Less than half of all households currently subscribe to digital cable. While the price difference between digital and analog has become almost insignificant and digital cable is available practically everywhere, many people still don't fully understand the difference between the two types of cable.
Instructions
Compare Digital to Analog Cable
1. Decide what is important to you in a cable provider. When you compare, digital cable usually has the advantage of being able to reproduce a large number of channels that are not available in analog cable. Availability will depend largely on where you live, but even some of the more basic channels, such as National Geographic and SportsNet, may not be available to analog subscribers.
2. Choose digital cable if you are looking for on-screen extras, parental control features or on-demand programs. Analog cable simply reproduces programs when the TV is turned on, but does not offer the possibility of adjusting your preferences. If you don't have small children at home or if you only watch cable occasionally, you may not miss these features.
3. Compare and contrast picture quality, if possible. If watched at different times or on screens of differing quality and/or size, you may not notice much difference. The difference of digital cable will be especially noticeable when watched on HDTV screens or flat screens, as these screens are especially designed for it.
4. Stick with analog if you are looking for top-of-the-line sound quality. Digital cable is still somewhat behind in this aspect, although it's expected to catch up within the next few years. Sound quality is not as important if you have a multiple-speaker DVD system, because you will be able to hook up the TV to the speakers and get your sound through them rather than directly through the TV.
5. Keep cost in mind when choosing a cable system. The price for digital has come down considerably over the past few years, but it's still higher than analog. The price for installation is also higher, as it requires an additional remote control, some hardware and a professional to set it up.
Tags: digital cable, Analog Cable, available analog, Compare Digital, Compare Digital Analog, difference between
