tboyce,

Many of us are hoping for betting sharing integration between computers. Softsled is dead but I am hoping they impelement better sharing between computers.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

PLUCKYHD:

I have seen the new mpeg 4 and while i do agree it looks better still not great as all channels are not mpeg 4 yet.

 

Yes, about 4 of their 95 (3 new ones this week by the way) national HD channels are still MPEG-2.

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Vista Ultimate Media Center | (2) DirecTV D11 IRDs | FusionHDTV OTA tuner | (2) Linksys DMA2100 Extenders | Xbox360 Elite Extender

With the dreaded Switch Video looming somewhere in my CableCard future, I am definitely keeping a close eye on this.  DirecTV has my locals in HD and they have the HD content that I want.  If pay-per-view is also enabled through these tuners then I am going to be thinking hard about making the jump and selling my ATI Cable Card tuners.

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My Network Project - Media Center Blog

If Direct TV is smart and packages this the right way, and Cable Labs continues to be near sighted, I hate to tell you, but you might as well use the Cable Card tuners as bookends because I see their value dropping significantly!

In some areas you are right but there are people (not myself) who will have nothing to do with sattelite and don't want to lose their cable bundle prices and pay more for sattalite. Some people simply don't want a dish on their roof and then there are those in apartements/condos that have no where to put them.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

PLUCKYHD:

In some areas you are right but there are people (not myself) who will have nothing to do with sattelite and don't want to lose their cable bundle prices and pay more for sattalite. Some people simply don't want a dish on their roof and then there are those in apartements/condos that have no where to put them.

And then there are those of us in new (5-year-old) neighborhoods where Comcast still won't serve us, even though the underground cabling is in place.  So we're forced to go with satellite (DirecTV in our case).  Fortunately, we love our service and wouldn't change it now even if cable became available, but we did sign up truly because it was our only option.

I actually miss cable for Internet service more than TV service.

Michael

The internet service is my cable company's gotcha to My internet goes up like $12 a month if I drop tv service.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

xziTony: "Yes, about 4 of their 95 (3 new ones this week by the way) national HD channels are still MPEG-2."

And actually, I believe all but two of those channels (HDNet and Discovery Home Theater) are also available in MPEG-4 other places in the channel lineup.  But, they want to charge and extra $5 a month for those "classic" MPEG-2 channels, on top of the $10 a month for HD, which I think is a complete rip-off.

BTW, is this a DirecTV beta or a Microsoft beta?  Many of the posts and embedded links make it look like DirecTV is running the beta.  And if so, where was the sign-up for that.  Again, I am the perfect candidate to test this because I have all the components (except Vista) already in place and fully operational, including extenders.

WRK

kingwr:

xziTony: "Yes, about 4 of their 95 (3 new ones this week by the way) national HD channels are still MPEG-2."

And actually, I believe all but two of those channels (HDNet and Discovery Home Theater) are also available in MPEG-4 other places in the channel lineup.  But, they want to charge and extra $5 a month for those "classic" MPEG-2 channels, on top of the $10 a month for HD, which I think is a complete rip-off.

No, the extra $5 a month is for "premium" HD channels that don't have a similar SD channel already in your package. Like HDNET Movies. Or Universal HD. It isn't for MPEG2 channels, although a few of them are mpeg2. Personally, I didn't see the point, so I don't get the extra channels. For me, DirecTV is much cheaper than my local cable company (Charter). DirecTV has about 85 more HD channels than Charter does. And the picture quality is better with DirecTV. I still use charter for internet, though, and yes, they stick me with the extra $10 a month. Stupid internet service monopoly.

i believe its part of the MS beta

PLUCKYHD:

The internet service is my cable company's gotcha to My internet goes up like $12 a month if I drop tv service.

That's exactly why I got DSL for 3mbps and $20/mo.

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Vista Ultimate Media Center | (2) DirecTV D11 IRDs | FusionHDTV OTA tuner | (2) Linksys DMA2100 Extenders | Xbox360 Elite Extender

PLUCKYHD:

In some areas you are right but there are people (not myself) who will have nothing to do with sattelite and don't want to lose their cable bundle prices and pay more for sattalite. Some people simply don't want a dish on their roof and then there are those in apartements/condos that have no where to put them.

 

You're living in the past.  The days of satellite being more expensive than cable are WAYYYY behind us.  I guarentee you save big money over cable with DirecTV.

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Vista Ultimate Media Center | (2) DirecTV D11 IRDs | FusionHDTV OTA tuner | (2) Linksys DMA2100 Extenders | Xbox360 Elite Extender

Tony,

That would be okay except

1. I don't have DSL in my area

2. DSL is much slower than cable and I use the high speed

 

I am also not living in the past I have figured directv and dish network. I had both previously. Directv would cost me an additional $30 to $35 a month for the same service as I have now. That is figuring in my lost discounts from cable as well. Yes I would get more HD but have those channels are upconverted 80% of the time anyways.

I am not saying I won't do it because I might but I do know my options and that it will cost me more. Not living in the past at all my friend.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

where I am living now the Comcast infrastructure in my area is so overloaded that during evening hours the internet is unusable and there is a major degredation of signal quality while watching tv.  this prompted me to switch to DirecTV and a DSL line which cost me about $40 a month more than a similar progamming package and line speed from Comcast, except that I dont have any problems with service interuptions.  I am happy to pay an extra $40 a month for service that works all the time instead of service that only works part of the time.

also I just dont like Comcast as company.

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since getting  a 42inch plasma a few weeks ago I have had the wife on my case about when the directv tuner is going to be released.  plus I had an IR flasher fall off one of my STBs and one of her recordings was missed and I am still getting flack for it.

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Marvin on Disapproving Rabbits

I agree i priced up the same deal as I have now with comcast, and I would be gaining about 100 channels if I go with a similar price, thats worth the 12 buck up charge on my internet