> but here's a thought:  it's only in the music world that you get this.  you never hear video people bitching that DVD is Digital Video, and is thus "less real" than analog video.....

I have to say that I bitch about bad digital video compression all the time.   Digital cable is the worst.  The analog picture is far superior.  The current DVD compression still has problems too.  Many of the DVDs out there still have problems with mosaic artifacts. 

Don