Help - which HD service to choose

[Bam Bam]

I bought a Panasonic 61 inch tv about 7 or 8 years ago. At that time never heard of HD, but I bought this one because it had better picture quality than the other tvs in the store. It is "HD compatible 1080i." I have never had HD programming yet though. I have always watched SD tv on it, and I thought it looked alright. Right now I have Directv with their SD programming. Now I see a lot of channels out there (or set to come out there) in HD, so I want to get HD programming. It seems like it is worth it now. I am not under contract with D*, so I can switch if I want to.

Which one should I choose? I don't think I would watch much of the VOOM channels, while at the same time I cannot afford NFL Sunday Ticket. I would like to watch channels like ESPN, TNT, USA, and locals in HD. So I guess it depends on the quality and quantity of non exclusive channels. Is there a difference in HD quality between D* and E*? And if there is, would I be able to tell it on my tv? Is there a difference in HD format between the two (Are both 16:9?) Also, if D* comes out with all these HD channels, would E* follow suit in a matter of time, or not? That might be hard to answer, but I guess I am reasoning that they would, since channels like USA and CNN and so forth are not exclusive to one or the other. Is it just a matter of putting up more satellites into space? If so, are we looking at a long time before E* catches up?

One more question: I live about 45 miles north of Charlotte NC, which does broadcast locals in HD. Regardless of who I choose (D* or E*), would it be worth hooking up an HDTV antenna and running it through their HD tuner to pick up my locals OTA? Would they look way better that way on my tv than through the satellite provider?

One more note - E* charges $20 for their HD package, while D* charges $10. I wonder if D* is going to go up on their prices now?

I just want to get the most out of my HDtv. Any help would be appreciated. I apologize if all of this has been answered before. Thank you very much.

 

[seandudley]

Currently Dish has a lot more HD channels, but this is a sort of "wait and see what happens" time as DirecTV has announced the addition of lots of HD channels. I think Dish will probably get a lot of them, but I don't know how lon it will take. Looking at previous track records, Dish has always been much better about providing HD channels than Direct, but I suppose Direct could pass them with their announced channels. Just have to wait and see. Regarding picture quality, I don't have Direct, but from what I have heard, the picture quality of the HD channels on Dish is better. Both are going to be 16:9 for their HD programming. You may see shows sometimes with black bars on the sides, though which means that the source material is a 4:3 program (usally an SD program).

I don't really know if you would see a considerable difference between your HD locals provided in your area by satellite or not, but I suspect you would get a better picture picking them up over the air.. you would probably see some compression artifacts picking them up over satellite. You may want to try over satellite and see how it looks and decide at that point.

I have no idea if Direct will be raising their HD rate or not.

One more thing to consider is the TV technologies from when you bought your TV tend to get dimmer and less sharp over time, so HD on the TV now probably won't be nearly as good as it would have been when you bought it. The current DLP sets do not have this problem. Just something to consider. I just recently took a Pioneer Elite 710HD that I got in 2001 out of my primary TV spot because it has just lost that "punch" that it once had. (of course, it never had the punch that my DLP has now.)

Sean

 

[Ronnie-]

I have both D* and E* and the picture quality on sd for both of them is comparable. While i dont have HD hooked up on my dish, my next door neighbor does and I prefer the PQ on my directv setup. Not a HUGE difference, and what i see may be simply the way we have our tv's calibrated. Either way, pq is about the same.

as far as choice goes, within the next month Directv should offer more. That could change again within a year or so when Dish launches a new sat. but i imagine even that is going to even out. Id go with whoever will give you the best deal on programming and equipment