HD don't come for free
After buying a massive 65" HDTV earlier this year, my first and foremost goal was to take some time and watch some movies on it. Really sit down and get that "theater" experience, right in my own home. Once I picked up a nifty little progressive-scan DVD player, let me tell you, I did so with great enthusiasm and dedication.
The next goal was to get a clear signal for television programming. I had managed to live with plain ol' broadcast TV for a few years after giving up DirecTV back in 2002. It sufficed for the most part, but I knew watching a crappy VHF/UHF signal on a giant screen was just going to be painful--and a disgrace to the television itself.
I thought about cable, but only for a second. Having seen the quality of the local Time Warner programming and the prices they were charging for it, I knew that I'd have to go back to satellite, and I was fine with that. My first reaction was to fire up the DirecTV service again, but I had to take a look at DISH Network, simply because of the introductory package they offered. Free installation, free equipment (including DVR and HD upgrades), up to four rooms installed, and a discount on programming. How can you beat that?
Yet the only problem is that I didn't get the HD upgrade. For whatever insane reason, I didn't understand how much (if any) content was available in HDTV. I hadn't done enough homework to know about OTA or Voom or MPEG-4 or anything really. All I did was take a look at DISH Network's offerings and at a glance, it seemed like there wasn't enough to warrant the additional monthly charge.
As it turns out, DISH bought Voom's HD programming and now offers that as a new part of it's lineup. And that additional monthly charge seems pretty competitive now, especially compared to cable.
But the real mistake (and I'm kicking myself to this day over it) was not getting the free HD equipment. As in a FREE high-definition receiver, including some excellent DVR and multi-room features. Instead, I settled for the standard dual-tuner DVR box, which--even though it's great--is no match for HD.
So now I'm stuck. My HDTV doesn't have a built-in tuner and I can't get HD signals with my current DISH service. The only way to get HDTV is to upgrade my DISH receiver to the newer, high-end box, which depending on where you look and who you believe, currently costs between $500 and $900.
And of course, you would think that DISH would be more than happy to discount the upgrade for existing customers, but you'd be dead wrong. Apparently, DISH loses so much money on giving away equipment that they have to balance that out somehow, and I guess charging an arm and a leg for future upgrades is their answer. There is a method to the madness.
So what other options do I have? I've looked at a stand-alone HD tuner, but with that I'd lose the DVR capabilities of the DISH box. I've looked at DirecTV's HD equipment (basically a TiVo with an HD tuner), but I really don't want to switch the service, pay for new equipment and still have it installed.
Then, to top it all off, I've been reading about MPEG-4 and the changes that this new compression scheme will bring to providers. Both DirecTV and DISH have announced that new, upcoming programming lineups will include channels encoded with MPEG-4, which none of the current receivers can decode. So that means that anyone who has HD satellite programming will have to either upgrade their equipment (via software or hardware, I suppose) or just flat-out buy new boxes. I'm hoping that when this transition happens sometime next year, there will be a way for me to get an HD tuner without the outrageous cost.
Titantv.com lists the HDTV programs thru antenna guide