about carriage arrangements, we remain committed to providing our customers with the programming they tell us they want. Digital broadcast signals are available to all customers over-the-air, just as broadcast analog signals are available over the air (if you are able to receive them in your area via an off-air antenna).
Adelphia is using digital compression technology to offer programming choices to customers. These digital programming tiers are being offered along with the analog programming tiers. Customers do not need to purchase a new digital television set to watch this programming. These services are intended to be seen on analog television sets using a digital converter available for rental from Adelphia.
HDTV's are not compatible with the cable system, as in the fact that the picture quality will be the same that you are receiving now on your current television set. As mentioned above you can get a digital signal via a digital receiver on your analog television that is a better picture quality that what you are receiving now.
Satellite companies are not even sending signals in HDTV format. They are requiring you to purchase the oval shaped dish and they are sending you signals from two satellites. This is not HDTV format. Also the technology does not exist to send HD format via a digital signal. Remember, HDTV is for off air channels only (analog). Once you take the HD format and transition it to digital (to send it to a satellite) you loose the HD format, it is now a digital format. The only networks that may be sending true the HDTV format are local off the air broadcasters that you can receive with an antenna on the roof of your house. Yes the dish companies are saying that they are sending the HDTV format, but unfortunately this is a marketing ploy and they are not sending the signal. If you go to this web site; http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/learn/...anced_HDTV.jsp - 5, which is directly off of their web site you will see for yourself that they "beat around the bush" and never tell you the whole truth.
HDTV will not really be available till the year 2006 and the Federal government may even change this date. Digital and HDTV is almost the same thing. In addition, there are bandwidth issues that make HDTV not practical for cable companies to provide. HDTV signals take 2 1/2 time the bandwidth that a normal analog channel will require, with digital, you can take the bandwidth that one analog channel requires and put up to 29 digital channels within the same space.
If you do have any other questions please contact your local Adelphia cable office or feel free to email me at any time. Adelphia appreciates the opportunity to provide you with cable entertainment.
Sincerely,
Daniel Holcomb
Customer Relations Specialist

If this response is any indication, I think I'll be keeping my D* for quite some time...but then again, why bother, it's not "real HDTV".
Thank you for taking the time out to write to Adelphia. It is always a pleasure to communicate with our customers.
The transition from analog to digital is a complicated, evolutionary process that will take time and will vary greatly from market to market. Cable operators are investing $6 billion a year to upgrade their facilities to deliver the digital programming our viewer's want. Most broadcasters (like NBC, CBS, etc.) still do not have definitive programming plans and initially will deliver at most only a few hours of digital programming a week; key technical and compatibility issues are yet unresolved.
While cable operators and broadcasters are involved in constructive discussions about carriage arrangements, we remain committed to providing our customers with the programming they tell us they want. Digital broadcast signals are available to all customers over-the-air, just as broadcast analog signals are available over the air (if you are able to receive them in your area via an off-air antenna).
Adelphia is using digital compression technology to offer programming choices to customers. These digital programming tiers are being offered along with the analog programming tiers. Customers do not need to purchase a new digital television set to watch this programming. These services are intended to be seen on analog television sets using a digital converter available for rental from Adelphia.
HDTV's are not compatible with the cable system, as in the fact that the picture quality will be the same that you are receiving now on your current television set. As mentioned above you can get a digital signal via a digital receiver on your analog television that is a better picture quality that what you are receiving now.
Satellite companies are not even sending signals in HDTV format. They are requiring you to purchase the oval shaped dish and they are sending you signals from two satellites. This is not HDTV format. Also the technology does not exist to send HD format via a digital signal. Remember, HDTV is for off air channels only (analog). Once you take the HD format and transition it to digital (to send it to a satellite) you loose the HD format, it is now a digital format. The only networks that may be sending true the HDTV format are local off the air broadcasters that you can receive with an antenna on the roof of your house. Yes the dish companies are saying that they are sending the HDTV format, but unfortunately this is a marketing ploy and they are not sending the signal. If you go to this web site; http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/learn/...anced_HDTV.jsp - 5, which is directly off of their web site you will see for yourself that they "beat around the bush" and never tell you the whole truth.
HDTV will not really be available till the year 2006 and the Federal government may even change this date. Digital and HDTV is almost the same thing. In addition, there are bandwidth issues that make HDTV not practical for cable companies to provide. HDTV signals take 2 1/2 time the bandwidth that a normal analog channel will require, with digital, you can take the bandwidth that one analog channel requires and put up to 29 digital channels within the same space.
If you do have any other questions please contact your local Adelphia cable office or feel free to email me at any time. Adelphia appreciates the opportunity to provide you with cable entertainment.
Sincerely,
Daniel Holcomb
Customer Relations Specialist
If this response is any indication, I think I'll be keeping my D* for quite some time...but then again, why bother, it's not "real HDTV".