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I currently have 4 Sony DirecTV receivers in my house and I am contemplating upgrading one of them to HD. With that in mind I want to be sure that this can be done. Assuming I purchase a DirecTV HD receiver I would like to know if it would connect to my projector. I am not quite sure on the video outputs of a "typical" DirecTV HD receiver but I do have the input of my project that I hope someone can tell me if it will connect and deliver HD quality programming. Even though my projector states that it is HDTV compatible I am not very familiar with HDTV and want to understand how everything would connect. Again, I am unsure of the output type with a typical DirecTV HD receiver.

Therefore can someone provide the following?

1) Will my setup accept HDTV. How is it connected?

2) If need be where can I purchase the accessories to connect to my projector. Apparently it needs some sort of converter due to the fact that my projector accepts 15-pin D-sub. Where is the best place to purchase such a device?

3) Is HDTV a huge improvement over NTSC? I will be projecting a 6ft (height) x 12ft (width) image. My DVD's look quite good and I am running S-Video.

4) Any advice on contacting DirecTV? I read a few threads indicating they have some sort of retention group. Any special instructions to make sure I get a good deal. What am I looking at?

5) When I first purchased DirecTV (Pegasus at first then switched to DirecTV this year) I purchased a dish that would be setup for HDTV in the future. That was over 4 years ago and I am not sure on what the guy did when he installed everything. I think and honest don't remember that he mentioned something about running 2 cables into one room so I could receive it in the future. Do you need two cables to hookup DirecTV. Can someone clarify? What do I need to check?

6) With the DirecTV Sony Receiver I am using currently, it's connected to my computer (ATI Video card) running BeyondTV by Snapstream. (Sort of like TIVO). When I upgrade my receiver is there any passthrough that I can still connect NTSC TV to my ATI card input for SnapStream to record. Or will it be strictly HDTV and I am out of luck?

7) I also live in the Dallas are (Plano) and heard that local stations will be broadcasting HDTV in the future. Any idea when? I see a small number of stations listed on DirecTV broadcasting HD using the guide but not a huge amount. One thing to note, I am not a huge sports fan.

My video projector is the Optoma EzPro 732B. Here are the specifications:

Display Technology: Single 0.55-inch Double Data Rate DLP technology from Texas Instrument
Resolution: SVGA (800 x 600) native SXGA+ (1,400 x 1,050) compressed
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 native, 5:4 and 16:9 compatible
Input Connections:
PC/Video: 15 pin D-sub input (RGBHV/YPbPr input)
15 pin D-Sub connector to take a SCART RGB signal (sync on the composite line), via an adaptor.

Video:
One mini DIN for S-video connector
One composite RCA type connector
USB Mouse control
One Audio input for every input- (3.5mm Mini Jacks stereo)
Output Connections: 15pin monitor output (passive)

Note: The S-Video connector is connected to my DVD player so I have only the RCA and 15 pin D-sub available and of course a composite input.

Video Compatibility: NTSC: M(3.58MHz),4.43MHz,480i PAL: B, D, G, H, I, M, N SECAM: B, D, G, K, K1, L HDTV: 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i

Optional Accessories: 15-pin to 3 RCA component/HDTV hookup S-video cable 1.8m

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,

Paul J