"Which provider has the best quality HD?"

This was the question recently posed by the readers of Engadget HD; the gadget blog's answer was not as cut-and-dry as its readers perhaps were expecting, but the technical analysis was insightful nonetheless.

Short answer: It depends on what service is available in your area, and the signal quality sent out by your local broadcast channels.

Shorter answer: FiOS.

After noting that most Americans currently prefer quantity over quality with regards to HD channels, they went on to say,

"As for which is the best, FiOS is the only provider who we would feel comfortable saying is any better than anyone else only because it doesn't re-encode the original signal to save bandwidth, but with its pitiful list of HD channels, it is hardly the HD leader -- not to mention only available in a few select parts of the country."

Pitiful? Ouch.

Perhaps, but that is changing -- FiOS will have 150 HD channels by year's end, none of which will have to be compressed to save bandwidth.

And those "select" parts of the country are growing every day as the network is built over the next several years. (See this blog on why it takes so long.)

Posted by Jim 2.0 | tagged: reviews, FiOS, HD, TV