Basic HDTV Question?

Depends on what your local cable company offers. Here in RI Cox offers ESPNHD, HBOHD, INHD1, INHD2, DiscoveryHD, ShowtimeHD, and just recently the local NBC (which is actually not broadcast on the free airwaves yet).

I still use my $300 Motorola HDT100 O-T-A receiver and $60 Radio Shack attic antenna to get the digital HD broadcasts of ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, WB, UPN, and Fox from Boston. Most of the good stuff (Law and Order, Alias, NFL football, etc) is on the networks and Cox's NBCHD is still 4:3 instead of 16:9.

I live in a major metropolitan area where OTA (over the air) HDTV broadcasts have been available for some time. My projector had High Definition and I picked up an 'open box' tuner at Circuit City and a $35.00 HDTV antenna and I have been very much enjoying my High Definition.

I subscribe to Dishnet but I am still waiting for the 921 receiver so I can get HBO. I am a real believer in Satellite TV so I have no plans to go back to cable.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the input. It definitely seems like a win-win deal. I had to work today (Saturday) but they have a box reserved for me and I will definitely pick it up Monday morning and see what all the fuss is about. It sounds like my TV viewing pleasure is about to be cranked up a couple of notches.

Darrylhifi, thanks for the inspiration -- a titty or two in high-def sounds sweet. Hey, maybe I can get it close-captioned in braille too. :)

Plato-

Depending upon where you live, you might still want to keep an eye open for an OTA HD tuner. The CATV box you get gets the HD feed from the cable, not OTA, so you are limited to what Comcast decides to use its bandwidth to carry. While Comcast in my area has a pretty decent line up, there are a host of local stations I can pick up OTA that broadcast in HD. Try plugging your coordinates into www.antennaweb.com (I think, maybe its a .net--if its neither, run a search on antennaweb). They will tell you the on air status, format, distance, and direction to the HD broadcasts in your area, and what class of antenna you would need to pick them up.

I tried HD over DirecTV, but I personally thought it sucked. Channel changing speeds on DirecTV are awful, no matter what box you get, because it has to switch odd/even channels on the LNB and receive a full frame before you see anything. All of the CATV companies I've ever heard of charge nominal monthly rentals and I've never heard of anyone like dglinn's friend and the way they got socked. I wonder if it was a third party installer or whether it was some oddball deal where they were effectively offering to install an OTA HD box. Seems odd.

In any event, go HD, you will not regret it. I gather there may be a new satellite broadcaster (I want to say Zoom?) that will offer nothing but HD, I think twenty some channels. I keep meaning to check into that...

Eric

It is www.antennaweb.org to find out what kind of antenna you need.

www.avsforum.com will update you on projected time frame of availability of HDTV.