Wide World of Women

The HD reception I get is OTA. Is that type of reception worse than the "cable-based" reception?

I hear a lot about resolution type. There's 720 and 1080. And then they have an "i' and "p" thrown in there as well. I guess 1080 is better for resolution over 720 but what's with the letters? Is "p" (progressive) better than "i" (interlaced)?

OTA is just as good as cable QAM. The downside of OTA is you can lose signal for what seems to be no reason. Weather and atmospheric conditions affect signal, but cable you won't have those issues. QAM isn't flawless though. I've had bad recordings and tuners not recognizing subchannels or even subchannels switching around.

720 is 1280x720 and 1080 is 1920x1080. The "p" and "i" are for progressive scan and interlaced. Interlacing is an old method of reducing bandwidth. The problem is you lose quality i.e. lines when there's fast motion, moire patterns when someone is wearing stripes or repeating patterns.

Yep. Like donkeed said, as long as you have a strong OTA signal, the picture quality should be the same as an HD cable channel. One thing you should know, all the networks broadcast only up to 1080i, not 1080p, but I do believe that some premium channels do broadcast in 1080p.