Quote:
Originally posted by ripster
The picture was so bad, mostly from connecting wire interference and line noise "on the street", at times it was unwatchable.
Should we expect any improvement over their lines to receive a crystal clear signal in HDTV, when and if the purported HD revolution happens on cable, January 1, 2003?  |
Tremendous differences is signal quality exist between cable companies. With fiber upgrades, which boost cable-system bandwidths to 750 MHz or more, many coaxial-cable noise-producing, signal-distorting amplifiers can be eliminated. If you're on a fiber-upgraded system and not getting excellent images, you should pester customer support until they're corrected.
HDTV signals on cable, it appears so far, are being passed along as received. Using both cable and OTA HDTV here, I find one cable advantage is signal stability. There's practically none of the multipath glitches I encounter OTA. A disadvantage is that my converter, a vintage Scientific Atlanta 2000HD, seems to diminish 1080i fidelity just slightly (
my 7/31/01 2:10 pm post ). Newer HDTV cable converters, hopefully, could eliminate this. (That's a converter problem, not cable's 256 QAM delivery versus OTA's 8-VSB.) While some cable companies and their national association seemingly support Powell's FCC urging they carry at least 5 HDTV cable channels, only new channel announcements will confirm it. -- John