Should I go from Comcast to Dish or DirecTv?

The SD quality on DirecTV is not good relative to Comcast, as they downconvert all SD to 480x480. That said, DirecTV's new MPEG-4 HD channels are good, and with all the HD channels they have, you may not watch much SD.

Be aware that DirecTV has not moved their older HD channels -- including ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, Discovery Theater HD, Universal HD, HBO-HD East, and SHO-HD East -- over to MPEG-4 yet. Those HD channels will be a significant downgrade over Comcast until DirecTV replaces them with MPEG-4 versions (expected later this year).

Comcast has traditionally had excellent HD PQ -- the best you could get outside of FiOS -- but recently, Comcast management decided to apply extra compression, degrade their existing HD to make room for new channels. In this CED article, Comcast notes that to remain competitive, they are no longer going to cater to "golden eye" customers with larger screens. Comcast is now applying this added compression when (or just before) they add new channels such as CNN HD, USA HD, SciFi HD, Food HD, Animal Planet HD, etc. If your market doesn't have these new channels, then this probably hasn't happened in your area yet.

Here's video footage showing what Comcast Chicago users are seeing since the new channels were added:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT30UW80N0I

As you can see, the picture breaks up and skips frames during intense scenes. For most content, it is not that bad, but users also report reduced quality on some older HD channels that began when (or shortly before) the new channels were added. Of course, if you have a smaller TV, you may not notice a difference much of the time.

With Comcast degrading their HD, I don't see any reason to stick with them, especially after DirecTV moves ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, Discovery Theater HD, and Universal HD to MPEG-4 in 3-6 months.

A few things to keep in mind, regardless of provider a lot of the SD material on your set up may look bad.
At this time Direct actually has more HD then Dish, (this could equalize soon), don't know when soon is!!
Dish also has an HD only package, locals in HD are available. (check by your zip code for availibility)

Both have deals for new customers check out both web sites and compare available content for your personal taste.

I don't believe the current DirecTV HD DVRs support OTA anymore (no more tuner, although the prior model did), which is why I'm considering switching from DirecTV to Comcast+Tivo for my move to HD. As a long time Tivo user, I would prefer to stick with Tivo, the lack of OTA in the DirecTV DVR was the final straw.

Pricewise, the two don't seem to be that far apart, so if cost is your main concern you really should compare what the two services will cost after the honeymoon period is over.

DirecTV announced an OTA tuner add-on for their current HR21 HDTV DVR. IIRC, it costs less than $60 and should be available in about a month.

Thanks, I was not aware of this. A search of the DirecTV web site turns up nothing about it yet.

Being the cynical sort, should one assume DirecTV will also tack on a monthly service fee for this feature?

No. There will be no additional monthly charge -- just the one-time purchase price.

With OnDemand on the horizon for national release (in Beta right now), and the fact that the DirecTV HR21-700 can network with your computer, allowing you to view photos and recorded videos and listen to music (that you have in WMP11) makes it all the more attractive. Also in Beta is online programming of your DVR.

It was very painful for me to switch from cable (after MANY years) to D*, but I have no regrets.

Thanks, it sounds like I should weigh this into my decision.


I already have an AppleTV, which provides this functionality.


I've been a happy DirecTV customer for a decade, but their split with Tivo may still cause me to go elsewhere.

You won't save any money! Dish and DTV have everything ala carte, and when you get all done with the promotional rates, you won't notice any difference.

I was a long-time DirecTV user, using DirecTiVo, but finally switched to Comcast with a Series 3 TiVo just so I could keep TiVo plus HD locals, etc.

Now I've been using Comcast for a while, and I think the picture quality on the SD channels is horrible. I only watch a few SD channels, but one is a cable new channel, which I watch a few hours of programming from a night, and it's just terrible. The same channel on DirecTV (in SD) looked great back when I was on service.

The other thing I don't like about Comcast is how they handle boxing Pay Per Views. The only sport I am into is boxing, and they always broadcast PPV in SD-only (whereas on DTV, it was always customer choice - HD or SD). I just can't justify paying for SD when I can get it in HD for "free" on HBO the following week. Annoying.

The HD stuff looks good, but fast movement (like with boxing) gets very pixelated.

I've contemplated going back to DTV, as I think overall the picture quality is more consistent across SD and HD, but I'd lose my TiVo. I haven't researched lately how people feel about the DTV DVR (which is what lead me to this topic).

Jason

Thanks for the feedback, this is what I'm weighing as well. I probably could put up with the DTV DVR, but also would like to hear from people who have used both units to see how they stack up against each other.

For what its worth I recently upgraded to the DirecTV HD DVR from a Standard Def Tivo which was connected with an s-video cable. The HD DVR is connected via component. Well in my experience the quality of the SD channels has dropped noticeably even after calibrating my tv for the new receiver. So I got an upgrade to the mpeg4 channels which are very nice but a downgrade in the SD quality.

Jeff,

How does the D*TV box compare with the TiVo?

Thanks,

Jason

I have used DirecTV for years. When we went HD I subscribed to Comcast to check it out. What I found was that the SD channels on Comcast were horrible in quality compared to DirecTV. The HD channels on Comcast were slightly better quality but since most channels we watch are still in SD, I switched back to DirecTV. Now I'm pissed becuase they have taken channels away from me like HDNETmovies that are now part of a HD extra package. Total BS. I tried the HD extra package and not sure what channel other then HDNETmovies I'm suppose to be getting. I get locals and a couple other channels and that is it. I no longer get ESPN-HD or ESPN at all or DiscoveryHD or Discovery. So, I"m looking for other options.

The channels that are in the HD Extra package are those for which there is no SD counterpart, such as HDNet, HDNet Movies, HD Theater, UHD, Smithsonian, MGM, & MHD

You need a seperate antenna, don't know where you are but you can look here:
www.antennaweb.org

Enter your info and you will get a good idea of what is available to you (DTV stations) and a reccomended antenna type.

I had dish and went back to cable. I couldn't get anything during snow and bad weather....

Thats not representitive of what Chicago Users are seeing. That is representitive of what one subscriber is seeing. I work and live in Chicago. This is not common and most likely is a signal related issue pre-existing on whichever frequency was used for the new HDs.

Do you really think if the hundreds of thousands of HD customers in Chicago, viewing the same content, saw this that this forum and every forum online wouldnt be FLOODED with complaints of pixelation?

And not to start a conspiracy theory or anything... but Ive seen that same exact clip on Youtube sometime in the middle of last year.