Cable HDTV vs Directv HDTV?

[alumiu90]

Just completed my home theater area with Epson 8350 and using Charter Cable HDTV box running through my Yamaha receiver. This is my first HDTV, yes, my very first in my own home and I am a little disappointed in the picture quality with the cable HDTV, expected it to just blow me away with the Epson 8350 at 120" picture. My wife and brother were impressed, but I was expecting better.

Anyone have experience with cable verse Directv HDTV and how does the picture compare?


Thanks

 

[BMXTRIX]

How are you connected? Are you on a HD channel? Is the cable box set to output 1080i/720p video?

Some of the things that people consider 'standard' really aren't that way at all. You should be using HDMI from the cable box to your A/V receiver, then HDMI to the projector. You should make sure that the settings on the cable box are for 1080i HD output, and you need to be 100% sure you are on a HD channel.

DirecTV can look better than broadcast cable, but really, these are still typically 18Mbs compressed MPEG2 video streams. For best video quality you should be looking at the 30Mbs streams which come from Blu-ray Disc using the AVC or MP4 codecs. They really are the gold standard for home A/V quality right now.

 

[panteragstk]

Cable box output should be set to native if that is an option. Lots of boxes don't have that so set it like BMXTRIX says. The best looking TV is going to come from an antenna believe it or not. Directv is decent, but no better than anything else IMHO. I love DTV and would never go back to cable, but FIOS is supposed to have the highest video quality of any provider. U-verse is by far the worst.