OT - Off-Topic - Re: HDTV signal options.

[Ted Gould]

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Josef Lowder wrote:
> I have called both Qwest-DirecTV and Dish Network to see
> what they might offer, but now the mass of confusion from
> both of them is simply incredible.
>
> They all advertise all great come-on deals, but then they
> want to add on $10 for this and another $10 for that and
> it just goes from bad to worse.  Every time I call Qwest,
> I get a different story ...

This seems to be the business model of choice today, in TV, but also cell 
phones, land lines, etc.  I hate it too, but I think it's here to stay.

Full Disclosure: I work for DirecTV, so I'm not unbias about this, but I 
don't represent the position of the company in any way (and I don't care 
what their opinion is).

In my experience, the cable guys still really haven't figured out HD. 
They have a few channels, but they really need to upgrade their networks 
to take advantage of it, and they're too cheap (or really too much in the 
red) to do it.  I'm not saying they can't, but they pretty much aren't 
today.  IMO, the biggest advantage they have is the Cable Card, which 
allows you to remove the box and have it just built into your TV.  But, if 
you go that route you can't do any of the two-way stuff like pay-per-view 
(in most cases).

If you want local channels, stick up an antenna.  You'll get full digital 
quality HD signal by just watching ATSC broadcasts.  It's actually 
probably better than the local signal you'll get from the cable/sat guys 
because the local broadcasters aren't bandwidth constrained, so they have 
no reason to cut quality.  In fact, they have more bandwidth than they 
know what to do with (I think they should send out Linux distributions, 
but that's another story -- now we're on topic)

The satellite guys have upgraded their network, the HD boxes are a true 
second generation from the other boxes.  Not really an HD bolt on like the 
cable boxes.  I like DirecTV's solution better, but as a consumer you 
probably can't tell the difference.  The downside of sat is the dishes, 
and for HD they're large as your connecting to up to five satellites to 
get the job done.  They're getting much, much better -- but still larger 
than the original dishes.

To sell DirecTV a little bit, I think a big reason to go with DirecTV is 
the customer service.  It is consistantly top-ranked by outside groups and 
as an engineer I can tell you that the customer service division caries a 
lot of weight inside the company.  Frequently we change our plans based on 
their requests.

Lastly, if you do decide to go the DirecTV route we have a little "Friends 
and Family" deal I can send you.  I don't know what it is currently, but I 
think it gives you a deal on your installation/boxes.  E-mail me privately 
(because that's too much advertising for this list)

To try and pull this a little on topic, the new HD DVR boxes from DirecTV 
run Linux.  But, it's locked down pretty tight, don't expect to run Debian 
on it anytime soon.  Really, it's Linux in name only.

 		--Ted