Availability is growing for digital cable-television service, which offers more channels, potentially better picture and sound, and other advantages compared with the analog service you get with regular cable-TV packages. If you're a cable-TV subscriber, the odds are your cable company is trying to sell you on digital cable, a supplement to your regular (analog) service that adds 50 or more channels. Meantime, satellite-TV service provides much the same array of channels as digital cable via digital signals beamed from satellites to a saucerlike antenna at your home.

What's available

A large majority of homes are now wired for analog cable TV, and at least 60 percent of cable customers now have the option of upgrading to digital service. For digital cable service, check with your provider. If digital isn't yet available, you might ask when it will be. Satellite service is offered nationally. However, it can be received only from homes where a dish can be mounted so that it has a clear view of the sky above the southern horizon, where the satellites are located.

Most people don't have a choice in cable providers and, when needed, cable equipment (typically a set-top decoder box) is usually rented from the provider. Anyone who can get satellite can (and must) choose between two major providers, DirecTV and EchoStar (Dish Network), each with its own equipment and modest distinctions in programming. A typical satellite setup for both providers comprises a dish that relays the signals via cable to a set-top box, called a satellite receiver, which decodes them. While many people buy their satellite gear, both providers also offer deals that allow you to reduce up-front equipment costs in exchange for a programming commitment (usually a year with a mid- to high-priced programming package).

Important features

If you're buying a satellite-TV setup, several features and attributes are important to deciding whether the equipment will meet your needs. To tune different channels on two or more TVs at once, you need a dish that can service multiple receivers in that fashion. Many dish/receiver packages now come with such a dish, which has multiple low-noise block converters (LNBs) that receive and amplify the signals. (You'll also require an additional receiver for each additional TV, which usually costs at least apiece, plus a -per-month surcharge. You can forgo the extra equipment if you settle for always viewing the satellite channel to which the receiver at the main TV set is tuned.)

A multiroom remote is helpful if you are using a single receiver for more than one TV; using radio-frequency (RF) signals that pass through walls, you could change the channel of a receiver that's in a different room from the TV. Some receivers have VCR control; they will pass commands to your VCR when it's time for the device to power on, tune to a specific channel, and begin recording. If a receiver does not have this capability, you must program both receiver and VCR separately for every time-shift recording.

How to choose

An upgrade to digital-TV service, either digital cable or satellite, makes the most sense if you like to watch a lot of movies or sports on TV, or if the specialty channels offered on digital have particular appeal.

In our national survey of TV subscribers, cable companies were less satisfactory providers of digital-TV service than satellite companies. But digital cable merits consideration for its lower up-front investment and convenience in upgrading to digital (or, if need be, subsequent downgrading back to analog service). If you already subscribe to an extensive analog-cable programming menu, the upgrade may cost you little or nothing extra (thanks to digital cable's lower premium-channel rates) and will likely deliver a notably better picture on those premium channels.

Satellite service has considerable appeal, particularly if you're an especially disenchanted cable subscriber who wants access to the most sophisticated TV signals--HDTV, for example, or multichannel sound--or if you live in one of the markets in which local network service is available.

If you're shopping for satellite equipment, you can expect excellent picture and sound quality from any hardware on the market. Your choice in equipment should hinge largely on the capabilities and conveniences you demand.