Call me crazy...

[RobR]

I just re-Up'ed my contract with DirecTV. I just recently moved and I was really torn about starting a new contract as a side effect to taking advantage of the DTV move offer, with all the big news going around with Dish HDTV.

Really looks like Dish is gonna kick some arse, but it seems that it's at least half a year away (the Dish rep I talked to kept saying by end of year is their official line) and by then I'll be half way through my contract.

I'm really not ready to move to HDTV yet, but I'd like to be ready. Why reinvent / reinvest in a bunch of hardware shortly after?

What made me stay is;
1.) I made too much of an investment in the rest of my hardware (Ultimate TV, 8-way multiswitch, etc.) to just give DTV up in a year.
2.) I'm also hoping that the HDTV Tivo unit will be out within the same end of year time frame as Dish's HD. Which it alone would make it worthwhile. (By the way, should I bother dumping serious cash on a Sony HD200 or tough it out for the HDTivo - or maybe a Sony HDTivo?)
3.) As far as I know, they gave me the dish free. Which was 50 bucks more on special just a week ago. "Just the $25 mover's fee right?" - "Right." Ok...

I'm still not completely warm and fuzzy about it... Any other news out there to make me feel better about re-Up'ing? THe DTV rep said they're still in negotiations with ESPN, nothing about CBS, Discovery, etc... damn, did I make a mistake... I just hate contracts...

[Mike123abc]

I would not worry too much. No way DirecTV will let Dish get too far ahead. I would expect to see them keep up with Dish. Somehow they will get the HDTV up there and the local markets. With D-7s going up this year they will be able to pick up a lot of markets.

They just have not announce how it will happen.

[Mike123abc]

After thinking about it even more... You are probably more than safe for at least a year. With D-7s they will be able to keep up with Dish in LIL for a year. Plus there probably will not be that many HDTV channels in the next year anyways, DirecTV should not have a capacity problem for a while. They will have plenty of time to come up with a strategy to add more capacity.

[Jacob S]

Because of all of the announcements Direct has been making on locals Dish had to announce someting so that those customers in those markets would not switch over to Direct.

[boba]

Charlie on the last Charlie Chat admitted they would only have about 10 channels when Super Dish comes into use this summer. Right now they have 1 HD PPV channel, Discovery HD, HBO HD, Showtime HD, CBS HD (where available) & a demo channel so that means only 5 more channels and HD Net is 2 or 3 of those.

[Jacob S]

I think that is a good start and shows that he is trying to get things rolling. I dont expecta ll 50 channels to go up all at once, especially since there are not many HD channels around yet.

[tampa8]

I am a Dish Network subscriber and overall have been happy with it. But if I were in your place, and assumming your happy with Direct, I would not switch, at least for now. Wait and see how everything shakes out. These are actually great times for DBS and I agree Direct will not stay far behind and could be ahead. When this contract is up I would reevaluate who has what I want and go with them.

[DCSholtis]

Hey Rob.....I was talking to a salesguy over at a local Best Buy about a week ago.....he told me the rumor has it the HD Tivo will be out late October..early Novemer.....Hang in there.

[Ken_F]

Sholtis,

The rumors I keep hearing are 1Q and 2Q 2004, with first actual product demos at CES in January. If the recent Tivo survey is any indication, they have not yet finalized the hardware specifications for the final product they intend to offer.