I'm about to move in a few weeks, and I've been a loyal DirecTV customer for the past 3 years. I've really never had a problem with them. Last year though I bought a fancy new Sony HDTV, but I still haven't bought the HD receiver/sattelite that is needed to get the HD programming from DirecTV. The only option is to buy this equipment, which as of now will run me $350 if I purchase it directly from them. I'd really like to finally get HD at my new house, but that $350 price tag is not looking too appealing right now. I just found out that my contract is up with DirecTV, so that wouldnt be a problem. I know that Time Warner offers HD, and I think you can rent the reciever from them for something like $7/month, rather than having to purchase it. Can anyone out there with this tell me what their monthly costs run? What are things you like/dislike about timewarner's HD offerings? I'd also like to have a DVR (which I already own one for my sattelite setup) , so how much more does that cost a month? Also, do I have to keep a phone line at the house (this is a drawback to my current Tivo setup.) I'd like to just get rid of the land line all together and only have cell phones. The one major drawback for cable that I know of is I won't be able to get NFL Sunday Ticket through them. I've ordered it the last few years, but I've planned on holding off this season anyways just because I'll probably be going out more to watch games on Sundays.
Can't speak for Sat. but I think they offer the same channels as cable. Cable charges you for the box but unless I'm mistaken, it's the same charge as a normal digital box you'd be paying for anyway. Satelite seems like more of a hassle than cable for HD programing
Call DirectV and tell them you are thinking of going with another company because of price, every year I do this and they gave me a TIVO at half off and half off my service for 6 months too.. saved me 50.00 a month for half the year... great deal for me, like I said I've done this twice for the service and last year around this time got the TIVO for half off too.. good luck, did you also look at dish network for prices??
You can find DirecTV HD receivers on ebay for half the price DTV sells them for. I bought mine in 2002 from a small vendor and ended up saving several hundred dollars. I started having problems with it in January 05, and DTV sent me a new HD receiver for free.
Do you live in Houston? I believe the programming is around $44/month and a DVR is around $7 per month. The DVR acts as a HD receiver as well (for $6 per month). You get all the local HD channels and TNT/discovery, and for $3 more you get espn hd. So I guess it would be around $60 a month without taxes for a nice HDTV set up. I'm pretty sure you don't need a phone line. My major gripe with the time warner recievers is that there is this annoying lag when changing channels. This might be fixed or updated with the new equipment.
I have a HD-DVR from TimeWarner. I'm not sure on the exact costs, but I think it is about $7/mo for the DVR part. You'll get the Network channels (ABC-HD, FOX-HD etc), TNT-HD, PBS-HD, DiscoveryHD and some others as part of your Digital Cable service. If you want ESPN-HD and the other HD channels, it is like 3 or 4 bucks a month. If you subscribe to HBO or Showtime, you'll get their HD channels as well as part of your subscription
Yep, I'm in Houston. I actually have the same delay problem right now with my DirecTV w/Tivo. Maybe it is just something with DVR's in general? Thanks guys for your input guys. I've always said I'd never switch back to cable, but I'm really considering it now. I'll be ordering HBO, so I guess that's another HD channel I'd have. Does the HD really look that good? How do the non-HD channels look on cable these days? I've always heard that not all of the channels are digital (unlike sattelite). Do any of your standard channels give a bad reception? I called timewarner and it sounds like for what I want it will be around $70 month. This is about what I pay now with DirecTV, but I don't have the HD option. They also said installation will be $9.99, and this will give me digital/HD in one room, and basic cable in the other rooms.
w/ HBO, you'll get TWO more HD channels and yes, HD does look that good! Watching sports in HD is like being there the picture is so clear. I find myself watching DiscoveryHD and PBS-HD all the time just b/c the picture is so amazing. There is one HD channel that will show some baseball, soccer, boxing, ultimate fighting, golf, tennis all the time, another will show live concerts. FOX-HD is the best network HD channel right now, they actually will broadcast in wide-screen HD for select shows like American Idol and NASCAR. I haven't had it during football season yet, so I'm curious if ABC or NBC will be broadcasting wide-screen HD for their games. non-HD channels look like complete crap once you've seen the HD
You're right in assuming that the non-HD channels don't look as good as they do on Dir-TV. The HD channels do look great though. Sports are amazing to watch on HD, but I will tell you this...even though you may be watching an HD channel, it doesn't mean that the show is broadcasted in HD. The ones that are not broadcasted in HD are cropped and have bars on the side. You might look at your TV guide and see if the shows you like are broadcasted in HD. My in-laws have HD and cable and barely even watch any of the HD channels. I will say for sports alone it is worth it.
your right, you can tell the difference right away between something that was filmed for HD and something just being aired on the HD channel
I have Time Warner HD and have mixed feelings. I love the HD channels when they are broadcast HD material. The problem I have with Time Warner is channels 2-80 are analog. The difference between an analog and a digital channel on an HDTV is immense. They just look like crap. I have actually watched much less of comedy central, sci-fi channel and cartoon network due to this fact. Why they don't just offer the analog channels in digital is beyond me. I would pay $5 a month to have the analog channels duplicated in digital. The HD-DVR box is great. I use the Scientific Atlantis 8300 (something like that). It can record up to 30 hours of HD programming and somewhere around 200 hours of standard television. The other thing I like about the 8300 box is it has an HDMI connection, which provides a superior picture compared to component inputs. I was thinking about switching to Voom, but that is no longer an option. I think Dish Network bought Voom, so that may be a superior HD option you haven't looked into yet. B
Yeah, I noticed that Dish does offer the Voom channels now for an extra $5. So the analog channels are that bad? I do watch a lot of Comedy Central so that might be a problem for me. From what I could tell Dish Network doesn't make you purchase the equipment, so I may go that route. I'm going to look into it some more so I'll let you know what I find out.
Dish Network has a pretty sturdy HD lineup For $10 HDNet HDNet Movies Discovery HD ESPN HD TNT HD For extra $5 you get all the Voom channels and they also have HBO and Showtime HD hook up an antenna and you'll have local HD channels (if offered in your area) I loved watching the Rockets on TNT HD
I researched this a couple of months ago, so the details are now sketchy, maybe someone is more current, but, my understanding is that it would be best to wait on upgrading to the HD package on DirecTV. Once they get their new satellites up and begin broadcasting their highly touted additional channels you will need a new antenna. Something about a change in the type of delivery. The antenna they are currently selling will not work. Either that or you will need a new dish. I forget. I bought the Sony Wega with built-in de-coder and can pull in 9 or 10 digital channels over the air via a $15 Radio Shack indoor antenna. Wow. I have started watching prime-time shows I don't like simply for the pleasure of seeing it in HD. Edit: Here is a an article about why the need to wait: New format.
If I were in your shoes and could spend all the money I wanted on my HDTV entertainment system I would get the HR10-250 for $639 then get a $250 service credit and other deals from DTV retenton. Then I would get the NFL Sunday Ticket Superfan Package for $300, then complain about the extra $99 for Superfan and get more service credit. That way you get all digital channels, HD TIVO instead of the stupid SA 8300, and NFLST in HD. You may want to wait, since there are rumors that DTV will offer a much more robust HD PVR system with their conversion from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4. However, being the cheapass I am, I went with TW. You get a HD DVR for ~$12 month extra ($7 for the box, $5 for the DVR service). Having both a TIVO and the SA 8300, the SA software pales in comparison, so you may want to consider this before getting the TW PVR. The only reason I have it is the capability to record in HD. B is right about channels 2-80 not being digital. I hate watching them since the PQ is so horrible compared to anyother channel, HD or not.
Thanks for the info, I'm still pretty confused on what to do. That sounds like some good deals that you posted, but I just don't have the funds to buy the HD receiver w/Tivo. Do you know if it's possible to hook up both a regular HD box, and my non-HD Tivo box to the same TV? Maybe I could hook them up to seperate inputs so I could record shows that I want to, but also view HD on that tv if I wanted to. I know I wouldn't be able to record any of the HD shows, but that's not a big deal to me. Since I already have a Tivo box I thought this is something I should consider. This is all assuming DirecTV will give me something similar to the $99 deal on the HD reciever that pople were getting in the past. Cable is obviously the cheapest by far, but you all have me worried that channels 2-80 are going to look like garbage on my set. I have a Sony rear projection widescreen tv, so I have a feeling analog would not look too good on there. Another thing I've considered is calling up Dish Network and seeing if they will give me any kind of deal on they're HD DVR system. Just from looking at their site it appears that would cost me $250 just to rent the equipment from them.
