I'm long time d* sd subscriber with a new 52 inch 1080p lcd and want to get the best hd service possible anda dvr. i know once i make a decision i may be stuck with it for 2 years (thought i am underthe impression that if i own the equipment outright I am not stuck to a two year commitment --just an expensive piece of equipment )

Haven't done the upgrade yet and may wait until I see the best opportunity to upgrade:


Direct tv has a new unit coming out an hr-21 reciever/dvr that some say is going to be 1080P some say its 1080I does anyone know more definatively which is the case?

Direct TV currently dosen't have an 1080P reciever but is that something worth waiting for?

If the hr-21 pro is 1080 I how long will I be waiting for a 1080 p reciever?

I'm open to considering other providers like time warner cable or dish network so if their are other advocates of these feel free to chirp in.

thanks

Whether the HR21 is 1080p or not, what makes you think it will upconvert 1080i (or any other resolution for that matter) better than your 52 inch LCD? Since the source material will still be 1080i, 720p, etc., it will not even be 1:1 from source anyway, especially after having been transcoded from MPEG2 to MPEG4. I would say that any significant hardware changes from the HR20 to HR21 will likely represent software bugs to be avoided.

Neither DISH or any of the cablecos have any plans to offer a 1080p STB any time soon that I have heard of. If you want 1080p, I would get an HD-DVD or BD player as those are the only readily available sources. Now if only we knew which format would win...

:)

Ted

Rumors state that the HR21 Pro is $500 to rent (not buy -- I suspect that DirecTV won't allow you to buy one), while the HR-20 is $300 to rent (again, not buy). The HR21 Pro doesn't include an ATSC OTA tuner, which would allow you to record OTA signals (of a possibly better quality than DirecTV's satellites) to the DVR. The HR20 does have that tuner. See if you can get an HR20-100 variety of that (runs cooler than the HR20-700).

Oh, there's a non-pro version of the HR21 coming out for the same price of the HR20, that adds an ethernet port (missing from the HR20?), and removes the HR20's OTA tuner.

looks like the hr20 may just be the way I need to go then. I want the OTA tuner so even the non pro hr21 wouldnt be a good solution for me. Also I didn't realize that there really wouldn't be any benefit to an 1080P reciever.

Other than running cooler what are the differences in the 100 series vs the700 series. The only ones I see in the stores are the 700 series.

the best offer I can get from d* is to lease to pay $149 up front and take on the two year commitment. Anyone done any better??



thanks

I would go for the HR20 really fast. I was in teh same boat but once I found out the HR21 did not have OTA, I jumped on getting two HR20s.

Check over at DBStalk for a thread on how to get the best deal possible. It seems the expectation is that once the new HD channels go live, teh deals will get worse, plus I know the rep commented to me about all teh calls web forums have driven to them, so they are getting hip to teh number of people looking for deals.

I would go for the HR20 really fast. I was in teh same boat but once I found out the HR21 did not have OTA, I jumped on getting two HR20s.

Check over at DBStalk for a thread on how to get the best deal possible. It seems the expectation is that once the new HD channels go live, teh deals will get worse, plus I know the rep commented to me about all teh calls web forums have driven to them, so they are getting hip to teh number of people looking for deals.

And good luck! I was unable to get a deal from D*.

Ted

I had to kind of push them and ask for rentention. Basically if you ask them how much it would cost to cancel, they will usually stary to pony up.

I found the DBStalk thread here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=839938#post839938 It has step by step directions.