Thining about switching to Direct TV bc Cable is getting rediculous...Ne 1 have Direct TV and can vouch for its value/picture quality/channel line up vs Cable.... Just curious...

9/26/2006 12:31:41 PM

Cant say from personal experience, but if HD is an issue, a lot of people with DirecTV have complained about their overcompressing of HD channels...what has been termed "HD-Lite". Im planning to make that jump soon myself, but Im looking at Dish instead...Their HD lineup is much broader than Direct, and the picture quality is supposed quite a bit better. Id definitely check out http://www.avsforum.com/ and http://www.satelliteguys.us/ for a lot of information on both.

9/26/2006 12:37:30 PM

Thanks a lot man..That's what Im worried about..I dont want to get crappy HD service..Cable is ok on ESPN and Discovery, but its local HD lineup's quality is horrible to me...

9/26/2006 12:41:34 PM

I can tell you that you will want to make sure that the equipment you get supports MPEG4 because all of the local HD channels and new HD channels from here on will be MPEG4 only. I think Direct has added HD locals for Raleigh, Dish is planning to...that being said, Im not sure WRAL or WRAZ are included...you might want to look into an OTA antenna for locals

One other thing to remember is that if you leave TWC, you will be losing WRALs great NCAA coverage...the HD games from the first weekend as well as the "B" games from the second weekend are only available on cable. Also the FSN-HD Hurricanes games (which there arent that many of anyhow) probably wont be available, although Dish is uplinking 15 HD RSNs (just not available yet, and not sure if FSN-South is included). If you have Roadrunner, youll most likely still be able to get your local HD channels with a QAM tuner (I have a QAM tuner in my PC which Ill definitely be utilizing come tourney time).

9/26/2006 1:11:36 PM

what is a QAM tuner? my buddy is a huge computer guy and is gettin ready to build me a sick computer and im going to use my 42" plasma as the monitor... qould the qam tuner be a good upgrade?

9/26/2006 1:19:51 PM

OTA works great for locals, I have directv with the HD package and no complaints, I use OTA for all of the locals with no problem (using a 20 dollar wal-mart unit). As said before just make sure you get the newer equipment with the MPEG-4 stuff. You can get a HD DVR right now for a pretty good deal installed, the only drawback right now is that the OTA tuner isn't working, but should be up and running by the end of the year. No biggy for me as I just plan on keeping my current Sony HD tuner until it works

9/26/2006 1:20:41 PM

^ Wha? $20 for the antenna or the HD receiver?

9/26/2006 2:15:58 PM

OTA antenna, sorry bout that...

[Edited on September 26, 2006 at 2:28 PM. Reason : ]

9/26/2006 2:28:07 PM

Oh. How much should we expect to pay for an HD receiver?

At least $100, or can we find them for less?

9/26/2006 2:29:57 PM

yeah, around 100 on ebay.

DO NOT. i repeat. DO. NOT. get a motorola HD receiver. they have a known chipset problem that can make them basically an expensive paperweight. this happened to me. it worked for a week like a charm. and then it shit the bed and i could find no way of fixing it.

a friend of mine has had good luck with the samsung one.

9/26/2006 2:37:20 PM

OTA is the way to go

Unless the closer on tnt, and some retard exploring india are worth 75$ a month to you.

9/26/2006 3:44:43 PM

so whats the difference between HD and regular cable

just wondering cause i was watching my regular cable the other day and i'm thinking to myself, i'm thinking "hmmmmmm, i wonder how HD would help me see this football game better"

9/26/2006 3:50:24 PM

night and day... trust me, sports on HD and 5.1 are so much clearer it isn't even funny. Now most sports are in HD, NFL, NCAA BB and FB, MLB, MLS, NBA (on TNT), NASCAR, PGA, etc... it is truely a whole different animal, I hate watching SD sports now, it just pisses me off...

9/26/2006 4:31:59 PM

Quote :

"If you have Roadrunner, youll most likely still be able to get your local HD channels with a QAM tuner (I have a QAM tuner in my PC which Ill definitely be utilizing come tourney time)."

Which tuner do you have and how well does the QAM actually work?

9/26/2006 5:21:05 PM

^^hmmmmm...i guess i'd have to have a hd tv to appreciate the better quality i could get

9/26/2006 6:01:45 PM

yup... there is no comparison... I hate watching sports events at work knowing that at home they're in HD, there is a huge difference, football and hockey in particular are awesome in HD...

9/26/2006 6:14:04 PM