Digital cable is something of a misnomer -- it does not necessarily mean digital audio and video on all channels (and the video is certainly making the final portion of the trip in analog, as the best video output I've ever heard of a digital cable box having is S-Video). The signal from the cable company to your set top box may be digital instead of analog, but I think that's largely so they can make better use of their available bandwidth (more channels, more features like program guides and such, and the potential for better audio and video quality). Typically, digital cable service includes the standard analog channels (which are not really any different than basic cable), plus some additional digital channels (often including duplicates of the analog channels -- like History Channel and TechTV, which show up twice on my channel list). From what I've read and my first-hand experience with Time Warner, digital audio is only included on those additional channels (and sometimes on local channels that may be starting to broadcast in HD, as I've had one local station sometimes work with digital audio). The rest of the stations do not include digital audio at all, forcing you to use the analog audio outputs.

To add insult to injury for anyone getting digital cable in hopes of enjoying digital sound and better picture quality, many cable providers (and ComCast is one that seems particularly notorious for this, based on posts I read on Home Theater Forum a while back) choose to save some money on equipment and buy digital cable set top boxes that do not have S-Video or digital audio outputs. The boxes will all have places on the back for these outputs (often with labels stamped into the rear panel), but they're blanked off. Only the RF output (the type F coax), the composite video, and the stereo analog audio output are included.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited September 12, 2002).]