Re: Confusing AP Article is Widespread

"L Alpert" <alpertl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:oEOQj.3433$I55.2652@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> inkyblacks@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
>> All cable companies have poor quality HDTV service.  Sat or 
>> over-the-
>> air is the way to go.
>>
>> IB
>
> When I first got cable HD, I still had OTA, and I was able to 
> compare the same channels on the same HD set by switching the 
> inputs.  There were no distinguishable differences that I 
> could detect at that time.
>

I capture HDTV from both QAM and ATSC almost daily.  While I 
don't intentionally capture the same show on both, I do capture 
from the same OTA networks on both.  The only reason cable 
re-compression is obvious to me is that the file sizes from 
cable are typically smaller than those from OTA.  When I play 
the programs, they're intermixed and no one in the audience, 
including myself, remarks upon which came from which source. 
This is on a 42" 1080p display.  It may become more apparent on 
a much larger display.

I'd guess that fewer bits of the same format makes for a lower 
quality picture but I can not discern what fraction of a 
percentage point lower it may be.  Picture quality does not seem 
to be pro****tionately related to bit count alone.

And then, regardless of which source delivers the picture there 
are those moments of videographer brilliance that inspire 
jaw-dropping awe in the viewer - unknown in the analog era! 
Let's have more of those, eh.