Most cable companies have the upgraded digital boxes w/ S-Video and Dolby Digital. But...you usually have to beg and complain to get one. Customer Service reps are useless.

Insight here in Louisville found me one after I called the VP of Operations.

If you have a Motorola DCT-2000 series box ask for a "Series K" box. It has both SPDIF and S-Video jacks.

Just got Digital Cable from AT&T in Chicago area and it was a horrible experience. The installer took one look at my home theatre set-up and refused to do the install saying I needed to coordinate a visit between the HT people and him since he "would not take responsibility for touching my system:. I told him I knew every wire and would provide him with whaterver input he wanted and he said something like "you're not listening to me, I won't do the install". I got him to put one on another TV I had and the box they deliver only has RCA and coax outputs. There is a punch out for Svideo but no plug is there. Assuming I keep the thing, I have two questions: 1) Will I get a better picture/sound if I feed the RCA inputs into my TV Video input instead of the coax feed through the VCR and 2) Does anyone know the type of IR receiver that I can plug into the back of the cable box so that I can hide the thing away? AT&T technical support had no idea even how to answer this and then told me I could drive 15 miles to a cable office to get specs on the box but they would not FAX/mail/ or let me talk to someone at that office. I would get DSS but I have at least 4 TVS that we watch and I don't want to buy a shitload of receivers.

JS, the answer to Q#1 is yes, and Q#2 is I don't know. Is there an IR input? If not, try an IR repeater. Personally, I'd return the digital box, and tell them to stuff it where the IR doesn't shine.

About the satellite concern:

Circuit City is selling the Philips DSR6000R TiVo Dual Tuner satellite unit for $99 ea!, a dual-LNB dish for a penny more, and $5/yr. ext. warr. (I got a 5-yr warranty on two tuners and the dish itself for $45). I bought two, and will get two more (4 TVs in the house) this week.

A 3-in/4-out or 3-in/8-out multiswitch is available from PartsExpress.com, as well as local places, like R.S. or C.C. This will let you tune in two channels (rec. one/watch one or rec.two/watch a recording). Remember that a dual tuner needs two RG-6 feeds, so treat it like two receivers.

You don't have to provide every TV with a receiver if you don't want to. Two (or more) can share a tuner with IR extenders and A/V wireless senders.

Larry

I've had a fairly good experience (as well as can be expected) with TWC. I have the 2000HD box and a Toshiba 40H80 HD Widescreen. While the tech support folks can't spell HD if was on their foreheads, the set up guy seemed to know what he was doing.
Don't split if you can help it.
I am using coax for audio out and component for video and the HD channels are awesome. We have 4 local stations broadcasting in HD, theres a HD demo loop and the cable guy told where to go for HD - HBO and HD - Showtime. It's not on any guide or printed material. The movies (and sporting events - Superbowl - that come in HD are amazing). If it's in HD, it generally has 5.1 Dolby Digital. Sound and Video is much better than DVD.
The box took me 7 months to get and I came from Dish 'cuz they were too slow in getting the HD stuff out. Plus the outages in bad weather kept ticking me off.
IF you are set up with a HD box TV, Go to the main HBO or Showtime channel and manually punch in the next channels - you'll stumble on the HD version of whatever is on HBO or Showtime. Also Encore comes in on HD.

Downside.... The non-digital channels still suck.

Just my .02 (or perhaps .05)

The problem here is that everyone seems to think that digital equals quality. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Ever watch a streaming video over the web? That's digital video but the quality is no where near the quality of anolog cable.

Most cable companies are using digital cable to compress the programming in order to allow more channels, and broadband internet access, on their limited bandwidth. If they increase the quality of each channel then they have to reduce the number of channels offered. Many consumers are choosing between cable and DSS based on cost and the number of channels offered so the cable company has to offer the channels or they'll lose customers.

The DSS providers have the same problem--limited bandwidth--and have manipulated compression to increase the number of channels that they carry. More satelites means more bandwidth and offers the potential for better quality, even more channels, or some of both.

So a digital signal has the potential to have better quality than analog but it's no guarentee. For those using moderately sized sets, more channels probably has more apeal than high quality.

Okay, so I'm weighing in a little late, but there is something that I didn't see mentioned in this thread:
I was using COX digital cable in Manchester CT with a box that said "Dolby Digital" on the front. There was an S/PDIF output in the back that I hooked up to my receiver. However, since only a handful of the channels were "real digital" (I knew it because the damn things pixelated all the time...) the audio from the coax digital jack was only active for all of those channels. Of course, as mentioned in this post, those channels were the ones that no one watches. MOREOVER, since the digital signal came out of the S/PDIF jack on ALL channels (with "no sound" being the signal on the "non-digital" channels), my receiver always prioritized the digital signal and gave me no sound on the non-digitals. I ended up hooking up the digital feed to another source input on the receiver and setting the RAV-2000 to go to that audio source if the channel selected was a digital one (using direct channel access buttone). HOWEVER, this was still a problem since the volume on the digital output was markedly louder then the analog and I couldn't figure out (or rather didn't he the patience to figure out...) how to do a volume adjustment macro in the RAV when the audio sources changed.

Oh, then I moved across town (10 miles but into AT&T territory) and got a box with no digital audio out at all...the space for the S/PDIF jack is there, but the jack does not exist! Plus I get massive "hum-bars" on ABC and NBC and the AT&T tech took one look at my system and (a) refused to touch it and (b) said he was going to "document" the modifications I made to the wiring of the coax.

I would go to DSS but my wife doesn't want the dish on the house.

I would go to DSS but you can't get locals in Hartford CT.

I would go back to "regular cable" but my wife likes the interactive guide (OK, so I like it too...).

YOU JUST CAN'T WIN AT THIS GAME IF YOU'RE A HIGH-END CONSUMER!!

CIAO
Matt

Matt, and others, be aware that there is a difference between "digital cable" and "digital audio" (or "digital audio/video", a la DVD).

Digital cable merely means that the channels are digitally 'modulated', like DSS, which allows for more channels and (theoretically) better signal quality.

Digital audio(/video) refers to the signal contained in the medium, such as CD or DVD, and/or output by the reveiver, player, etc.

You may or may not get DD from the S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital InterFace) output, but only a digital medium can contain discrete multi-channel sound, except for multi-track recordings such as 70mm film or multi-channel audio masters.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

That's a good point Larry. I guess I assumed that because there was essentially a 100% correlation between availability of a digital audio signal for a channel and a channel being an "extra" that the cable co gives you with digital cable service, that digital audio = digital signal, if you know what I mean.

But it doesn't change that fact that true "digital audio" was only available for some channels but that the #%^$%^# S/PDIF jack output a "no-sound" signal that allowed my receiver to get a lock for all of the other channels, thus severely limiting it's usefulness!

Matt

Nothing....Get satellite TV, it's much better.

well here are the problems I have encountered with digital cable service through Time Warner. They use the SA box and 2 things seem to stick out to me. Half of the time the component video output only send out a 4:3 pull down signal which looks pretty crappy on 16 x 9 sets and they have a signal feedback on their digital audio output which defeats the auto switching features on most receivers. I have called and complained several times they say they are working on problems but at this time I would find a decent dish in your area and go with that

I do have a HDTV with Time Warner and their digital and HD boxes. Digital and HD boxes only have RCA audio outs. I was extremely disappointed. I am only into my second week with digital and am still playing with HK receiver trying Dolby Emulation and some of HK's other features to get the best sound out of my cable.

I have digital cable from TW with digital audio outs and my brother had HD from TW with digital audio out.

As I understand it, the cable companies are pushing "digital cable" in order to offer more channels. I presume this is an effort to retain customers that are moving to satellite and to enable more "pay-per-view" content.

Their goal is quantity, not quality. I believe that 6 digitally-encoded channels fit in the bandwidth of 1 analog channel.

I have Charter Communications digital cable, and I'm actually relativly happy with it. My box only had a pucnhout for s-video, and no digital outputs, even though it said dolby digital on the front, and that made me really angry, but when I called and complained, they said I could pick up the box with all the proper outputs for free, and they just gave out the crappier ones because most people didnt have a need for the better one. I havnt gotten it yet, so I'm not sure about the digital audio deal. I thought even if it was analog sound, the box would convert it to digital, so I only had one output to my reciever, but I have to plug in anolog sound too? As far as picture quality, I actually do notice a difference even on the normal channels (<100), from before having no cable box. I am not sure if they are digital or not, however. On my TV, it probably wont make much of a difference anyway. The main reason I wanted it was for the extra channels, so I'm happy. If i got satellite, it would cost me alot more, becuase I have 5 TVs, but I only need good quality and all the extra channels on one TV. With cable I just have digital on one TV, but with satellite I'ld need to pay $5 for every TV, plus pay for equitment, which Chater provided me with. I agree that for people with HDTVs and other high quality TVs that satellite is alot better, but for me I'm much better off with digital cable.