GB42 said:
I have a friend who just bought a 65 inch Hitachi and he currently has one of those BIG sat dishes. He has had it for a while and the sat box of course is dated. I do not know anything about these large dishes but have heard the signals for them are not compressed like D* or E* is.
Should he junk the large dish and go with one of the other small dishes or is there a better alternate for him. Which would he get better SD pic on and which would give him the best choice of HD programing??
What ever else you may think is important..
thanx
He should have both. I have a 10' BUD plus DirecTV. I use the BUD for movie channels which indeed are uncompressed, and uncompressed analog channels like SciFi, ESPN, etc., plus a number of HD channels including HBO-HD and Showtime HD. But the equipment to do this is, in fact, a bit expensive. He'll need a Motorola DSR922 satellite receiver, about $650 street, plus an HDD200 HD decoder, about $300 street. Movie packages on the big dish are both superior in quality, superior in quantity (more channels in a given package, including both East and West feeds) and cheaper to boot. So if you're a movie fan, the investment in digital technology for the big dish is the way to go. Need more info? Go Here:
http://www.4dtvforum.com/index.php
I also have DirecTV and their HD package, plus NFL Sunday Ticket. You can get a DirecTV HD package for $399 (receiver, dish, installation) with their current HD deals. DirecTV gives me ESPN-HD, HDNet and CBS-HD which are not available on the big dish (Discovery HD is available on the big dish, and as I noted above, I get all my movie packages on the big dish).
If he already has a big dish installed, he shouldn't give it up. SD picture quality on the big dish is a thousand times better than either of the small dish services, especially if you are viewing it on a large-screen HDTV. One comparison of the signal quality of ESPN or TNT on the little dish vs. the big dish will be all it takes to show why, if you have the space, money and legal ability to install a BUD, it is the far superior quality alternative. Plus if you're a college sports fan, the big dish gives you access to a ton of college sports backhauls - today (Saturday, February 7), for example, I could choose among 40 different basketball games. But not everything you might want is available on the BUD, so I use DirecTV, too, for those things (like Sunday Ticket, HDNet).
John C.
