Where are all the HD channels DTV was promising? I haven't seen talk of it here in awhile. It was supposed to be in September. What happened?

We shall see this week.

I would guess that most of the 500,000 that they are talking about include the local affiliates.

All I really want now in HD is USA.

This might fill you in on what's going on.

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12

they have test channels in HD on 9300( switched from NGC to A&E) and 9301(Discovery Channel)

Is comcast planning anything to keep their customers?

I've yet to see anything to sway me away from Comcast. A lot more HD channels would be great as long as the proce remained competitive, but those test channels do nothing for me. Is there something coming up that I'm not aware of? I've been hearing about tons of HD channels for quite some time, but are content providers even up to speed for that?

Edit: Just found this link: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global...Q407-RHR-100HD

Wow. Guess I might be going dish before long? What's it like if you have multiple sets in your house... what's that run extra?

Are these true HD or upconverted digital?

True HD.

As for extra costs, Thor, it's an extra $5 per box on DirecTv.

When I price it online, it looks more like $100. Is the $5 a monthly charge for the leasing option? I assume that's non-HD? Maybe I'm missing something.

Well the comcast install guy I talked to (when I had already commited to installing comcast) said with a smirk when I talked about DTV's upcoming HD channels. (We have something that's going to blow DTV away).

So I'm hoping they are going to respond with a flurry of HD channels aswell. .

We'll see. I've been a reluctant Comcast customer for years and I'd love more HD programming but I take what they say with a grain of salt.

Cable companies will say anything to get you not to switch to DirecTV. I just moved into a house and went from Time Warner Cable in my apt to DirecTV at my new house. When I called to cancel my cable, I told her the reason was because DirecTV had the NFL Sunday Ticket package. She replied "we should be getting that soon". yeah, okay.

Comcast will hopefully finally release their Tivo software for the motorola boxes. I last read they approved it and are planning on trial releasing in Boston area, but I haven't heard anything.

Comcast in Baltimore County is adding Food Network and TBS in HD next week (10/1). Not exactly the two channels that I would've added.

My understanding is that cable isn't even capable of carrying 100 channels of HD content. I'm not sure on the correctness of that but I believe I read about a limitation at one point.

Not the channels I would've added either, but exactly the channels that make it an easy sell to my wife. Well, Food Network and HGTV actually. Both of those are on the directv lineup on the web site. We may be switching in a month or so I guess so Comcast has very little time to announce their amazing answer.

Apparently you are. You pay for the service (which ever tier you go with). Then, you pay an additional "lease" fee of $5 per additional box.

Already got HGTV in HD.
I considered switching to DirecTV, but I read that their HD-Lite is very watered down & compressed compared to Comcast's.

I know Comcast in Detroit area already has Food Network in HD. I believe there are a handful of HD channels now. They also got NFL Network HD (but now they charge a premium for it - $5/month).

I believe the HD channels for me are channels 197-240ish

One analog channel takes up the space of 2 or 3 high-def channels. The pipe is definitely fat enough to accomodate if/when cable starts to migrate the digital way. Whether or not the rest of the industry's infrastructure can handle it, I have no idea.

Is that for a package, or just the NFL channel? Seems like it costs the companies around $.80-.90 per subscriber, so that seems like a huge increase, but I know there are some companies bitching and fighting with the NFL network, so that may be in response to that.

Are you serious about that? That is totally counterintuitive.

Yup.

That's part of the reason for the analog broadcast switchoff -- that'd free up a ton of spectrum for the government to auction off.

Here in Baltimore, it's for a sports package that includes NFL network along with another 10-or-so channels... HD NFL channel is only part of it, and it doesn't run 24/7, not even close.

Does satellite HD come in as well as cable HD? I have Verizon FIOS and my HD channels look much, much better than my parents Direct TV HD channels.