Finally, DirecTV has come through with their promise of many HD channels. They recently brought on line many additional HD channels since launching a couple of new satellites. We are now able to get around 75 HD channels on our satellite. TV viewing life is quite sweet now.
Ever since getting an HDTV about four years ago, I have struggled to watch standard definition television. The difference is like night and day. Those who haven’t yet enjoyed HDTV just can’t imagine the difference. There is no going back and as I said, you tend to shy away from standard definition TV.
Almost every channel that we watch is now in HD on DirecTV. Combine that with our HD DVR and we now always have something in HD to watch if we so desire. I spent a bunch of time last night setting up recordings of shows that I refused to watch before because of standard definition. Lately, I haven’t watched my TV because of that issue, but I suspect more of my free time is likely to go back to TV as I explore all those shows I never saw because of standard definition being the only choice.
All that said, we still have one glaring omission in our HD lineup. That is NBC. Living out in rural America, we cannot receive off air TV broadcasts. We must get our local channels on DirecTV. The local channels we get our from Tucson. Since we can’t receive off air, every network but NBC has given us a waiver and allowed us to get the Los Angeles local stations in addition to the Tucson ones. The LA local channels are on DirecTV in HD. Since NBC won’t give us the waiver, we are stuck with the local Tucson NBC in standard definition. Thus, we don’t watch NBC very often. My little mini boycott here doesn’t mean squat to NBC and won’t affect their stupidity at all, but I just don’t watch it much because given two choices, I almost always will pick an HD choice. This mess will all be resolved before too much longer as DirecTV will be rolling out many more local channels in HD.
If you haven’t tried HD yet, give it a shot. DirecTV now gives you plenty of viewing choices.
I had been a longtime DirecTV user until I moved back to DC a year ago. I opted for cable out of convenience when we moved into our current leased house, since it wasn’t wired for the satellite dish. I had preferred DirecTV, but Comcast did offer more HD channels, which was a plus. Now that DirecTV added all the HD content, I think they have the advantage. I agree that HD content blows standard TV away, especially on the big screen. It is like the difference between watching an old VHS tape versus a DVD, but then again, even better than that. The detail is phenomenal and makes you feel like you could step right into the scene. It is particularly great for sports programming. I have kept all of my DirecTV boxes (including an HD DirecTiVo) in storage in the expectation that I will someday go back. Now I am tempted even more by the improved HD content.
How’s the cable been Paul? I haven’t had cable in over 15 years and didn’t really care for it back then… With the digital cable now, its go to be better. Living where I live, cable will never be an option though…