Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Dish PVR v. TiVo v. Antenna

Just to point out, you don't have an HD DirectTiVo. Those are retailing around $1000

if i'm not mistaken, the colors are important. i think they indicate the size of the antenna required. don't forget, while the signal is free, the antenna and set top box you need are not.
dan

[no comment]

I would think you'd want the largest size antenna, to get all the channels you can. Anyone looked into pricing on the antenna + set top box? At least that is a one time investment, instead of all that money to the cable co every month.

sopranos are on hbo, and heaven forbid the bride can't get to watch HGTV.
dan

not to mention Six Feet Under. When does the new season start???

few weeks maybe?

Wow, a possibility of time-shifting to see the Shopping Channel in HD. The mere thought makes me light-headed.

Oh, please Ray, you're not really going to blame that for your light-headedness, are you?

I want to thank everybody for participating in this thread. Your wisdom and guidance are greatly appreciated. I have a short update.

Apparently, getting analog signals off-the-air is not a viable option for me. After my experimentation with a couple of indoor antennas, I (finally) found somebody who knew what he was talking about relative to rooftop antennas and signal quality in my specific area. He said if I didn't get anything remotely watchable using the indoor antennas, that putting one on the roof was not going to make "the difference". He did suggest that I go ahead and flush the cable company, listen to the radio more and just use my imagination. Thanks, you've been helpful.

I am about 30 miles from the analog and digital transmitters.

I consulted EBay and found that used satellite boxes with OTA HD tuners do seem readily available for ~$150. Given that I cannot verify the quality of the digital signal without the box, AND that I would still need some kind of antenna AND that I don't have a HD-compatible TV, this seems like a poor option for me at this time.

Digital cable IS available in my area, and apparently, the Comcast "On-Demand" feature is embedded in the digital cable at no extra charge. The problem with this approach is that the monthly cost is slightly MORE than the DirecTivo solution and the "On-Demand" feature does not cover all program offerings, only those that Comcast deems worthy.

So, I'm back to three options:
1. Keep the analog cable, run cable myself to the new location.
2. Get DirecTivo for at least ~$100 out of pocket and an increase of about $10/month for Tivo functionality.
3. Get Dish PVR for basically $0 out of pocket and about the same monthly as we are paying now. But there is just something about the Dish technology that makes me squirmy.

Either one of the satellite options would require me to either buy a phone-jack extender thingy (~$50-60?) or run additional phone line myself.

Between ISP, DSL, cell phones, land lines, Netflix and TV, we are spending an obscene amount of money each month on Information Utilities. I've tried every way I can think of to bundle, bifurcate and change the equations, but I can't seem to find any meaningful cost savings. And God knows there's no going back now.

Thanks again.

If you need to be able to work from home, you can ask your employer to pick up your DSL bill. It worked for me.

(Technically speaking, I'm on call 24x7, so I need to be able to get online to fix things at a moments notice. But in reality, I'm never called.)