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

[Josef Lowder]

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On Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:44:00 -0700, Eric \"Shubes\" wrote
> The only ones that interest me are ESPNHD, TNTHD, and NFLHD (sports)
> Not worth $180/yr to me (yet).


If it was only $180 per year, I would gladly pay that. 

But it is not just $180 per year. 

The only way you can get the few channels that are worth watching 
(bundled with an enormous collection of absolute garbage) is to pay 
a *minimum* of $50 per month which is $600 per year!  And that is 
ridiculous! 

Even at that, one will get only 4 or 5 more HD channels, at the 
most, than are broadcast, and even higher costs than that for any
more than that. 

The crux of the problem is the complete lack of any real free-market 
competition because of the complicity and collusion among the cable 
and sat signal providers to scam the public by not allowing people 
to just choose and pay for ONLY the channels they want. 

The whole box converter thing is a needless scam anyway. 

When we first got our new HD in August, we were getting a bunch of 
great, crystal clear, 9x16 HD signals over the same cable that we 
previously had for our old analog TV.  But when a couple of those 
channels just disappeared (after Cox took over), I called to find 
out what the problem was and they told me that there never had been 
any such channels as I had been watching for more than a month, 
that it was impossible, there were no such channels.  That the 
only way you could get those channels was by getting their box. 

Yeah, right, scam artists.