Suggestions for a newbie

[Eric S]

I just bought a Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD 43" plasma TV.  I would like to take full advantage of its capabilities.  Can anybody recommend what I should go with for HD service?  I am currently a Direct TV customer and I believe that I have a HD compatible dish.  My satellite box is TIVO enabled and I do not want to go back to recording TV shows on a VCR.  I am not sure if I would be willing to go back to TWC, maybe someone can change my mind.  What about purchasing an antenna, what is the signal strength like out in Waukesha by Waukesha West?  Since I am new to this I am open to all suggestions.  Thanks in advance.

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Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD 43" Plasma
Sony STR-V333ES Dolby Digital Receiver
Boston Acoustics 5.1 Surround Sound
RCA DIRECTV DVR40
Sony DVP-NS400D
Xbox
Dreamcast :rock:

[jfelbab]

I just bought a Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD 43" plasma TV.  I would like to take full advantage of its capabilities.  Can anybody recommend what I should go with for HD service?  I am currently a Direct TV customer and I believe that I have a HD compatible dish.  My satellite box is TIVO enabled and I do not want to go back to recording TV shows on a VCR.  I am not sure if I would be willing to go back to TWC, maybe someone can change my mind.  What about purchasing an antenna, what is the signal strength like out in Waukesha by Waukesha West?  Since I am new to this I am open to all suggestions.  Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the wonderful world of HD.  Hope you like it as much as I do.  I live in the south-western part of Waukesha county and I get my locals in HD OTA using a Channel Master 4228 antenna mounted under my deck. This is a really nice antenna that can usually be mounted in an attic or garage quite easily. I live in a naturally wooded area with 60-75' trees in the way of the transmitters and I get a good signal.  I got this antenna at a place called Marmax, 6802 Rawson Ave in Franklin for just over $40.  If you have questions about what you will need ask for Dave, the sales manager.  He knows his stuff.  

I have DTV with a HR 10-250 TiVo and a Pioneer 4351. I believe that DTV has better picture quality than cable, at least in my area.  The Pioneer has dual HDMI inputs which is great.  I use one to connect to my HR 10-250 and the other to my DVD player.  

There are only two choices for HD locals, cable or OTA.  I'm very happy with my choice of OTA. The HR10-250 combines the OTA stations into the TiVo so it is seamless.

In a year or two DTV will be able to provide the HD locals to our viewing area.  When this happens they will be offering to replace the HR10-250 with their own DVR.

[mhz40]

Even though I work for the cable system, I'm not here to sell it to ya...
Since you live in Waukesha, you are a decent candidate to pick-up the locals off-air.  Most transmitters are in the same direction from you home and you are far enough away from Milwaukee to avoid most of the multi-path issues some struggle with.  If that's your decision, go with the recommendation above from Marmax.
If you want to see HD from Direct TV, you are in for at least a new receiver and components added to your dish.
To record HD without a VCR, your only option is a HD-DVR of some sort.  Some here mentioned Direct TV had a decent deal on one if you sign up for a certain level of service and renew a contract.  It's worth your effort to see what the latest deal is.  If you go with them, you probably will still need an antenna for locals.
Cable offers an HD-DVR integrated right into a set top converter.  There is a recurring charge for the DVR service each month, but no up-charge for the DVR unit vs a standard HD set top.  If you want to go sans-DVR and eliminate all external hardware alltogether, I think your set has cable card capabilities you can leverage.  Using a cable card would allow you to get digital cable without having any kind of converter (for the one-way services), which includes the big 3 networks and many other HD services.
Either way, you should explore all your options... you have several ways you can go on this.
Good luck with your decision and welcome to the forum!

[Eric S]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I will probably end up buying the Channel Master 4228 antenna and mount it in my garage.  Is there a specific direction that the antenna needs to face or can I just hang it.
I called DTV today to see how much the HD DVR would run me.  I was told $649 with $200 rebate. Ouch!!  The wife wants to move back to TWC because of their HDTV price.  I am not sure what I will do (not in contract anymore) just yet because I have heard rumors about the new HD DVR coming out that records in MPEG-4.  And the possibilities of the price being more competitive with TWC.
I think I can live with just locals in HD for the time being, considering we don't venture past those very often.  The biggest problem that I have is I won't be able to record in HD.
Thanks for the help.  I will keep you posted on what I end up with.

[waterhead]

You can always record OTA HD with a HDTV card in a PC.

[jfelbab]

The HR10-250 is selling for $599 at Best Buy and you get the same $200 DTV rebate bringing the net cost down to $399. Saves you $50 over buying from DTV directly.

That price might seem steep but what you get is a dual tuner satellite receiver which also has dual OTA ATSC HD tuners.  It has a 250 Gb hard drive which can record 30 hours of HD or 200 hours of SD.

Since you already have TiVo you know how good that software is.

You say you already have a HD dish.  Are you sure?  The HD dish has 3 LNB's. The Best Buy price does include the 3 LNB dish and installation in case you only have the dual LNB dish. At least it did when I bought mine.

[FeedingFrenzy]

You may want to check this thread.

http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5371&highlight=TIVO+DEAL

[Eric S]

A couple years back I needed some rabbit ears for a TV so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up one for $20.  I laughed when it said HD compatible on it.  I went searching through my basement tonight to see if I still had it just to play around and see if I could pull any kind of signal with it.  
I am currently watching the Cream Reunion concert on MPTVHD 36.1 and it is awesome.  My wife says it is so clear it hurts her eyes.  
I checked the signal strength, only 19 and it is still 10 times better than my regular satellite feed.  This TV ROCKS :rock:

But this still doesn't satisfy my needs.  I will probably still buy the big antenna for more signal strength and still have to decide about the HD Tivo.