With one of these installed in your computer, you can:
Posted on 09/26/2007 6:53:30 AM PDT by WackySam
It appears that at least some of DirecTV's promised "100 HD channels by year's end" went live around 6AMEST this morning, according to the company's website and some DirecTV users. Twenty-one new channels showed up last night in total, and the company insists eighteen more are coming next month. One catch, of course, is that users will need to be upgraded to the company's MPEG-4 capable gear. The HR-20 will be the centerpiece of the company's new broadband-based on-demand service.
Ping
Is it time to get rid of my cable?
what about my cable modem- and better options? they are chargin an arm and a leg for it..
Make History and Military Channel first!....Fox News next, so I can see Megyn Kelly in all her (and other Fox News Babes) Glory.
DTV is coming out with their own high speed internet sometime next year.
Ditto.
We get numerous digital channels now off the air for free. I see no reason to pay someone for them for the little TV we watch.
Doesn’t matter if they have 30000 HD channels. I don’t have an HDTV..................
I hear they’re going to start selling Earthlink’s home phone+ dsl service. ELNK get’s that from Covad.
I’m ready! I can’t wait to watch the Lavernne and Shirley Retrospective channel in HD! Oooo! And what about Mr. Ed?
Now if only they’d stop suing their own customers.
LOL...I'm waiting for the commercial eraser version of TIVO.
Neither do I. We bought a new TV last year but had no intention of going HD. Why bother when there's such little content out there? And, HD displays non-HD content worse than tube TV's. It looks crappy on my bro-in-law's HD that he paid $1300 more than I did for mine. My 32" flat screen suites me perfectly for what I want to watch, thank you.
My father recently got a 1020p 47" HDTV, and while the picture CAN be awesome, there is still too much less than awesome content on the HD channels. You dont know if you are going to get 480, 720, or true 1020 resolution, and I am frequently disappointed in the picture quality.
I wont be purchasing an HDTV until the content improves, and the HD-DVD/BlueRay prices come down. A couple of years at most I bet. IN the meantime, regular TV can still be pretty darned good.
Dish Network already has 37 HD channels available. :-)
I assume you mean 1080p, since that's the standard HD resolution.
And no...I don't work for the cable industry.
can someone explain this in terms an old grannie can understand?
Can I watch regular TV on my computer?
The following HD channels launched today at 6 AM:
A&E
Animal Planet
Big Ten Network
CNN
Discovery Channel
History Channel
NFL Network
*Showtime
*Showtime Too
Smithsonian
*Starz
*Starz Comedy
*Starz Edge
*Starz Kids & Family
TBS
*The Movie Channel (TMC)
The Weather Channel
The Learning Channel (TLC)
Versus
The Golf Channel
* - premium channel
The following channels are scheduled for October (unspecified date):
Bravo
Cartoon Network
*Cinemax
*Cinemax West
CNBC
Food Network
Fox Business Channel
Fury (?)
FX
*HBO West
HGTV
MGM
MHD (?)
NBA TV
National Geographic Channel
SciFi
Speed
USA
The following channels are scheduled for the end of the year (unspecified date):
Biography
CMT
MTV
Nickelodeon
Spike TV
VH-1
CSTV
Tennis Channel
The 101
Yes.
Get a TV tuner card and install it in your PC.
Many cards now receive both standard and HDTV signals.
Also, many contain DVR recording software, so you can record your shows.
I bought a USB HDTV tuner for my laptop and the picture was incredible. However, it didn’t tune as well as I’d have liked and I took it back.
Sure you can, with the right equipment.
Why would you want to?
My nearly 15 year old 50” rear projection Toshiba is still going well, even though the salesman told us the projector tubes burn out in about 10-12 years. From what I’ve seen in the stores, Best Buy, Sam’s, Wal-mart and other places, I don’t see that much an improvement in picture quality to make me want to shell out nearly $2G’s for a new equivalent size HDTV. When this one finally craps out, then I’ll have to buy one because that’s all the mfr’s will make and sell, by law. Also, by then, the price should have come down considerably because of market saturation..................
Yes. Our HP computer, about 2 years old now, can directly display channels 2 thru 13. For cable channels it must use the cable company converter box. But it's NOT HDTV, just plain old TV................
No FNC? What the ???, I just did the 52 inch with dircetv and the HD20. It gets installed saturday. I have had Tivo and reading all of the reviews it looks like NOBODY likes the Hr-20. All reviews hate it. What do you people say?
Never happen. They had a feature similar to that and they removed it.
The only way to get some technology like that is to build your own Linux DVR.
Yes, 1080, dont know why I had 1020 on the brain..
None, as far as I can tell.
I have it, and it's just fine. The biggest "problem" is a little "culture shock" as opposed to using a TiVo, but it has essentially the same functionality, just a different interface. They also installed the B-Band converters (they should be automatic, now), so I'll be good to go with the new channels launched today.
With one of these installed in your computer, you can:
Yep, a quick count shows 15 of them are the old “Voom “ channels. They may have changed their content, but when I had them a few years ago they were pretty bad
I know, but hey, there is the higher 1080p..
Having said that, I watched a 720p college football game last year on an even larger screen at a friends house, and was simply blown away by the quality, its what convinced me that HDTV was for real, I had been a skeptic until then.
Not exactly. AFAIK, nobody is broadcasting 1080p. Most are sending 720p and some are sending 1080i. But you're right, 1020 isn't part of the standard.
Where the hell did you find a non-HD TV? :-)
“Is it time to get rid of my cable?”
Good question.
The pros: DTV has EXCELLENT customer service, great quality of signal (even the non-hd stuff looks a lot better than the compressed, grainy Comcast stuff), and great choices in packages (but i’m hoping and wishing for ala cart). My dish is secured pretty well, so I rarely have a loss of signal. Biggest plus - they’re not Comcast. I am growing to loathe Comcast. If you like sports, you’ll love DTV, the season passes are great.
Cons: Expensive, no internet bundle (no, I won’t take their Earthlink DSL, already had them, they suck bad, won’t pay Earthlink another dime ever again), you have to buy the equipment, the HD dish is HUGE (you need a 3-pronger for the new HD channels), can lose signal in bad weather. The UI for the HD box (non tivo...well...it sucks).
I have Direct TV, love it, but...am seriously thinking about turning it off, or getting the basic package, all I watch now is Discovery and National Geographic channel. The movie channels are getting worse and worse, they all play the same movies over and over and over and over...the on demand sounds great, but I have to use an internet connection to get it, and I have Comcast HSI, who are cracking down on people who download a lot, so that’s probably not going to be feasible for regular viewing...not that there’s much worth watching anyway...
My plan is to see if I can get the basic channels + HD, which gives me a few movie channels, then I’ll be good to go. If not, I’ll probably turn it off. I have a large library of movies and tv shows and documentaries I’ve purchased legally that are now on HDs and available through my AppleTV. I only use my 42” plasma for movies, and it’s rare there’s one on the pay channels I havent seen now multiple times. I have a small 19” 720p LCD for regular watching, and it’s turned off more often than not these days.
500 channels, nothing on. LOL. It’s true. I’m starting to think a $20 Netflix account will be more useful to me than what I’m paying $90 a month for now - and I can put the dish and tuners away and claim some of my space back. I don’t watch network tv, most of the channels are dreck, and I’m not into sports.
And for live tv, there are the free local channels, but I’ll have to figure out an antenna for that (apartment dweller, in radio free Northern California...)
I dunno. I’m still pondering it. I’ve lived without tv before, the idea is actually appealing. I got a lot more done in those days. I’d recommend DTV in a heartbeat, but only if you watch a lot of tv.
Now with an HDTV I am shopping for a new sattelite or cable service. Have Time Warner cable available. I have been satisfied with Dish Network. No complaints. Is there a particular special that Direct TV is running currently that I should take advantage of? Or is Dish Network running something that I will fire them if they don't give it to me? Thanks!
My suggestion -- first thing you do is create a "favorite channels" list that drops out all of the SD versions of your HD channels and all of the "junk" channels you don't want (like Spanish-language, shopping, etc.), and then set that list as the default. That will make browsing the guide much, much easier.
A 50 inch rear projection HDTV is way less than $2000. A 720p DLP set would run you around $1000. The difference in picture quality is just night and day.
I guess I'm looking for opinions from folks that actually have HD (luddites need not respond). At this time is it really worth going HD? Should I wait until next year? And if I do go HD which service is best?
I've also considered getting an HDTV with an external antenna for local channels and sticking with the analog cable service I have now...any opinions?
I can send you my referral ID. :)
The current special is, I believe, up to a 4-room installation including equipment for free, with one free HD receiver or SD DVR upgrade. Extras include $50 statement credit and a portable DVD player. They usually also upgrade you to the top-tier package free for three months, but be careful you don't wind up keeping them longer if you don't want them.
Additional SD DVRs are usually $99 each, and I think you can swing an HD DVR for $199 each.
What a great idea. I hope I can pull it off. I heard the menu is not too user friendly. Thanks for your help.
What do you want to watch? That will answer your question.
Before today, I got my local channels in HD, and the sports channels I watch (ESPN, ESPN2, Comcast-Mid Atlantic, and MASN), TNT, Universal HD, and Discovery HD Theater
Today's launch gives me most of the remaining channels I really wanted in HD, with SciFi and USA supposedly coming next month.
That would be the "culture shock" I mentioned. :)
I agree about the $ coming down in the relatively near future. It’s just like PC’s, etc. But it will be a long time before I’m in the market for another TV (God willing). Until then, if I’m still around), I’m happy with my Sony.
I just looked at the list of new and upcoming (October) channels and it looks like they have finally added a bunch of the channels I typically watch, so it looks like DirecTV is the way to go.
I just upgraded my Dish to HD and am totally happy with it, lots of HD including History and Discovery, ESPN ect... the DVR is great, ours runs two seperate tvs... the HD downstairs and the SD upstairs in our room, they came and put out a new dish, for the HD. I ran everything through my AV receiver so now i dont have to switch inputs between HD and the dvd. Also you can get an external Hard Drive for even more room if you need it. Recording in HD takes up some room...
Last year at Sears. Actually, it was our second 32" flat screen in 2 1/2 years. We'd bought a Toshiba at Best Buy a little over a year before and the tube went out just after the 1 year warranty expired (yep). Best Buy wanted $99 just to come look at the thing and it'd be $450 to replace the tube on top of that. Another guy wanted $149 just to come look at it.
We went to Sears and bought the Sony for $550. They delivered, took the Toshiba and gave us in-house service because of the size (anything over 27").
Naturally, I haven't looked at TV's since so don't know the market today for non-HD. But they were available a year ago.
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