aznaphrodite

I'm moving and looking for deals on satellite TV at my new house.

Thanks in advance!

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ray

DirecTV is releasing their new HD package (100 HD channels for the same price) later this summer. If you can wait that long, I would wait for that so that you don't have to pay the upgrade fee on the equipment when it is released.

If you get DirecTV before that, you may have to upgrade your equipment and they will charge you for that.

LPMiller

but they don't have 100 HD channels, and likely won't since there are not 100 HD channels.

Currently, dish has around 30 HD channels. DirectTV has announce PLANS for 100, but those are dependent on A) getting their sate launched, which was delayed badly, and b) those channels actually going live. Many of those channels they have announced, such as Disney and Sci Fi, won't be live before 2008, and more importanly, arent exclusive. Meaning Dish or Comcast will carry them as well.

As to deals, there aren't any special deals on Satellite that you can get outside of Dish/DirecTV. Any deals you actually see are just rewordings of the deals both companies already offer. So check their websites for current deals. In the end, the cost ends up about the same per channel, but they each float different sign up deals. For instance, dish offers up a free HD DVR (the 622, a really nice unit) I believe directtv is doing this now as well, though I don't think the unit is as solid, it's still decent.

About the only real different between the two (I've used both, currently on Dish) is that Dish offers more movie channels in the lower teirs ( such as encore, which you pay extra for on DTV) and has more HD channels, while DirecTV has much more solid sports channels, and tends to combine things (when you order HBO, you get Cinamax as well, they are serpate on dish).

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cheapie

what? i'm confused. what are you saying LP?

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renovation

i wait to you move in before shelling out $$$$ for a satellite system .you could find out there some kind of signal blockage were your moving to . i have seen this happen to others .

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ray

I think he's saying that DirecTV has announced they will carry 100 HD channels (they signed carriage licenses), but the broadcasters themselves haven't finished developing their HD Channels so they aren't ready yet.

cheapie

i'm just hoping for nfl network, spiketv, animal planet, noggin, and versus in hd.

LPMiller

Spike is not in HD, Animal Planet isn't but will be pretty soon, Noggin is not in HD and really, doesn't have any HD programming so it's going to be a bit of a wait. DirectTV sort of jumped the gun on their announcement, because they really didn't have anything to offer immediatly at CES. They dont' even have the capicity to carry those channels until they can get their new satellites launched, which were delayed by the explosion at the launch plateform.

Even then, 100 channels is a ton of bandwidth, and they wont' be able to do it at the end of the end of the year, even assuming they get the satellite in place with no problems (which they can, it's not that huge a deal) and that the channels will be ready to go (this is much more up in the air. Very few of the supposed 100 HD channels DTV announced actually have plans to be live by end of year. )

DTV also implies that they will be the only one with those channels, but they don't have any exclusive deals with the big ones like Disney or whatever. Sci-fi, for example is not so big a channel that they'd even have any value in signing an exclusive agreement.

This is not the first time DTV has done this. But I hold nothing against them, it's all part of the game.

DTV hasn't really been adding a ton of new subscribers, whereas Dish has gone from nothing to almost as many as DTV, mostly due to their HD DVR player, and the 30 HD channels. 30 seems like a lot, but much like with normal channels, there is a lot of crap there you never watch. I don't think it's WRONG or anything to go with DTV, but if you are expecting 100 HD channels by summer, well, don't hold your breath. They'll come online when they come online, and there isn't much anyone can do about that. This time next year will be a different story, but we'll be much closer to that 2009 cut off.

cheapie

i know the channels i mentioned really don't have HD content. i'd like to watch UFC in HD. and the tour de france. but of course the cameras the dudes on motorcycles are using aren't hd so it wouldn't matter if they broadcast it in HD. just dreaming.