I have had comcast since "forever." I contacted directTV to ask questions etc and was totally turned off by person handling my call. She talked so fast that I had to ask her to repeat the sentence 4 times and finally was able to understand that she was asking if I rented my home or owned. She then went on to tell me that before I could purchase any of their product?
?, they would need to do a credit check on me and needed my SSN. I said Whoa - I can pass any credit check but I am offended that you need to do this. Her reply was that need to do it cuz they will be supplying about 200 to 300 dollars in extra equipment for me (dvrs or whatever). I told her, I don't care and that ain't nothing to me. Goodbye.
Last night, I asked some questions about HD providers from folks at "Magnolia Hi - FI" Their rep in the past has been excellent place to get audio visual equipment. They told me that Directtv has "a bit more" than comcast. Asked if it was worth it to switch and the guy said prob not.
Right now DirectTV does have more channels, but some of them you might say who cares? I don't know, it's all a matter of taste. Comcast does not (in my area) downgrade the signal at all. DirectTV and Dish Net have done this in the past, although DirecTC conversion to MPEG4 instead of MPEG2 should result in them not needing to anymore.
Aske, what are your suggestions about HD provider and would certainly appreciate your thoughts on equipment upgrade. My surround sound receiver is Denon of 1992. I know that there is big debate issue on dvd player. I lost the war on vcr and went beta. Wife does state that she doesn't want to lose like that again.
If Comcast has all the channels you want/need for now, then I would say stay with them, see if user reviews on DirectTV stay positive on the MPEG4 conversion or whether they start downgrading the signal. If Comcast can't keep pace on channels, then switch in 6-12 months. Enjoy renting the hd-dvr for now at a much cheaper price
You definitely need some better receiver, so you can eventually listen to all the new HD-audio as well as the Dolby Digital on your Comcast box to its fullest. You need an HDMI receiver to get the full quality of HD audio on the new generation DVDs (HD-DVD/Bluray)
As to HD-DVD/ BluRay if you're really afraid of 'losing' i'd say stay away for now. Bluray has software sales leads of about 1.5:1 over the last few months . Several reasons: better new releases in that window, and more potential players out there (since PS3 can play bluray). That 1.5:1 is an improvement for HD-DVD though, because BluRay was winning earlier this year 2:1 routinely. All the new HD-DVD players out there as prices have come down some are evening it out some. Overall, HD_DVD owners buy more movies (attach rate) than BluRay owners... and if the PS3 ever releases some good exclusive games, that will be exacerbated! haha. But really, nothing is for certain for now, other than Sony did not get the quick win and death of hd-dvd that they proclaimed for months they would. BluRay is also an unfinished product platform (various profiles)... while HD_DVD is a finished platform profile. The odds are that they will simply end up in a stalemate if the current studio split between formats remains the same. If Warner Bros goes exclusive to one side or another, that side will have too big of a studio advantage and eventually win. In the long run though, there will be available players for both formats for a long time ... as well as eventually there will be some cheaper dual format players. In the end, if you pick, obviously pick to your budget, your beliefs on consumer rights vs. nazi DRM schemes, and which platform has the most movies you want!
