Depending on the cable company involved it could be very nice for analog tv, or incredibly crappy. (Even better if you had one of those big dishes in your backyard!) I saw and recorded things at both ends of the scale back then.
The family didn't get a VCR until well after the big fuss over Star Wars on tv though.
Going to capture the old '82 rental Beta while I'm at it. The time compressed LD would look way too good for this. ;)