Is anyone else thinking about dumping Directv? I've had it for about 3 years and loved it at first. But now they are behind everyone when it comes to HD. I refuse to switch to the new MPEG 4 dish because I need a dvr. And they have delayed their HD DVR again.( I currently have the HD Tivo) I really dont feel like waiting for something that will probably be inferior to Tivo.

Im thinking of switching when Tivo series 3 comes out. Is anyone else in the same boat?

Just made the jump back to Dish Network (they install today) and it was because of HD that I did so.

If it's a reasonable price, I'm dumping DirecTV in favor of just having the Series 3 and an antenna. Most of my TV watching comes from the antenna in HD anyway. Might as well save the monthly DirecTV expense.

Although we keep hearing whispers about it, I want the new S3 out yesterday.

I have been thinking the exact same thing. I don't have an HDTV yet, but when I do I can definitely see myself jumping ship.

I am very happy with my service, have been a subscriber for over 7 years.

I have three boxes, tivo and an hd receiver. Quality is good, price is good for the package I have.

We're very happy w/ our Dtv/tivo also. HD is not that important to us. To be honest, we've seen HD and we don't get what the big deal is. Shrug.
You couldn't pay us to go back to Time Warner.

Same.

But then again if I'd dropped a wad of cash on something for which their isn't even a solid DVD format yet, I guess an argument could be made to drop it.

I totally agree with that.
But.... we HATE Time Warner so much that we would rather settle for no HD from Dtv with TIVO then the HORRIBLE customer service we got from TW.

I have to question the circumstances, provider and actual programming under which people who don't "get" HD have watched it. It can range in quality pretty wildly.

Try to catch an HD NFL game on a good HDTV and report back. If it's still the same "m'eh" then.....I guess I don't know what to say.

Dumped them a few months ago. When our new house is done it will be either Dish or suffer with the shiitty Comcast Motorola DVRs until Tivo 3s come out. They will have CableCard support, correct?

I do.

it's, "Get your eyes checked."

I think a lot of people just don't set up their HDTVs right, so if a person's only experience watching HD is at a friend's house who doesn't set things up right, they might not be impressed. That or they watch it at BB or CC, who have terrible viewing conditions.

Heck, the widescreen viewing is enough of a plus for me, let alone the higher quality picture.

I'm with you though RE: dumping DTV for a series 3 Tivo. Being fairly new to HD, I do watch quite a bit on HDNet and Universal HD, but I could put the money saved towards DVDs of the shows I'm watching on those. Right now I would miss HBO the most, but there are other ways of aquiring those few shows.

There are things that frustrate me about my service, but for the most part, I'm very satisfied. Sunday Ticket and the Fox Sports Pack are essential to me. Really, the only thing I don't have right now is HD DVR for CBS and NBC. I can get everything else I need and getting HD over antenna in my location requires pinpoint precision and is a real pain in the ass.

das

I love watching HD to see my widescreen filled with a nice looking image, but if I lost HD I wouldn't miss it. I watch plenty of SD and rarely think about the image quality difference (and I've calibrated my HDTV). And I'm a video producer by profession, so I do know the difference.

I'm not blown away by high-end audio either, it's just not something I think about. I've watched plenty of HD football and, while it does look better than SD, I have no problems watching things in whatever format they appear in.

Frankly, I pay more attention to the content of what I'm watching than I do the video quality. I've been extremely happy with my DirecTV service, but I dumped the HD package because I wasn't watching HD just to watch HD. I do have an antenna, and watch all the network stuff I can in HD, but I'm one of the people who isn't terribly impressed with it and really only watch my shows in HD because I can.

I'm happy with it. Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't switch, because I need my NFL Sunday Ticket.

Not trying to thread jack, but does anybody know how this whole direct tv switchover is going to work?

I purchased the 3-line dish for my parents about 3 years ago when they got dtv so they would have the ability to go hd if they wanted. Now they are pulling this mpeg4, 5 line dish gig. Are the customers expect to pony up the money for new receivers and dishes?

They currently have the dtv/tivo. They are happy with it and not too conerned wtih hd. They get what they can over the air, but I'm concerned for myself if I want to go dtv.

As I understand it, they won't need a new dish unless they want HD.

For getting HD, I'm not so sure...if you just get OTA HD, I'm pretty sure you won't need it anytime soon. But if you want DTV HD, I think they may require an upgrade at some point in the future, but again I'm not sure. I do know that to get anything MPEG4, you'll need the new dish and DTV's own receivers (non-Tivo units).

All reports claim DirecTV will be doing a HD receiver swap out at "little to no money" for their customers in order to receive their mpeg4 HD channels.

I m very happy with DirecTV and my DirecTivos.

I have a HD-ready set but I have held off on upgrading to HDTV until their new DVRs are ready since I understand you can't yet get HD locals on the DVR for some reason.

To me, it is far for important to be able to watch shows on my own time via Tivo than the picture quality. If I had HD now, I would have to watch my network shows "live" in HD and I just can't go back to watching TV that way.

I am sure that once I have HD I will be a total snob and never want to go back to analog, but for now I am happy and will just patiently wait for when I can have the equipment and service I want to do everything at once.

Yes, for the most part. I love the HD-Tivo. I wish they'd struck a deal to continue using that service. The only thing I don't like is the lack of HD content (I'm patiently waiting) and the amount of HD content. I know that is going to slowly change here in the next year or so, but it just seems like a long time coming.

I agree. It's definitely a big difference.

I can get people saying they think it looks much better but dont' care much right now as I'm pretty much in that boat. I don't watch a ton of TV, there's not a unified HD DVD format yet, and prices are still too high for me to jump in.

But when that changes I'll be jumping to HD ASAP as it looks great.

The only way you take my DirecTiVos away is when you pry them from my cold dead hands.

Really. I tried the R-15 DVR for three weeks. When it failed to record the Oscars the R-15 was resigned to the bottom of my closet, and the Samsung DTiVo took back its rightful place on my entertainment center.

Give me a TiVo or give me death. There is no compromise

does directv still have a partnership with tivo? I'm looking to switch from Comcast and would want an HD Tivo ( as well as the sunday ticket)

They are not manufacturing new ones, but they will still activate and support DTiVo and HD DTiVo units if you can find one. The HD DTiVo's do not support MPEG4, though.

This guy still has some -

http://www.weaknees.com/

No. Comcast has the partnership with TIVO now. You should see Comcast-HDTIVO boxes rolling out late this year.