This has probably been addressed before but what I would like to know, is as a rule of thumb am I going to get a higher quality picture from satellite over digital cable?

After hooking up my new Mits. Diamond 65" WS to my ATT (formerly TCI) digital cable, I wasn't very impressed.

I dont have digital cable only regular cable and the difference between that and satellite is tremendous.
Especially using the 2 High Def channels. Also from what I understand, you get alot more for your money using direct tv rather than dcable.

While Satellite looks great over regular cable, digital cable is on par or slightly better than satellite. I see a LOT of digital artifacts on satellite (lately, at least) that are less numerous on digital cable.

I'm not running digital cable so I can't make a side by side observation such as Daniel, but I can tell you that you get more channels with satellite and you get some HDTV channels with satellite. No HDTV channels on cable yet.

Jeff

Dave, I switched from TCI digital cable to Directv and the quality got much better. If they are using the General Instruments box they did here, you are missing s-video out, Dolby Digital channels, and a better on screen guide.

I have both Directv (RCA 3030 Receiver) and Time Warner Digital Cable (General Instruments Receiver) I much prefer Directv.

With the Digital cable we actually only get a few digital channels, The picture on the digital channels appears to me to be not quite as good as Directv. All cable channels under 100 are analog channels, the only digital channel I watch is Discovery Science. I do like the digital music channels which is why we have the digital cable. (We had DMX and they discontinued DMX and replaced our DMX receiver with Digital cable which I would return for DMX if I could) I like the Directv music channels too but I like having the choice of switching to the Digital cable music channels.
One think I hate about the digital cable box is that there is no way to delete channels from the channel list so I have to scroll through all the channels that I don't subscribe to or enter the channel that I want directly (makes channel surfing a pain), I see this as a basic feature that even the cheapest TV's support but for some reason this is not supported by the software on the digital cable box per Time Warner.
Overall I like the Directv on screen guide better but the digital cable does have a nice feature that my directv receiver does not have: The Digital cable has next day and previous day keys so that I can quickly see what is on the next day at the same time or the day after that up to 5 days. With Directv, it can take several munites of scrolling to get to the same time on the next day.

Yes, that's one thing I didn't mention -- satellite has a hell of a lot more selection.

To answer you question cable can be great looking to poor, this all depends on your cable provider and their equipment. If you decide to go to satellite you have to opetions minidish or big dish. Many post here say minidish is amazing but honestly many if not all of those channels arn't half as good as first generation signals found on the big dish. Yes bigger is better but there are four different types of signals that one can receive and they are all amazing.

I have both as well. A Sony system for DirecTV and a Philips digital cable receiver. I have to say that I've always (two cities now, Columbus OH and Jacksonville FL) enjoyed a noticeably better picture on the satellite and as previously addressed, the channel selection is much broader. I carry both because (and this will sound bad), I run individual signals to 7 different TVs around the house, and there just doesn't seem to be a reasonable way to do that with DSS. Cable however is easy enough (albeit requiring a booster), but doesn't address my need for NFL Sunday Ticket. So both it is.

So picture quality? Presuming for a moment you could set two identical monitors up next to one another, one with DSS and a peak signal strength and one with digital cable and a peak signal strenth - you'll like the picture on the DSS better. But as suggested before, DSS is subject to more frequent (not obtrusive really though) artifacts, sunspots or other solar or weather-related events can interfere or completely block the signal, etc. etc., but in a vacuum (IMHO) DSS wins out.

Alright, I have a confession. I hope my employer doesn't read this. I work for a major cable company who is spending millions and millions on upgrading their systems and marketing new services. I get their complete package for free. All channels and services. Guess what? I also have a Dish 500 Dishplayer system that I installed and pay for myself. It kicks digital cables butt in both picture quality and program choice. Also, most importantly it provides better and more immediate value for the consumer. Dish Network just rolled out 50+ new channels in a matter of days nationwide which would take our cable company many months to complete in its individual markets. The Personal TV services of the Dishplayer (similiar to Tivo or ReplayTV) make the Video-On-Demand services of cable seem antiquated. Keep in mind, our city has one of the most advanced cable systems in the country, I get all the services for free, I can never invite any of my co-workers to my house, and yet I still spend most of time watching programming from satellite. Then again though, there's the cable modem.....