Interested in purchasing digital cable? Visit Optimum.com.

Cable companies deliver the signal to your home, which is then received in the set-top box for display on the television. Standard or analog video signals are digitized (compressed) to take up less bandwidth. This process is known as "encoding".

Once the signal is received in homes it must be "decoded" or "decompressed" with a digital set-top box or a converter.

Digital cable television is delivered to your homes through the same cable wire that exists in most homes today. If you currently receive cable service, additional home wiring is usually not necessary. In most cases all you need is a digital cable box to receive digital cable services.