I'm on the waiting list

[gparris]

I knew my figures were accurate...I had the same package - before the price increase and the HD package right before I moved to an apartment...you are the on same page with me.

The point is:
You have to go with what works for you, but if you're talking no OTA with your HD, then go to TWC for it - and get the whole works, every HD channel available from them and don't do sat and cable, thinking you're going to save any money.
 Otherwise, why bother with HDTV at all? :rolleyes:

When TWC finally gets its HD DVRs-it will be something!

[kjnorman]

My experience with TWC has been positive in the past, except for two things - picture quality and channel line up.

Ever since I have lived in the states (2000) I have had a standalone TiVo that worked as my tuner as my Britich TV could not receive US channels.  My wife (then girlfriend) thought I was mad buying it saying that a VCR would have worked fine for a tuner.  Since then she has embraced TiVo wholeheartedly and we never watch live TV any more.

A year ago, I was one of the first in the area to get a SA3100HD box, and the picture was very good, but it was hard to watch live TV.  Our lives just did not revolve around programming schedules.  Also at the time, the equipment set up was overly complex.  

I had one SD digital cable tuner dedicated to the TiVo.  The picture quality of the analog channels was appalling and the digital was suffering from Digital to analog (cable box) to digitial (again) and back to analog (in the Tivo) conversion.  I then had the HD box for digital cable 2nd tuner source and HD channels.

It was more hassle than it was worth, also expensive - basic digital cable plus HBO plus two cable box rentals.  So I cancelled it, went back to analog cable and vowed I would not buy or rent any HD equipment until I would record it conveniently (ala HD Tivo).  

Analog cable sucked as I lost Speed Channel and OLN.  In December I finally persuaded my wife to let us switch to Directv.  I purchased a DirecTiVo and tipple LNB dish (ready for HDTV) for $60 installed.  I subcribed to TC+ (In hindsight we could have gone with TC for a $1 less per month) which costs $39.99 (currently $42.99 but I get a $3 credit per month as I am still in one year commitment).  The advantages were many:

- Otherall picture quality is much better than cable.
- DirecTiVo can record 2 channels at once, were as my SA could only do one.
- TC+ includes Speed and OLN plus Fuel for less than the cost of standard analog cable.
- I sold my Series 1 Tivo with lifetime membership that was 3 1/2 years old for $275.  Probably could have easily got more on Ebay but sold it to my brother in-law so I went easy on the price.  This pays for my DirecTiVo $5/month fee for quite some time....

Right now, HD would be a nice to have.  Most of my viewing is on SD channels (Speed, OLN etc) and my wife who watches network TiVo could not care about HD when we had it.  

I thought it might be nice to try the TWC HD DVR on local channels as when they originally came out with the SA3100HD receivers you could do the basic cable plus decoder for about $20.  But if you can not do this anymore I will look elsewhere and wait for the HD Tivo to come down in price.  I can wait..

Kerry

PS.  I only live 2 miles from all the attennas (Whitefish Bay) so OTA should be no issue for me.

[summerfun]

Originally posted by kjnorman
they originally came out with the SA3100HD receivers you could do the basic cable plus decoder for about $20.  But if you can not do this anymore I will look elsewhere and wait for the HD Tivo to come down in price.  I can wait..
 

Your mixing apples and oranges. You can still have the SD or HD box with just the local SD and HD channels for about $20.

But, if you want the SD DVR, you need the digital package, so I am guessing you will also need the digital package for the HD DVR.

You have to understand what those DVR boxes cost. They don't make any money on renting them to you at $7.95 per month. They have to make the money back by selling the digital service.

It's still a great deal and beats the hell out of buying your own equipment and spending money to upgrade every time something changes and fussing with antennas and signal strength and separate boxes for every TV in the house and all the crap that goes along with satellite.

[Marc G]

I just realized that I'll be on vacation for the end of the month. Just watch as the units become available the day after I leave and the last one gets snatched up the day before I get back!