Do Digital Cable and Sattelite have the same image quality? If not which one is better?

My cable provider is comcast, and wonder if by getting Satellite the channels will be sharper. I have a big plasma TV.

Location: Boca Raton, Florida

PS. By getting a $49.00 Direct TV package, how much that increases on an actual bill (after fees, tax, ecc ecc)??

Cable sometimes still broadcasts "digitized analog" channels, which usually look crappier than satellite channels. However, satellite tends to compress all their signals, and you usually see some degree of pixelization (also called macroblocking or mpeg artifacts). Fiber Optic tv from Verizon (FiOS) currently gives uncompressed digital channels and represents the best video quality you can get.

Cable quality also varies from region to region. many satelite transmissions for television today are digital ... so they are very comparable ... I would go satelite but need the high speed internet for my work and satelite transmissions for that tend to have delays I just switched from Time Warner to Diretv 2 weeks ago. The picture seems to be the same on HD and regular channels. After the equipment fees for Directv, I will start saving $40.00 a month in 4 months from my old cable bill. I was a no brainer for me. And now I have 2 DVR's instead of the 1 I had with Time Warner. In bad weather, a dish will have more problems than a cable, which may seem odd, since most cable providers get their signals from a dish, but that's the way of things! (ain't technology wunnerful?) ;)