DirecTV?

[Maverick]

Does Dish have the same packages as DirecTV?

DTV now has a crappy DVR, you have to pay extra to get the superior TiVo. One of our boxes went out so we got the DVR. We also have the TiVo. No comparison. TiVo kicks the DVR's butt in every way.

It's gonna suck bad when my basement is done and I wanna get an HD Tivo for the 56" LCD (or whatever).

 

[Caleb]

yeah, Right now I have a 37" LCD and the basic programming looks fine. We do have HD and some movie packages as well but as I said, we don't watch the HD channels. (Ours is comcast but I've never noticed a quality difference between Comcast, Dish, or DTV).

FWIW (just to add to the fun ) In the last 10 years I've never had my cable go out, wish I could say that about Satellite (for four or five years I had both cable and satellite so it was always easy to compare them )

 

[waynehartwig]

What type of TV do you have, Wayne? Like I said earlier, I want either a 37" or 42" flat panel LCD. Anyone have experience with a flat LCD of this size on a regular Dish or Direct TV signal? How does it look? Any screen door effect or anything?

For the main with the HD (921) reciever, I have a Toshiba 37" flat tube (heaviest b*tch I have had to lift ~300#!), 16:9, 1080p TV and in the bedroom I have a 32" Samsung 780p, 16:9 LCD hooked up to a standard (508) reciever.

As for choosing LCD's, look at the specs. Get something with 6k or higher contrast ratio, faster than 8ms response time and you'll be set. The Samsung's seem to be the best (highest contrast ratios and response times across their entire line of TV's. Not like Sony or Sharp where some are good and some are bad) from I found while researching the one for the bedroom. Also look at the resolution. Some 42" (or even larger 50"!) only have a 780 resolution. That's the same resolution I have on my 32". Guess what they do to make the larger picture - you guessed it, pixelation! But you can get a cheaper 42" TV with 780 than you can a 40" with 1080. ...And just because they say they are 1080 compatible, doesn't mean they will display in that resolution! It only means they will understand that type of input.

The one in the bedroom is awesome. I bought a wall mounting kit from Costco for like $60 and mounted it up. Then I ran all of the cables, including power, through the inside of the wall (already had the wall apart installing a door and some outlet/light switches) to a shelf in the closet. Then I bought one of those UHF - infrared converters so that my remotes worked. Viola! No wires, no mess! Dish uses UHF but my VCR (my wife won't throw it out and I don't even think we have any tapes!?) and DVD player don't...

Bottom line, for a good LCD or Plasma TV in that size, your going to spend $1500+.

If I was in the market for that size of TV, this is the one I would choose...
I bought the 32" version of that TV... blah 3296 blah where that one is 4096. So you can get a xx48, 51, 53, 92, 96, etc. To my knowledge (because things change so fast with electronics) the 96's are their top of the line, line.

Cruthfield was awesome too! ...As always. I ordered it online and had it in a few days - free shipping, too!