HD Channel Question

[brykc14]

I Installed the Phase 3 sat. last week to recieve My locals that comes on Thursday. I checked my Tivo to see if it had the setup For my locals yet and it did. So I went ahead and picked the Directv Charleston Wva option from the setup Menu. It doesnt have the local channels list yet, but it has the HD channels listed. I havent got a HD tv or Reciever yet. But I was going through the channels to see what was offered. The channel lineup starts on channel 73 (EPNHD) and goes up through channel 91 (SHOWHD). When I tune to the HD channels Directv just says Channel not avialable and doesnt even list the HD channel. Is this normal? I figured I couldnt actually see the HD channel without having a HD TV or reciever. But I thought that it would at least show up on the guide menu or at least it would say to call Cust. service Ex. 7XX. SO I guess what Im asking is, is this normal or is something wrong. I thought maybe I dont have the phase 3 sat. installed right. Im showing high 90's on 110 and 119.

[Tusk]

That's normal, the HD channels will not show up at all on a non-HD receiver. If you are concerned about your setup, tune to channel 400 for 119. If you have a picture, 119 works. Tune to channel 99 (I think, it will say test channel for 110 in description) for 110. Same deal.

[brykc14]

Ok thanks. 99 and 400 are fine.
One more question. Is HD picture that good. Is it really worth all that money. Or is it just hipe. No One I know has it, so I cant go look at to compare. Even our Local Radio Shack dont have it to look at it.

[jpoklop]

Is HD picture that good. Is it really worth all that money. Or is it just hipe.

It is that good. I use a Sanyo PLV-70 projector at 119" diagonal. While 480p dvds look great, standard def NTSC looks (as you might expect) just ok. The PLV-70 has a great 480i scaler which helps and it does better than most projectors when displaying regular tv, but the quality is still limited by the signal.

The PLV-70 also supports 1080i and 720p, but I held off getting an HD receiver until the HD-Tivo came out. Even at $999, I have not regretted the upgrade. The picture smokes. Even my locals, which I now get uncompressed OTA, look great in standard def. Of course any uncompressed HD locals blows away anything else you can get right now.

[Tusk]

Ok thanks. 99 and 400 are fine.
One more question. Is HD picture that good. Is it really worth all that money. Or is it just hipe. No One I know has it, so I cant go look at to compare. Even our Local Radio Shack dont have it to look at it.
YES!!!