Digital Direct TV vs HD via Cable

I have Direct TV and also cable, digital for some channels.
I do not have a HD plasma, (my receiver is HD) but the one I have looks good to my old eyes, and was soft on the wallet. Observations are:

HD programs look better than regular ones, even without the HD monitor. I was able to check this out because Direct TV often has the same movie on two channels, one HD, the other not, and I can switch back and forth between channels.

With satelite, all channels are digital, whether or not they are HD. Picture quality is better for these channels.

Local stations are not available for all locations, yet. I was surprised to find that neither PBS channel included on Direct TV had the programming that I like from my local PBS station. I can still get it over the cable, and they say that local stations will soon be available in my location.

Cable has a way of getting knocked out during thunder storms or when people take down poles with their cars. Direct TV has never been interrupted. Surprisingly, my signal strength was unaffected by about one inch of snow clinging to the lower third of the dish.

With cable, you can get broadband connection for your computer.

CATV is highly dependent on where you are--who your provider is and how far away from the headend you are. In my old house, I had Comcast digital CATV and thought it was terrible. So, when I moved, I ordered DirecTV and was very excited by the prospect of improved quality. Unfortunately, it took waaay to long to install, and in the interim, I ended up with digital CATV again because I needed the CATV broadband service and the digital add-on was a cheap promotion that would tide me over to the DirecTV install. In my new house, the digital CATV seemed much, much better, but at the time they didn't have HDTV channels, so I cancelled when the DirecTV got installed.

I hated DirecTV. For channel surfers, the channel update is sloooow, regardless of the box you use. After a year, my DirecTV contract expired and my Comcast system started carrying about 8 channels of HDTV, so I switched back. I'm much happier with digital CATV than DirecTV, and I have yet to see any outages (its been about a year).

Bottom line, you can have a good CATV signal and you can have a bad CATV signal. You can have a good DirecTV signal, and you can have a bad DirecTV signal (depends on foliage and how well the dish is aligned). If you don't have a good DirecTV signal, you will have weather outages--I know people who can predict the weather by when their DirecTV starts cutting out, and I had some issues with high winds.

On the plus side, I think CATV switches faster and has a better HDTV line up, but that is my taste (not a sports fan) and my CATV provider. On the minus side, the DirecTV folks can go integrated Tivo, and there is now an HDTV Tivo. On the plus side, I don't have to run a lot of coax through my house and my CATV is available in all rooms (you need two runs of coax to support Tivo and multiswitches for multiple rooms).

As with most things, its a matter of taste...

HDTV is definitely worth it, however!

Edesilva...You are absolutely right that the local cable provider can make or break cable, and your house's suitability for dish location can make or break satelite.

I bought my own satelite hardware and installed it myself without any problem whatsoever. It took me a couple of hours. My signal strength is in the mid 90's, which is considered very good. The ideal dish location, from a reception point of view, happened to be ideal from a cosmetic point of view (hidden away on a back roof). Not everyone will be this fortunate.

I have Directv and it is very good, but you might want to look at Voom they give you everything free and include an antenna for local channel HDTV feeds. No long term contract either. The only downside is no PPV and no NFL sunday ticket. No NFL sunday ticket was a deal breaker for me. Hope you don't have this addiction.

The first thing you need to get a handle on is the availability of what we call OTA (over the air) High Definition broadcasts. I seem to remember addressing this earlier and perhaps in a thread that you either started or were a part of. Then again, perhaps not so here goes:

If you can get a decent OTA signal, this will seriously aid you in your decision. I live in one of the five major metropolitan areas that Beta-tested High Definition broadcasting more than five years ago and, such being the case, most of the bugs have been worked out to the extant that networks like ABC can now alert us of the ten movies per year(!) that do not come in High Definition. You get the best audio in OTA broadcasts. My local PBS station's concerts are fantastic in High Definition.

The problem with OTA is that they broadcast in UHF frequencies and this means that you must be able to receive an unobstructed signal from the antenna to your home. Again, I am lucky as I live on a hill and I can see the mountain from which almost all of the HD signals come from. So, a very simple $35.00 Terk antenna mounted on my attic window sill does the trick without any amplification. I collected $$ from the siblings and I installed a plasma monitor, Direct TV and anantenna for my wife's Father in Northern Indiana and his antenna reaches almost twenty feet from the top of his house. He also prefers OTA over Satellite and this allowed him to cancel cable.

If you can't get a decent OTA signal then you are probably better off with cable and the whole god-awful monopoly service that comes with it.

One thing you can do is go to www.antennaweb.org and follow the prompts to see what kind of antenna you might need in your area. You still must test the results for yourself as UHF is really strange in that twin, look-alike houses sitting next to each other either can or can't get the same decent signal. Also, www.avsforum.com will tell you who is broadcasting in your area and when they will be capable of getting you HD signals in your area.

So, again to answer your question, if you can get good OTA then Satellite is good. If not, cable is your answer. finally, While my Father-in-Law has direct TV, I have Dishnet and I prefer Dish over DirectTV.