Cable, Direct TV, the DISH w/ HD & DVR

[Flasch186]

What to do? So many options. I know Im going big 50" in the Family room with HD, at least 30" flatscreen in the BR with DVR, the office will have 26" ish Flat HD. Which is the best options? I know that Direct TV can make some of it work but it will cost a fortune. Dish has a pretty good deal but has no NFL ticket, but thats ok, my neighbor 2 doors down has it and ill go there. I need 5 rooms, is that a problem? Ill have basic cable to all the rooms cuz the cable modem and the structured wiring in the house means all walls will have the cable outlets activated with the basic cable. what to do?

[Samdari]

Don't bother with HD right now. There is not enough HD programming to justify the cost, and the SD stuff will look far worse on an HD set than it ever did on your standard, analog tv.

Bottom line, after investing thousands of dollars, most of what you watch will look worse than it does now.

err, changed directv to HD

[Flasch186]

ouch

[Dutch]

But thankfully you can't afford all that good stuff under these miserable economic conditions in America right?

[Flasch186]

at least im empathetic, I guess you could say Im able to have good Christian morals while being Jewish. interesting though that some Christians cant have good christian morals........please stick to the question, i gotta buy some entertainment for the new home.

[cartman]

I haven't seen the same issues Samardi has with SD looking worse on HD. I've got the Sony 42 inch HDTV, and the standard channels look great to me. Sure, if you switch from an HD source directly to a SD source, the SD is gonna look bad. I'm using DirecTV as the HD provider, I haven't hooked up the over-air HD antenna yet.

As for the DVR, I'm using Microsoft XP Media Center Edition. I didn't buy one of the existing systems, I have access to MSDN where I can download the OS and built one up myself. No complaints there. I can send music and video from my desktop in my office to the MCE in the living room.

[Flasch186]

how do you do that?

[gstelmack]

I have a 34" Sony HD Widescreen, DirecTV HD receiver, and OTA antenna for my locals in HD. I have not joined the DVR bandwagon. DirecTV is $399 for the dish, antenna, and receiver. Their SD DVRs are $99, the HD ones are $1000 (ouch!).

I hate my local cable company with a passion, so for me the extra expense has been more than worth it. Football games are awesome in HD.

DirecTV has one of the best DVR solutions out there. There are a ton of complaints about the Dish DVRs. Cable companies are just starting to roll out their DVRs, and the list of things that aren't working yet on the Time Warner HD DVRs in my local market is just a laugh (DVI out not working, pass-through not working, SVideo not working, etc). If you're big on DVR, DirecTV just has a huge lead here. Check out tivocommunity.com for forums dedicated to the DVR community. dbsforums.com has a bunch of dish information, including good DirecTV/DISH comparisons.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Dutch

But thankfully you can't afford all that good stuff under these miserable economic conditions in America right?

Sure he can. Didn't you read the other thread where he said he sells houses to people who he knows will be forclosed on.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

I have a 34" Sony HD Widescreen, DirecTV HD receiver, and OTA antenna for my locals in HD. I have not joined the DVR bandwagon. DirecTV is $399 for the dish, antenna, and receiver. Their SD DVRs are $99, the HD ones are $1000 (ouch!).

I hate my local cable company with a passion, so for me the extra expense has been more than worth it. Football games are awesome in HD.

DirecTV has one of the best DVR solutions out there. There are a ton of complaints about the Dish DVRs. Cable companies are just starting to roll out their DVRs, and the list of things that aren't working yet on the Time Warner HD DVRs in my local market is just a laugh (DVI out not working, pass-through not working, SVideo not working, etc). If you're big on DVR, DirecTV just has a huge lead here. Check out tivocommunity.com for forums dedicated to the DVR community. dbsforums.com has a bunch of dish information, including good DirecTV/DISH comparisons.

Really? I've had my Dish DVR for a year without a single complaint. I don't pay extra a month for it and it only cost me $50. I couldn't be happier.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

Sure he can. Didn't you read the other thread where he said he sells houses to people who he knows will be forclosed on.

Yeah, making money on the poor...isn't that supposed to be a Republican thing?

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

Sure he can. Didn't you read the other thread where he said he sells houses to people who he knows will be forclosed on.

cuz the gov't. is handing loans out like candy. by law I have to sell to anyone who can afford it, via loans....PERIOD. One loan program called the zip program, blew up just before a bunch of people could close on their homes and they couldnt get any loans on any other programs so they couldnt get the home that theyve been watching grow for 8 months. Whats scary is that before it blew up all the people that DID close on their homes that probably should be in a credit management class instead dug themselves a deeper hole, all thanks to the wonderful gov't subsidized loans....FHA, and even VA.

[Flasch186]

I sell homes to anyone who can get financing regardless of race, creed, sex, familal status, religion, the works. I am not aLLOWED to pass judgement on someone's finances, as a matter of fact I dont even know most of it unless they tell me about it themselves (which they often do). I hope and pray the best for them but I know that there will be tough times ahead, Im just not allowed, by law, to say anything about it.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

What to do? So many options. I know Im going big 50" in the Family room with HD, at least 30" flatscreen in the BR with DVR, the office will have 26" ish Flat HD. Which is the best options? I know that Direct TV can make some of it work but it will cost a fortune. Dish has a pretty good deal but has no NFL ticket, but thats ok, my neighbor 2 doors down has it and ill go there. I need 5 rooms, is that a problem? Ill have basic cable to all the rooms cuz the cable modem and the structured wiring in the house means all walls will have the cable outlets activated with the basic cable. what to do?

you are going to spend a bazillion dollars on 3 TVs...and then go to your neighbors house to watch football? hello????

just grow some and get friggin' DirecTV. the DirecTivo unit is very cool.

[Flasch186]

unique situation I bought a house and my two best friends bought houses, 2 down and six down, due to discounts. so the guy in the middle has always hosted football at his house, even before, so it just isnt necessary. I would love the tivo, my bro says its life changing.....i dunno, i guess Ill call and see who bargains the best deal.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

how do you do that?

I guess this is in response to my post.

I can stream the audio and video from my office to the MCE hooked up to the TV wirelessly. MCE is basically Windows XP with a bunch of TiVo style functions added. It's really slick. I also have some software which will burn the TV shows saved on the hard drive of the MCE to DVD.

There is a price premium right now on MCE versus TiVo, but there is no monthly subscription for MCE like there is for TiVo, so after a couple of years the price is about the same.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Really? I've had my Dish DVR for a year without a single complaint. I don't pay extra a month for it and it only cost me $50. I couldn't be happier.

I'm just following the feedback in the forums I follow. Lots and lots of complaints about certain models (apparently some are good, but several specific models have been nothing but trouble for lots of people).

[Rich1033]

Sounds likes its going to be very expensive for you.

I was going with DirecTV until I found out that DISH's signal is stronger where I live. Plus I believe they still have the free upgrade to the HD or DVR receiver deal going right now. You may want to check on those two things.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by cartman

I haven't seen the same issues Samardi has with SD looking worse on HD. I've got the Sony 42 inch HDTV, and the standard channels look great to me. Sure, if you switch from an HD source directly to a SD source, the SD is gonna look bad. I'm using DirecTV as the HD provider, I haven't hooked up the over-air HD antenna yet.

As for the DVR, I'm using Microsoft XP Media Center Edition. I didn't buy one of the existing systems, I have access to MSDN where I can download the OS and built one up myself. No complaints there. I can send music and video from my desktop in my office to the MCE in the living room.

That's amazing youy don't see the SD channels looking worse, especially considering that DirecTV is your provider. They compress the shit out of their signal, so that there is a barely noticable decline in quality when displayed in SD. Displaying it in HD makes it look terrible. It could also depend on your tv. Mine displays in 720p, regardless of the original source. Some can actually change the resolution they display, which could make SD look better.

[Tekneek]

Originally Posted by Samdari

That's amazing youy don't see the SD channels looking worse, especially considering that DirecTV is your provider. They compress the shit out of their signal, so that there is a barely noticable decline in quality when displayed in SD. Displaying it in HD makes it look terrible. It could also depend on your tv. Mine displays in 720p, regardless of the original source. Some can actually change the resolution they display, which could make SD look better.

Ability to change resolution makes all the difference. The SD picture looks great through the HD receiver, with DirecTV, when the box forces a resolution change to 480p/480i. Not setting it to do that results in a less than desirable picture quality (some of which might be attributed to not shelling out the $200+ for a professional calibration of the TV).

I also think that the overall PQ is improving on DirecTV with the recent satellite launches. Things are looking great for some massive improvements by next summer/fall as well.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the Dish PVRs. Do they still just record time/channel, or are they now able to follow programs that change date/time and still catch them like Tivo does?

I just jumped into the DVR/PVR world with a DirecTV/Tivo (RCA DVR80) last night. We had ordered a 35 hour Tivo through a promotion that DirecTV extended to us, but after reading horror stories about just what the 'free install' would actually be... I realized my intended install would cost a lot more if I had to pay this "pro" to do it my way. So I went out and bought that DVR80 at Best Buy for about $105 with tax, and spent about 2 hours trying to fish a new line up through the wall into the bedroom so I could utilize the two tuner functionality. I finally got into bed at about 2 AM. Now I know why the installer would've charged me a lot to do that work, but I did it all for about $130 including the Tivo...and only missed out on a few hours of sleep.