In reply to:
Those friends of mine that have the BellVu satellite tv, or something equivalent, have often complained of several things, but the most common being that there really isn't that many channels with HDTV. Reception on some channels they receive is no different than regular analog, coaxial cable.
That's because those channels aren't HDTV.
HDTV is digital.
Digital TV is not always HDTV.
Blame the cable companies and their marketing departments for the confusion in that regard. The majority of cable channels are not in HDTV. So far, only Discovery Channel, HBO and Showtime have started selling HDTV content to the cable companies. I believe ESPN is joining shortly. Everything else is digital in name only. The cable company is taking the crappy analog feed these companies sell them, converting it to digital, compressing the hell out of it and transmitting that to your satellite dish or cable box. The result is usually a signal WORSE than the original for obvious reasons.
This is not the same thing as HDTV over cable.
