TWC v. D*

[audiopile]

a friend of mine would like to restablish HD service with either D* or TWC. Entire house is wired with RG-6QS , Dish ,OTA antenna and diplexer are in place and work.  Previous owner had cable from TWC - so that's there too.
She would like to be able to HD TIVO. Has one older RCA SAT/OTA box. Would like to have HD in two rooms - one with TIVO.
      Any suggestions? Any ideas about packages /cost differences?

[smack]

I have D* and wouldn't go with anything else myself but.............

I would wait until D* gets the whole MPEG-4 / new satellites thing figured out before they drop $900 on a D* Tivo box.  I know D* will take care of people who have the Tivo when they change to Mpeg4 but I would feel a little more comfortable waiting myself and then making a decision.  

Why not just go with TWC until it gets sorted out closer to the end of the year.  Then if you like what D* has to offer you can just as easily get the dish at that point, and you have no long term commitment with TWC in the meantime.  So I would get the TWC HD-DVR and wait and see what happens.

Although I do believe once the new D* sats go up and they get their new boxes with Mpeg4 and HD-Tivo (actually won't be tivo anymore)  D* will be putting up the locals in HD (which TWC already has), but they will also be adding a few more HD channels such as TNT- HD, ESPN2 HD and the NFL ST in HD if they are interested in that stuff.

smack

[Mark Strube]

Does D* offer the local WB station in HD? And with UPN... I know the local station doesn't transmit HD, but can you pick up some other area's local with D* to get it in HD? I would wait till they propogate their new equipment, and for a good deal, but that would sweeten the idea of D* to me.

And yes, I would agree with smack... go with TWC for now, nothing to buy, no commitment, and hey if they like that, great! If they still want to get D* after the upgrade, why not!  

[smack]

D* currently offers only the national HD feeds, such as ABC, NBC, FOX & CBS.  No WB or UPN is offered in HD on D* as of yet to any areas.  

That may change when the new sats go up later this year and they have more bandwidth to play with.

smack