HDTV TiVo/DirecTV

It is a wonder that I am at work today because now I have HDTV!

In an old spam-email thread about HDTV options, I promised to get back to with my impressions on the DirecTV/ TiVo HD combo box that I had on order.
Now that I have it installed, I can tell you how sweet it is!

I had an existing DirecTV single LNB circle dish, tuner and separate TiVo, and upgraded to a triple LNB oval dish ($55), and the HR10-250 tuner and TiVo unit ($999). The triple LNB allows the tuner to select from three different satellites and provides four independent signals. I plug two of the signals into the tuner which allows me to record two shows at once, while watching yet a third, pre-recorded show! That in itself, is worth the price of admission. The way I used it to my benefit was that I could pause live TV on one satellite during commercial, click to the other satellite on a different channel and rewind to the end of the last commercial on that side. This allowed me to switch between two different olympic events without missing that great moment.

Now, add HDTV. Apparently I got in on the promotion for six-months free HD but after that I believe it is 10.99 a month. The HD picture is incredible. It took me a day to realize that I was watching in 480i. The remote allows you to quickly switch between 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i (of which I thought the 720p was the best but after 480p, you can't really tell), and switch between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. The TiVo works great, although this is not a series-2 software from TiVo and there is a $5 monthly fee for downloading program guides. Regular TiVo fees are $13/mo as is ReplayTV per Wired magazine. The tuner also takes off-air antenna inputs for local channels and the one channel I could recieve from my old antenna came in as clear as the satellite. The TiVo programming guide an installation steps were quicker and easier than the three previous TiVo installations I've done because the program guide information trickles in from the satellite and there is no time wasted to build a database on the TiVo side.

Watching things in HD is so surreal because the picture is so clear, the content is made for 4:3 and with my TV's 3:2 pull-down, it appears that you are watching a movie, not TV. The Olympics in HD however are ideal for HD because the immersive effect it has. It is like someone has opened your eyes for the first time. For example, you can clearly see all eight lanes of swimmers, (and even the 4:3 cameras!). Watching some football on ESPN HD had the same effect. You just see more because of the number lines and the wider aspect. However, when you watch SportsCenter, all of the highlights are in standard definition (SD), so you don't get the immersive effect, and the picture is smaller. The staging for SportsCenter is designed for 4:3, so it feels like there is a lot of unused space on the sides and the anchors are further away from you. This, I fear is going to be the biggest hurdle for HDTV acceptance because shows are just not produced to look well in HD. This is not true for dramas, though, I watched some "West Wing"s in HD last year and it felt like watching a DVD.