Its begining to look a lot like a Griswold Christmas! More HDTV-DirecTV Issues
Oct 16

HDTV, HDDVR, DirecTV

Tech / Gear Add comments

I finally got with the times and bought myself an HDTV. Its nice, too. The Sony Bravia 46″ LCD TV. After LOTS of researching, here’s what I’ve learned about the High Definition world:

  • It changes. Frequently.
  • Your normal TV signal (which probably looks decent) will look like CRAP on a new HD TV. No exceptions.
  • Try to get an HDTV that has 720, 1080i and/or 1080p. The more of those, the better. — Just know that there’s not much content out there in any of them and even less in the 1080p world.
  • You’ll most likely need a new DVD player.
  • You’ll totally need a new cable or satellite service (and equipment)
  • TiVo-like functionality is limited in the HD world.
  • There are FAR less channels available in HD than you’d think.
  • Yes, the government wants to push HD. No, the date isn’t really all that firm.
  • If you can wait, you probably should.

I couldn’t wait. Mostly because my TV was REALLY old. And it may or may not have been dropped … a few times. Let’s put it this way: watching a movie in letter box showed very clearly just how off the screen was. The left side of the screen was much lower than the right.

So … once I had the TV the real “fun” started.

I called DirecTV. 8 times to be exact. After much pain and agony, I spoke with a person who seemed interested in selling me more DirecTV services and was actually helpful. He scheduled the install… which didn’t happen until 2 days after their scheduled date.

Once I contacted someone and got them to stop by the house and install everything, I could start to total the “extras” I was buying to get my new TV to look better than the old one it was replacing:

  1. New HD DirectTV DVR Receiver
  2. New DirecTV (45lb) satellite
  3. New wiring
  4. New HDMI cable to connect the new receiver to the new TV
  5. New composite cables to connect the DVD player (which, thankfully, worked) to the TV
  6. New composite cables to connect my Xbox to the new TV … so my games would look decent.
  7. New HD DirecTV service plans for local and HD channels

I’ll spare you the final price tag (mainly because I’m not sure I want to admit to it), but a friend of mine who recently went through the same experience told me: “When you start to think about HDTVs, plan to spend an extra $600 more than the cost of the TV.” — Sadly, that’s a very close estimate.

But, hey, the Home and Garden Channel looks AMAZING now!

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