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How does digital cable compare to standard cable?
One major difference between digital and standard cable is the channel lineup. You get more channels with digital cable. In addition, some channels aren't even available at all with standard service. However, the channels that are available via standard analog cable are also analog on digital cable. Only those channels that are exclusive to digital cable are actually digital.

Another difference between the two is interactive services. Pay-Per-View and Video On Demand are usually only available via the digital platform. Even cable card TVs can't yet utilize these features.

If you want a DVR from your cable company, you'll need to step up to digital cable. While you can get standalone units that can use analog service, you'll need to buy it yourself and it won't offer dual tuner capabilities.

Finally, the goal of the cable companies is to eliminate analog service completely. This will allow them to fit more channels into the lineup since digital channels take up less space. This is several years away, though.

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