Brandon Fuller

DIRECTV Woes

DirecTV is launching 2 more satellites to expand their HD programming to include around 500 local channels this year. I want that. My issue is that I don’t have an HD-capable dish right now. I was thinking of adding one before my basement is sealed up but I just heard a rumor that you might have to get a new dish to support these new satellites? Anybody have an opinion on that?

Furthermore, that the new dish might require even more lines, possibly up to 6 for the dish. Geez. I have a 50 foot run between the dish to my “hub” in the house so I have to run all this now before the walls go up.

So the issues:

1. HD now or later? I could run the cables required and just wait until later in 2005 until DirecTV tells us what we need. Or I could put an HD dish in now and hope it is compatible with the new signals.

2. TiVo or not? I love TiVo but I am not keen on spending $1000 on their HD-capable box since TiVo and DirecTV are parting ways. I was going to just wait for the new DirecTV’s own DVR but I just read that it is likely that it will not record HD in its initial release. Crap. So maybe just TiVo for now. It is still the best on the market today.

3. HD Local Channels? My guess is that the majority of shows that we would watch in HD would be the stuff on the major networks. Sorry sports fans. I am sure a game would be watched now and then. So DirecTV doesn’t have any locals yet. I would be fine if they would just broadcast it from New York or something because then I could at least get a good signal. Being 40 miles north of Denver, I am guess that I am not going to get a great HD antennae feed. Maybe so. Maybe not. But I don’t have a tuner to test anyway! Crap.

So I am sort of stuck in between right now. DirecTV has a $350 deal where you get an HD-dish and their HD receiver all installed. That isn’t bad because the dish alone is $130. I would miss the TiVo functionality for now but would that kill us? My wife says that it would. I am up in the air. If I want to watch something in HD, I could always make time for it — old TV style. Or just get the more expensive TiVo and go with that for now and hope everything just works out.

Opinions welcome!

BTW, anyone interested in a first generation TiVo with lifetime subscription? I might be willing to sell to help finance my new TiVo.