satellite vs digital cable in los angeles

Archived from groups: alt.satellite.tv (More info?)

BigHaig wrote:
> Does basic satellite tv (DirectTV) look better than digital cable?
> Specifically in Arcadia/Pasadena/Duarte (Charter Digital)? Since Satellite
> is true digital compared to the digital cable which is really analog up to
> channels 100. Will that make the picture look better (less grainy/blurry
> (light doubling))?

It all looks pretty bad these days. Go with what's cheapest. I have
DirecTV. It overcompresses many channels. Local cable used to look
better, but now it looks just as bad or worse since it's gone all
"digital". Cable (Charter, locally) has worse digital dropouts on
channels above 70 or so - the picture locks up, then "paints" back on in
little matrices of dark blocks until the motion resumes. DirecTV has
worse MPEG2 noise, but fewer total freezes - unless it rains hard.

Oddly, best picture I get now is local channels over the air with rabbit
ears. Unfortunately, that's only three channels.

There is one exception - a certain channel from Ohio has yet to master
its reception and recording of UPN broadcasts, so it looks worst of all,
even over the air.