for HD programming - who gives you the best picture quality? Cable HD ,Direct Tv HD, or OTA? I have cablevision HD(using component). I am very happy with my signal quality. my friend has direct tv HD(using DVI) - signal looked pretty decent - but he has a RPTV and I have a direct view CRT. so i cant really make a honest opinion.

They're all digital signals so it really comes down to compression rates. OTA doesn't have to compress since they're only feeding one channel. Satellite is very bandwidth restricted (at least until they lauch more birds) and may have more compression than cable.

That said, I can't tell much difference between OTA and DirecTV HD as far as PQ, but I'm not a videophile either. Quality of the receiver also plays a role as does native scan rate so it's really hard to do a valid A/B test. But if you're not a videophile I don't think you'd notice a big difference between the 3. The quality of the source seems to me to have a bigger influence than how it's delivered.

>OTA doesn't have to compress >

Let me revise that to say " OTA does not have to compress AS MUCH". All digital TV is compressed-always!. Even HDTV must be compressed to get it into the 6 MHz channel width. However everyone discovered you can compress even more and squeeze multiple channels into the same space by degrading the picture quality. Even the OTA channels do it by putting multiple SDTV channels in their 6MHz and cable and DBS compress a lot. It also varies by channel, and sometimes I find even the same channel is poor one day and good the next depending on content. It is hard to make good A/B tests.

Allen is correct that an OTA channel using the full 6MHz for one HDTV should be best- when they want to do it.

I've had all three of providers you mentioned at the same time. No question in my mind that OTA will provide the best picture closely followed by Cable HD and so close that I cannot tell the difference between the two when viewing the same program. With respect to DirecTV I did have them as well and went with cable as the picture was substantially better. DirecTV compressions too much. Dish does a better job with HD from what I am told.

I am using a Pioneer Elite 520HD, Samsung 165 for OTA and Time Warner Cable with a Pioneer Voyager Box.

Don - thanks for the correction. I meant to say "further compressed".

Hugh - which channels on DirecTV? When was the last time you saw them?

Allen: It has been about 18 mos since I dumped DirecTV but I've heard from a number of people who still have it that it has not gotten any better. They are waiting until their cable company comes through with HD before changing.

>They are waiting until their cable company comes through with HD before changing.>

That's me!!!! If my Charter Cable ever comes through with a decent HD package it is "Goodbye" DirecTV.

I have DirecTV and the HD quality is mixed. If they all were as good as HDNet and Discovery HD I wouldn't complain both very detailed pictures. But all the rest , like ESPN-HD, Showtime HD, and HBO HD are very good only when compared with the DirecTV SD channels, but that isn't saying much.

I note that the new DirecTV HD10-250 records 30 Hr of HD on a 250 GB drive, whereas the Echostar Dish 921 records only 25 Hours of HD on a 250 GB drive. Does this mean Dish has a higher HD bit rate?

I prefer OTA for most programming and it probably has to do with my DLP TV. I have DirecTV and the HD programming from HBO, Showtime and ESPN lokk dark, but it might be the TV; DiscoveryHD and the HDnet channels look great (including NBATV in HD). However, OTA HD looks great. I now find myself watching shows I didn't give a crap about a month ago.

Now I know why everybody loves Raymond.

Michael