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I sorta asked this question in a HDTV thread over in Happy Hour, but I figured I might have a better response here since we're all DirecTV folks over here. 
The wife and I are finally making the full jump to HD--we'll be getting our HD set for the living room sometime this week hopefully. Up until now, I've just been getting OTA channels in our spare bedroom on our 26" HDTV, but we'll now actually need to look into HD programming.
Here are my choices:
1.) Stick with DTV and add HD w/HD DVR to my current package. The problem with this is that obviously this would be a non-TiVo DVR (HR20, correct?). Is this thing bearable? It can't possibly be any worse than the Scientific Atlanta unit my cable company uses... I have to admit, I'm very impressed with DTV's new HD lineup, as it actually appears better than my cable HD lineup. I would expect a superior PQ over cable as well, am I correct? How's that new MPEG4 standard working out?
or
2.) Move to cable, which would mean switching to Time Warner cable here in Charlotte. I've had their HD service in the past, and was moderately pleased with their HD channels, but the SD picture quality was horrible. The upside to this method is that I could pick up a new HD TiVo, and be all set, but that then adds and addition $13/month to our bill. Not a deal-breaker, but still a factor nonetheless.
The bottom line is that I'd really like for the DTV option to be viable. I've always gotten great PQ with satellite and sub-par PQ with cable. I don't see why this would be any different. It would pain me to lose a real TiVo, but if the HD content is of superior quality, I think it may be worth the sacrifice.
Thoughts? Ponderings? Useless ramblings?
Thanks everyone...
The wife and I are finally making the full jump to HD--we'll be getting our HD set for the living room sometime this week hopefully. Up until now, I've just been getting OTA channels in our spare bedroom on our 26" HDTV, but we'll now actually need to look into HD programming.
Here are my choices:
1.) Stick with DTV and add HD w/HD DVR to my current package. The problem with this is that obviously this would be a non-TiVo DVR (HR20, correct?). Is this thing bearable? It can't possibly be any worse than the Scientific Atlanta unit my cable company uses... I have to admit, I'm very impressed with DTV's new HD lineup, as it actually appears better than my cable HD lineup. I would expect a superior PQ over cable as well, am I correct? How's that new MPEG4 standard working out?
or
2.) Move to cable, which would mean switching to Time Warner cable here in Charlotte. I've had their HD service in the past, and was moderately pleased with their HD channels, but the SD picture quality was horrible. The upside to this method is that I could pick up a new HD TiVo, and be all set, but that then adds and addition $13/month to our bill. Not a deal-breaker, but still a factor nonetheless.
The bottom line is that I'd really like for the DTV option to be viable. I've always gotten great PQ with satellite and sub-par PQ with cable. I don't see why this would be any different. It would pain me to lose a real TiVo, but if the HD content is of superior quality, I think it may be worth the sacrifice.
Thoughts? Ponderings? Useless ramblings?