Best HD Choice? DirecTv, Dish, Adelphia, OTA?

I have DirecTv and want to upgrade to High Def DVR (TiVo) but they will be going to a different model/format that uses MPEG4 in the June/July Timeframe and the current box only supports MPEG2. (They want $500 + monthly to "Lease" this box)

My Adelphia High Def deal ran out and the prices just shot up like crazy.

I love TiVo and wanted to know if anyone had thoughts/experience to share on Dish Network High Def, prices, and DVR experiences.

 

Or get/build yourself an HTPC...roll your own HD DVR. I love mine...I cancelled my cable HD and DVR services. The only thing i could possibly miss is ESPN HD, none of the other HD channels are worth a damn...as long as you can pull down the locals with an antenna you should be good to go, at least until more non-local HD content gets off the ground.

 

Luckily, here in Knoxville, all of the HD transmitters are located on the same ridge within 3 degrees of each other other so I don't have to aim anything. Channelmaster 4228 pulls everything down.

As far as HTPC in rooms, ya...but you can get wireless MCE extenders fairly cheap. Hopefully when Vista comes out, I won't have to deal with any of the HDCP issues (CableCard/HDMI) they're talking about since I built my own HTPC.

 

We also were already DirecTv/Tivo customers and just upgraded to HD-DVR in January. DirecTv has said in print several times now that they are going to upgrade the old DVRs for free once the MPEG-4 ones come out, so I thought we were safe (we'll see). I have been VERY happy with the HD-DVR Tivo box, in any case. DirecTv installed the antenna and dish for free with the purchase of the DVR, which was $399 after instant rebate (and 2 year commitment). (NOTE: I convinced them to do the antenna for free after 2 CSRs told me I'd get locals in HD via the dish, which is not the case with the current DVR). I've seen on tivocommunity.com it is now $299 if you get the right person on the phone.

The OTA local HD channels incorporate into the DVR and seem just like they are part of the whole system. Nothing to switch between at all. And, of course, they look great.

DirecTv's "HD Package" channels (now $5 off for 6 months, regularly $10.99/mo) don't have me sold yet, but my husband likes them. HBO HD or SHO HD are included if you subscribe to HBO or SHO. The HBO channel is almost 100% HD. The Showtime channel had very little in HD (we cancelled it).

One other note, we did cancel all of our movie channels except HBO after getting our new HD TV. We found that SD movies were just lame in comparison, even to just widescreen, upconverted DVDs. So, instead we subscribed to NetFlix.

Hope all this helps. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions.

 

Thats why the HD packages for satellite and cable stink currently. Not all of the content is 100% HD, excepting HDNet and HDNet Movies and then you're at their mercy as to the programming they've chosen. DiscoveryHD is pretty nice and ESPNHD when they decide to actually broadcast something in HD.

I dunno about the Voom package available to Dish subscribers...

 

I have been a DTV subscriber for 2 years, they were the only ones with the football package. I wanted to upgrade to the HD DVR but was turned off by the costs as well. I called the customer retention department this week and voiced my displeasure, reminding them about what a good customer I am blah blah blah..
They put me on hold for a couple of minutes and they are selling me the HD DVR for $289 w/installation. They also said they will swap this model out when the new model arrives later in the summer. During the installation they are also installing the new dish that will be compatable with the upgraded DVR model.
They recognize that there is a lot of competition, if you complain they will give you what you want.

 

DTV w/OTA antenna (http://www.fairfaxantenna.com/ffx121005/4221.html) is the way to go. DTV HD channels, especially with HBO HD and SHO HD are OK, but this antenna can pull in Baltimore HD channels when DC local (WUSA) can snub on the HD broadcast (college BB tournament for example).

 

So, thats two channels with decent HD content...and one of those you only get if you pay some more extra for HBO in the first place. Worth $10/mo extra? I guess thats up to the individual...but I won't be looking at any more HD packages until DTV gets the new satellite(s) functional and providers apart from the major networks start producing more actual HD content.

 

DTV does have the "new" HD satellites functional and broadcasting to many markets, including Atlanta. I guess they haven't reached Knoxville yet.

In Atlanta, you get the four major local networks in HD (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) as well as DTV's standard HD offerings. They added TNTHD (aka The Law & Order Channel) to the package about a month ago.

I think ~$10/month for all those HD programs is a pretty good deal, especially considering I couldn't get more than two HD channels OTA. Apparently, the HD broadcast towers in Atlanta are pretty well spread out, so you gotta pick which one (or two) you want. (Of course, if DTV had told me that before I ordered I probably would have installed a better antenna with manual tuning capabilities.)

On a side note, does anyone with DTV and local HD channels have video/audio synch problems on the major networks, where the audio lags behind the video for as long as a second or two? It happens on a random basis. It's pretty annoying, and I can't figure out where the fault lies (DTV, local HD broadcasters, my own setup). Thanks.

 

By 'functional' I meant more along the lines of broadcasting improved and a greater quantity of content. I'm afraid they're going to focus more on HD locals rather than other programming. And yah, no HD locals via satellite here yet but they're free and better quality with an antenna anyhow (I'm about 15mi from the transmitter array).

As far as antenna aiming, you could always get a large multi-directional antenna:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/antenna.aspx?color=g

 

Thanks, unfortunately I found that site too late -- DTV had already installed a cheap unidirectional antenna, and by the time I realized they misled me the local HDs over satellite were only a couple of months away.

By the way, if I'm not mistaken (i.e., if DTV hasn't misinformed me further), you can't pass OTA HD signals through the HD receivers that they provide with the 5-LNB dish that you need to process the local HD channels over satellite. (So you can either get local HD channels via OTA or satellite, but not both.)

Any thoughts on my video/audio synch problem? One more note about that -- it usually lasts about 30-45 minutes and then automatically re-synchs itself. Wierd. And annoying.

 

I have had some audio sync problems with different sources, with at least one of them being a problem with the actual television (Samsung DLP). Apparently a PS2 hooked up to a Samsung DLP has a bit of video lag so it's really hard to play games that require timing. As far as HD problems, I had a few with the cable box as the source that usually went away when I changed the channel and changed it back...and I have an issue every now and then with the HTPC that usualy fixes itself when it goes to commercial. Pretty hard to pin down.

I've had video problems with FOX and CBS here where the video would just stop and the audio would keep going...the only thing that fixed that was to swap inputs and cycle back around to the source.

 

Just to clarify, the DVR functionality that the original poster asked about is currently NOT compatible with the locals from the 5-LNB dish. Plus, my understanding was you would get HD locals if you pay for the locals with your package -- they are not included in the $10.99 price.

Another point of clarification, although I agree that the DirecTV HD package is not worth $10.99/mo, it is DEFINITELY worth it to me to have the DirecTV HD DVR that records in HD on HBO-HD and OTA-HD. My point is, I'll be happy when more channels are in HD, but I'm already happy now with my switch to HDTV.