Digital cable

Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital video compression for distribution.

Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.

In addition to providing higher resolution HD video, digital cable systems provide expanded services such as pay-per-view programming, cable internet access and cable telephone services.

In the past, PPV was often used to distribute telecasts of feature films, as well as adult content such as pornographic films, but the growth of digital cable and streaming media caused these use cases to be subsumed by video on demand systems (which allow viewers to purchase and view pre-recorded content at any time) instead, leaving PPV to focus primarily on live event programs.

Most digital cable signals are encrypted, which reduced the high incidence of cable theft which occurred in analog systems.

To prevent this, cable providers built stronger protection against theft into new digital cable systems which were deployed beginning in the mid-1990s as part of the changeover to the new digital HDTV standard, along with assessing a large fine for the entire cost of a set-top box if the customer didn't return it upon the termination of services.

The subchannel is a logical channel of data within the physical channel.

Operating in a sector traditionally lacking subchannels, digital cable television provider Music Choice packages its nearly 50 music channels (including Music Choice Play) as digital subchannels of one channel.

In addition to providing higher resolution HD video, digital cable systems provide expanded services such as pay-per-view programming, cable internet access and cable telephone services.

The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable television, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than a dedicated analog circuit-switched service.

The addition of this capability complicates the notion of a "channel" in digital cable (as well as in over-the-air ATSC digital broadcasts).

In recent years, cable operators have become accustomed to compressing standard-resolution video for digital cable systems, making it harder to find duplicate 6 MHz channels for local broadcasters on uncompressed "basic" cable.

In the U.S., digital cable systems with 750 MHz or greater activated channel capacity are required to comply with a set of SCTE and CEA standards, and to provide CableCARDs to customers that request them.

CableCARD is a special-use PC Card device that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets on equipment such as a set-top box not provided by a cable television company.

Tru2way is a brand name for interactive digital cable services delivered over the cable video network, for example interactive program guides, interactive ads, games, chat, web browsing, and t-commerce.

Most digital cable providers use QAM for video services and DOCSIS standards for data services.

64-QAM and 256-QAM are often used in digital cable television and cable modem applications.

The second (also accomplished through PSIP) is where, in an effort to hide subchannels entirely, many cable companies map virtual channel numbers to underlying physical and sub-channels.

This is true of digital cable and satellite radio services, as well.

With the advancement of digital cable, cable providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) have begun making headway in removing out-of-market television stations from basic cable lineups.

On many boxes with QAM tuners (most notably the DVR boxes), high definition versions of local channels, and some cable channels are available.

Recording satellite television or digital cable signals on a digital video recorder can be more complex than recording analog signals or broadcast digital signals.

Digital cable broadcasts were tested and launched in the U.S. in 1996 by TCI and Time Warner.

On many boxes with QAM tuners (most notably the DVR boxes), high definition versions of local channels, and some cable channels are available.

It is also common for cable providers to falsely insist that a set top box from the cable company is required to watch all digital cable channels, including unencrypted channels, even though QAM channels may be distributed via their system.

Some MATV systems may carry 8-VSB and QAM signals, mostly in apartment buildings and similar facilities that use a combination of terrestrial antennas and cable distribution sources (such as HITS or "Headend in the Sky", a unit of Comcast that delivers digital channels by satellite to small cable systems).

16VSB was notably intended to be used for ATSC digital cable, but quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) has become the de facto industry standard instead as it is cheap and readily available.

Offering such individualized subscriptions would have been relatively complicated and labor-intensive using analog cable, but the widespread adoption of digital cable & IPTV technologies have now made it more feasible.

Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital video compression for distribution.

Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital video compression for distribution.

The technology was originally developed by General Instrument before being acquired by Motorola and subsequently acquired by ARRIS Group.

The technology was originally developed by General Instrument before being acquired by Motorola and subsequently acquired by ARRIS Group. In 1990, General Instrument (now owned by ARRIS Group) demonstrated that it was possible to use digital compression to deliver high quality HDTV in a standard 6 MHz television channel.

Cable companies converted to digital systems during the 2000s, around the time that television signals were converted to the digital HDTV standard, which was not compatible with earlier analog cable systems.

In addition to providing higher resolution HD video, digital cable systems provide expanded services such as pay-per-view programming, cable internet access and cable telephone services.

In addition to providing higher resolution HD video, digital cable systems provide expanded services such as pay-per-view programming, cable internet access and cable telephone services.

Most digital cable signals are encrypted, which reduced the high incidence of cable theft which occurred in analog systems.

In 1990, General Instrument (now owned by ARRIS Group) demonstrated that it was possible to use digital compression to deliver high quality HDTV in a standard 6 MHz television channel.