How to Compare Cable TV with Digital TV Service?

Home entertainment is a constant human need, which is met by various technologies.

12:59 25 February 2020

The most important of them being a television. TVs have had a traditional standing since the 50s when these telecommunication mediums were first used to move public opinion in monochrome. Over time, the TV technology has progressed so much so that it now delivers moving picture in three dimensions, images in 8k quality and sound in a 360-degree surround mode. Due to these advancements, the number of TV households in the US has increased to 120.6 million from 119.9 in the 2018 – 2019 session, and it seems to be growing gradually.

Now that we have established the significance of a TV set in a modern home, it is time to get our concepts straight about the two major kinds of televisions that have redefined history on their own, namely cable television and digital television. Let us delve into the comparison between the two, and see how one type differs from the other.

What You Need to Know About a Cable Television

Cable TV is a systematic technology that delivers televisual programming to consumers’ homes in the form of radio waves and through a complex network of coaxial cables. It makes use of UHF (Ultra High Frequency) and VHF (Very High Frequency) ranges to specify the signal stream and make it more potent. That is why it is also called CATV or Community Access Television. Given its nature of transmission, cable television differs greatly from its predecessor, broadcast television, which is wireless and sends signals ‘over-the-air’ to the small antennas installed in people’s homes.

The concept of cable TV is simple. All it requires from you is a subscription to your nearest cable company, which offers tantalizing packages with extensive perks, like the ones found in Cox cable deals. Once you sign up for the service line, a technician comes around and runs a wire from the greater coax network, pre-laid in your neighborhood, directly into your cable box. As a result, you start receiving hundreds of entertaining channels, such as Cartoon Network, E!, Fox Sports, CNN and Discovery Channels, etc. Interestingly, many providers use the very same coaxial line to distribute high-speed broadband and phone service as well.

Signal-wise, cable TV service has the capability of broadcasting both the analog and digital, though the former contorts content quality upon the slightest interference, and the latter retains its content data packets no matter what.

What You Need to Know About a Digital Television

If there is one thing that makes digital TV stand out from amongst its ancestors, it is the ability to broadcast high-definition audiovisual content via digital encoding. Digital TV makes the best use of limited radio spectrum space, supports a wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio, and is powerful enough to beam up to seven channels in the same bandwidth run as one analog channel. That is why when it started replacing analog TV in the early 2000s, it changed the game of television viewing experience for the consumers altogether. In other words, digital became synonymous with better – better picture, better sound, and better signal relay.

Speaking of picture, digital television sports two major types, i.e. SDTV and HDTV. The first one offers a crisp and clear picture quality in a standard format, whereas the second one enables you to watch your favorite shows in a wider aspect ratio and with a greater pixel density, paving the way to superior audiovisual quality. Nowadays, you can find DTV’s further modifications such as UHD (Ultra-High Definition) TV and models that support up to 8K resolution.

Comparison between Cable & Digital TV Service

Now that you have familiarized yourself with how a cable TV and digital TV works, it will be easier for you to compare the two technologies. Here is a quick ‘versus’ between the TV services people love and appreciate around the US:

Comparative Factors	Cable TV Service	Digital TV Service
Signals	Carries analog and/or digital signals	Carries only high-quality digital signals
Transmission Mode	Uses coaxial cables to transmit & receive data	Uses either cable or over-the-air methods to catch and tune data
Consistency	Signal quality deters over long-distance cable travel	Broadcast quality remains unaffected
Quality	Average audiovisual	Superior audiovisual
Channels	Direct programming you cannot change	Add or remove channels to your liking via multicasting

Wrapping Up

Even though you can clearly see a shift towards digital television in the present age and a more aggressive move towards cutting the cord, cable television still holds an important place in many American hearts.