I just went to Directv to find the scoop on HDTV and HDDVR.
You have to sign up to wait for an HD DVR. They aren't currently available, but will sell for $199 after rebate.
Directv only offers 7 HD channels, mostly crap plus ESPNHD and ESPNHD2. It costs $10 a month plus you have to get a new dish and get it wired in your house. Network HD programming depends on your local stations.
Circuit City has 57" HDTVs for between $1500 and $2500.
It looks like my $2,000 upgrade figure was pretty accurate and it looks like the vast majority of programming would still be 4:3 programming.
Your DirectTV numbers seem ok (I thought DTV had absorbed Voom ... no, that's Dish. Dish has a pile of HD channels, but I can't get satellite due to my location)...
...but earlier you wrote: "HDTV of at least 16.5 inches in height" which sounds like a 27" TV (27" is diagonal, that divided by square root of 2 is 19" high). Now you're talking about a 57" HDTV. Huge price difference there.
Going from a 17"TV to a 57" HDTV. Yeah, you're really making a fair comparison there to complain about prices.
Go back under your bridge, troll.