Which Hd Is Better, Satellite Tv Or Cable?

For a lot of people who have cable they really don’t get the chance to see and compare the difference between their cable and satellite TV in terms of which one delivers the sharpest picture for HD. When I had cable I saw how sharp and crisp the movies were when I watched anything on Blu-Ray, but when I switched back to the HD channels it didn’t look as vibrant and crisp as it did on the Blu-Ray . I decided to look into it, and this is what I found:

When you get HD satellite TV service from companies like DISH Network or DIRECTV, they come out and install a satellite dish on your house that is very close to the receiver that connects to your TV. The signal only has a short distance to travel, so there is very little degradation in the digital signal, thereby your HD quality is as high as it can get.

When you have cable, the signal is received at a location known as the “headend”, and can more often than not be several miles from your home, so the signal has to pass through many miles of cable with boosts from amplifiers before it can reach the digital receiver in your home. Due to the process of transferring the signal over vast distances of coax cable there tends to be a degradation that occurs.

Since HD relies on utilizing the highest quality standard in digital video processing, it’s important that there be as little interference as possible when passing the satellite signal from the point of capture (the satellite dish) to the point of display (your HDTV).

Although the cable companies will often debate this issue, it only stands to reason that when you transfer anything over coax cable it tends to degrade. If however they were to switch out all their coax cable for fiber optics then the signal would pass unfettered to the receivers, and there would be little difference between the picture quality from cable companies in comparison to satellite TV companies. Due to the high cost of what that would entail, it’s very doubtful that the cable companies will ever truly be able to compete with either DIRECTV or DISH Network in terms of delivering the highest quality HD picture it can offer.

By: Betty Arthur

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Betty Arthur is a retired school teacher that is always looking for better ways to get the most for the value for the money without sacrificing on quality.

Resources:
DISH Network
DISH Network HD