Since i am moving to my own home(getting married soon) i am looking to get tv service soon.

I have had Directv for such a long time and just used to it completely. But with the lack of HD channels its getting me annoyed. I was thinking about maybe cable because i can get the 3 thing package but cable doesnt have the NFL SUNDAY TICKET.

So now i have come to a dilemma...but was wondering what everyone else has and why theirs is good..


also If anyone has the 3 in one bill packages(Internet, Phone and Cable), please provide where and how much your spending on it...


thanks for your help guys. i appreciate it

I have Time Warner Cable. It's overpriced like everything else, but the service is great. Their HD content is excellent. I have cable/internet, but not the phone service. I think their running a promo now on the all-3 package.

The only negative is no NFL package, since it's a DirecTv exclusive. But my cable doesn't go out if it's raining heavily.

Cable providers vary wildly. Which one serves your neck of the woods?

I have had both - the only plus for cable in my case was ease. I had VOOM till they went under and the quality and service and selection was far better than Comcast. When VOOM went under I went OTA for a while and then moved. I decided not to mount a new dish after I moved so I still have OTA, but I also got a Comcast HDDVR - one of hose dual tuner Motorola - as far as I know its top of the line and it cost me nothing but $5 a month. I will take less channels and less quality for a little while and wait for equipment to get less buggy before I spend a bunch on HD satelite equipmnet.

Short term I am using cable, but long term I will switch back to satellite sometime in the next year or so. As Adam said, your cable company will have a huge impact on your decision.

my area is comcast central...

Living in an apartment doesn't leave me with much choice. I've had very good experience with cable -- I just think it's overpriced. In fact, price alone makes me switch to satelite if I could.

With that said, I do like On Demand (which I don't believe satelite offers) and my cable internet is pretty nice.

Comcast is considered to be one of the better cable providers out there and are among just a couple who don't recompress their channels.

The biggest gripe I would have with Comcast (if I lived in an area they serviced) is that they don't carry HDNet or HDNet Movies. HDNet I can give or take, but HDNet Movies is an essential channel for me.

If you're going to go satellite and can get decent over-the-air reception for your local HD channels, Dish trumps DirecTV in most every way aside from Sunday Ticket.

As most others have said, if the price were better I couldn't possibly complain about our internet/cable from Adelphia (now owned by Comcast).

Love the HD channel lineup. HDTV through HDMI is great on the channels that have good feeds. DVR rocks for throwing all the HD movies down to watch later.

Now, if they just get HD on-demand and in-demand I'd be even happier.

Heck, I complain about $150/mo for 2 HDDVDRs/HBO-Showtime package and internet, but in thruth if they doubled it I'd still buy it. I can't imagine life without it, especially in the winter with 2 kids.

Thankfully, I have no interest in the NFL package. All Pats games make it to HD here. I do hear that the satellites have great HD PQ though, and maybe their HD lineup is better than mine, but the ease of getting evrrything in 1 place is worth something too. We can't get DSL at my house yet.

Here's what we get:

WBZ-DT-CBS
WHDHDT-NBC
WMUR-DT-ABC
WENHDT-PBS
WFXT-DT-Fox
HBOHD
SHOHD-we don’t pay for
STZ-HD-we don’t pay for
HDNET
HDNET-MOVIES
ESPN-HD
NESNHD-Red Sox (home and away in HD, with the home feed being beautiful) and Bruins
INHD
INHD2
DISC-HD
NFLHD
ESPN2-HD
They also show just home Celtics games in HD on another channel

The only cable provider here is the aptly named Cox Cable.
I have no intention of ever switching from Directv.

I'm in Idaho and I've got the digital cable/DSL/HD package with CableONE and I think it's about 105 a month. I've got an extra HD-DVR, the package comes with 1 and for 10 bucks more I got a second. The HD blows hard, pixelated all to shit, they must be compressing the everloving hell out of it. I'm going to switch to DTV as soon as I can, and the HD Sunday Ticket package was the final straw for that decision.

If Sunday Ticket is important to you, then DTV is definitely the way for you to go. Otherwise, I would recommend you go with Dish Network. I dropped the dinosaur formerly known as Cable One months ago for Dish, and couldn't be happier.

There are many issues with HD everywhere. If press releases are everything, DirecTV has the brightest future. But that is still future, they have the darkest present since their HD status is all over the place and mostly very poor quality.

If a person does not have a provider right now, I would stick to one that does NOT require a long-term commitment. The getting-HD-to-you industry is seriously underwhelming right now. They are all working on it, Comcast, DirecTV, HDDVD, BD, Dish Network...none of it is really ready. So I'd get something that doesn't include a nasty contract to wait out the mess.

I commented in depth about DirecTV HD recently:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=52

There is one change, though. I called to drop NFL ST because of the cost and poor quality last year. But they kept dropping the price until I finally said yes and kept it. So far. I may still drop it all this summer, I'm rethinking my entertainment dollars in general.

Comcast doesn't have the NFL Sunday Ticket, but it does have ESPN HD.

And they're now starting to put HD movies in their On Demand section, although all the ones I've seen have been pay-per-view.

Interestingly enough, price is a big part of what keeps me tied to the cable system. Just last night I was checking on dish prices, again. The cheapest HD package is $50/month, then I'd need to add in local channels and three additional boxes. With these added, the DishBuilder shows me at about $65/month before taxes. Right now I'm only paying about $55/month with taxes for cable though and the change would lose a couple of channels that my wife wants to keep (and would lose some of the local network HD access). So, at least for now, cable is the better deal for me.

Here in the DFW area, Ive tried both (Charter Cable and Dish Network)...

Dish offers more HD channels and better quality SD channels for about the same price (I have about 30 hd channels on DISH).

I tried a HD DVR with Charter Cable and it SUCKED. I couldnt narrow the guide down to my favorite channels, the local hd channels were all the way at the bottom, they didnt have all the local hd channels (no CBS or UPN at the time) and the quality of sd channels was clearly not as good as satellite.

Im happy with my vip622 HD DVR with Dish Network. I can record 3 shows at once (2 on satellite and 1 on hd ota) at one time.

Dish has lousy customer service, but other than that, Im happy with them.

Excellent Post!

I have SD DirecTivo units in my home, and a 60" 1080i Philips HD TV in the "Man Cave", but don't have an HD input signal yet. I'm addicted to the NFL, so when I'm not actually at a game I'm glued to my set watching Sunday Ticket and doing the PiP thing to keep track of all of my fantasy players simultaneously. Dropping DirecTv for local cable is not an option - cable is teh suckkke, esp. Insight Cable here in Bloomington.

I'm too far for OTA HD reception -- if only someone could move Indy 20-30 miles closer. So locals have to come down from the sat, and with the MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 switchover on the horizon, there's just no viable upgrade path at present open to me to allow me to watch HD NFL ST. Sadness.

But still, great post!

They've rotating a few Columbia/Tri-Star HD flicks in On Demand for free. All, unfortunately, have been in the incorrect aspect ratio. I was pretty excited a few months back when Lawrence of Arabia was available... but watching it in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio is pretty pointless.


In my opinion, all carriers have quite a ways to go when it comes to HD content. Even the major networks are to blame here -- broadcasting major awards shows like the Golden Globes and lots of weekend sports in standard def. But my vote would be with Comcast at this point...

For me, cable got me into HD broadcasting. I got an HD DVR for no additional cost, whereas at the time, no satellite company made a HDDVR, and their HD units were close to 1000$ purchases. I'm leasing mine from the cable co., so if it breaks or a new one comes out, I can get a replacement/new one.
As a new customer you should be able to get a good deal. I've been on various 'customer promotions' for something like 23 out of the last 24 months, and my bill has been as low as 108 bucks including tax for:
analog/digital cable
three premium tiers
HD box
DVR service
RoadRunner cable internet.

"Free" HD channels I get are:
201 UNC (PBS) HD
211 WTVD (ABC) HD
217 WNCN (NBC) HD
250 WRAZ (FOX) HD
255 WRAL (CBS) HD
280 Discovery HD Theater
281 TNT HD
If you get HBO or SHO, you get
411 HBO HD
451 Showtime HD
for free.
And they have a package
* Ch. 290 - ESPN HD
* Ch. 291 - INHD
* Ch. 292 - INHD2
* Ch. 293 - HDNet
* Ch. 294 - HDNet Movies
* Ch. 299/502 - HD Movies On Demand
* Ch. 295 - Universal HD
for 6.95/month.

And since I have never had a contract with cable, that makes it easy to switch if there was something more attractive [which there hasn't been].