[flipcody]

I know this is a long shot but is there anyone in this forum in northeast Wisconsin that is getting their Green Bay local channels via Direct TV? If so how is your picture quality and have you compared it to your cable?


We are considering replacing our cable service with Direct TV.


Thanks!

Flip

 

[mlx52]

Our summer house is in Door County and we receive the Green Bay locals via DirecTV. It is quite obvious that these channels are heavily compressed (reference is a 32 inch Sony Wega), compared to some of the core programming channels on D*, that is not to say it is unwatchable, quite the contrary, it is just that the colors are sometimes washed out, and artifacts appear in fast motion scenes.

Unfortunately I can't compare it with cable in Wisconsin, b/c, it is not offered in Door County, however, if you have a TV that is under 32 inches it should not be too bad, and it is said to get better when DirecTV 7s, their new bird is launched in March. It just depends if you can accept a few digital artifacts occasionally.


Hope this helps

 

[flipcody]

Thank you for the reply. I'm a big fan of Door County.


I have seen that this has been moved. I posted in HDTV because I'm planning on going to Direct TVs HDTV program. I asked because I wanted to to see how good the quality was on a HDTV with Green Bay local channels through Direct TVs HD boxes. I should have clearified this on my first post. Sorry admin!


mlx52, Is your wega a HDTV and do you have Direct TVs HDTV box? I'm unsure if it really matters though. I imagine that if looks bad on a different Direct TV box it would look as poor on a HD box. I imaigine it might be the same feed?


mlx52. again thanks for the reply. I was surprised to get an answer (and quick!)


Flip

 

[mlx52]

No it is not a HDTV setup, so I can not comment on the quality of the locals. However, in Chicago I do have a Sony HD200 w/ a DirecTV setup (50 inch HD Monitor), and the locals are not that bad, however, keep in mind that Chicago has a much larger subscriber base, so that these locals are not as heavily compressed, therefore making it hard to judge what they would look like in Wisconsin.

While the feed is the same and the HD box does little to improve the picture it does have the ability to up convert the signal to (1080i, 720p, 480p), which can often lead to a somewhat improved picture, but there is no real way to get ride of digital artifacts.

If you do go the DirecTV route, you might want to think about asking your cable company for a lifeline cable, so that you could get just your locals, or if you have an OTA antenna this would work as well, so that if you are not happy with the quality then it is possible to switch, just for the locals, and most HD boxes have tuners that are capable of handling all three (SAT/CBL/OTA).

Also, there is quite a buzz that DirecTV is going to carry east and west coast feeds of CBSHD, which would help somewhat.

 

[flipcody]

Apparently the CBS in HD is a done deal for the Greenbay Market. It also looks like Fox will be in HD as well for Greenbay. That leaves ABC and NBC. My wife watches several shows on those networks so there is no way I can downgrade. Frankly the picture on my 36" HDTV looks a lot worse than my 27" older SD tv. I understand why this is.


When I bought the HDTV over 3 years ago I thought we were going to get HDTV a lot sooner and we watch a lot of DVDs.


I could keep the local channels via cable as I do now and get the HDTV setup for direct tv but that is more then we want to spend. I believe the direct tv box would handle that though. OTA would be very cost prohibitive, I'm in Ripon which is 58 - 68 miles from GB, Milw, or Mad.


I should just wait until my cable company goes to hdtv. that is the simple answer. They keep pushing it back. There latest estimate is 3 more months but this is what thay have been telling me for over a year. I want some HDTV!


I'm having a very difficult time convincing my wife this HDTV was a good purchase. DVDs look great in 480p but SD tv does not look very good.


Thanks again for all your help!


Flip

 

[MrBeetle]

Mmm.. Cookies.


My brother went to college there.



Anyway, check with your cable provider. Here in madison, charter has two tiers for normal cable.


1) Expandid Basic + Broadcast Basic = $43.95. (Channels 2-78, basically all of the analog stations)


2) Broadcast Basic = $7.95-$12.95, depending on what city. (Channels 2-22, basically all of the broadcast stations (fox, abc, cbs, etc) and other random channels like cspan and shopping)



You may want to check and see if your company (Time warner? I forget) offers something similar.