Hi Zevon,
My cable is all-digital now, like satellite TV. My cable box is also digital and has a hard drive in it for perfect recordings. When there isn't too much motion or if standards converters aren't used, the picture and sound are better than perfect because my TV gets it with S-video and not with its noisy and narrow-bandwidth tuner. Many of the shows are cable-only and look and sound much better than perfect, like a DVD! Ordinary off-air TV sucks, the bandwidth of my Sony TV's video amp is like a monitor. The sound is wideband, dynamic and distortion-free like a CD player, which is also like the inside of my digital cable box.
This new stuff is also convenient. It receives better than perfect picture and sound from stations 5000km away, that I use for time-shifting programs that I forgot to watch or record, since they are 3 time-zones later than me. I'm watching an important show and someone comes to the door. I just hit "record" and resume "play" where it was left off, while it continues recording. No more fights with my wifey over which program to record, it records 2 shows at the same time and we can play back a 3rd. Its hard drive holds 50 hours.
The new digital high definition looks amazing up close on a plazma TV. Mine looks the same where I sit, even with my new glasses. :lol: