HDTV Satellite Options (1 Viewer)

[BrianCli]

I am about to purchase a Satellite system for my new house. I have a Sony Projection HDTV and would like to start enjoying it's HDTV capabilities. I have 2 choices: Dish Network and Direct TV. Both provide about the same number of HDTV channels (4). DirectTV has HDNET, but Dish Network has DiscoveryHD.

Any opinions/suggestions?

Thanks!

Brian

 

[Jon Sciabica]

I currently have the dish, but I am wondering the same thing myself. I WANT TO WATCH THE PLAYOFFS IN HD, but don't know how to get them.

 

[Robert_J]

There are also some other things to consider. With Dishnetwork:
You have to use two dishes to get HD. A 20" dish pointed at the 110 and 119 satellites and an 18" dish pointed at either 61.5 (east coast) or 148 (west coast). Not everyone has a clear view. They only have the model 6000 HD receiver. It's an OK receiver but there are complaints about the the fans in the plug in modules being loud. You have to pay extra for the 8VSB module to receive OTA programming. They have started shipping with the 8PSK module though. Dish has more satellite space and they are going to use the 8PSK modulation scheme for any new HD channels. That means they can squeeze 3 HD channels per transponder while DirecTV only gets 2 per transponder. Finally, the PVR 921 HD recorder has been announced but Dish's track record of being on-time is terrible.

DirecTV:
A single 18"x20" dish to get all three of their satellites. You can choose receivers made by a number of companies and they all have OTA reception built in. They are partnered with Tivo. The regular DirecTivo is great and the HD DirecTivo will hopefully be out by the end of the year. The only downside I see is less capacity but they are sending another satellite up before the end of the year that will carry local channels and should free up some space on the other satellites.

-Robert

 

[BrianCli]

That's great information, I do not want to have 2 dishes on my roof.