HD reciever advice

[CaptMike]

Hello,I'm new to this forum but not to HT.

I currently have DISH and a 60" Mits RPTV. I'm starting to get into the HD mode. From my limited research I have come to the conclusion that I should choose a HD READY set, from the cost standpoint. The answers/ideas that I would like to solicit from this group are:

If HD READY is the way to go...would it make sense to purchase, say a DISH 921 on e-bay?

Is there other HD/DVR receivers better than that mentioned above that could be used with DISH?

Should I stay with DISH programming or are most people doing other things? (Don’t have room for C-Band)

If I went the e-bay route with a DISH HD receiver, would the included SmartCard be a problem or would it just take a phone call to DISH and tell them I'm an existing customer that wants the receiver turned on and that I only want the DISH HD antenna installed?

Thanks for the info

 

[mini1]

Yes, you want HD ready. At the rate receiving technology changes, HD ready is far better then CableCard 1 or ATSC built-in. It is ALWAYS easier to change out an external tuner, rather then the entire TV.
~The 921 is a discontinued peice of junk, to word it simply. If its HD you want, and an HD DVR then DirecTV has what you are looking for. Once Voom gets its multi-Room HD DVR onto the market, it should be good. The upcoming DirecTV HD multi-Room similar to Voom's should also be great. Dish has made it quite clear they are not offering any more HD channels anytime soon either, while on the other hand BOTH DirecTV AND Voom are expanding their already higher then Dish HD line-up.

 

[mini1]

I did not include the green link under D*'s name above.

 

[CaptMike]

Thanks for the reply....anyone else care to reply???????????

 

[CaptMike]

Yes, you want HD ready. At the rate receiving technology changes, HD ready is far better then CableCard 1 or ATSC built-in. It is ALWAYS easier to change out an external tuner, rather then the entire TV.
~The 921 is a discontinued peice of junk, to word it simply. If its HD you want, and an HD DVR then DirecTV has what you are looking for. Once Voom gets its multi-Room HD DVR onto the market, it should be good. The upcoming DirecTV HD multi-Room similar to Voom's should also be great. Dish has made it quite clear they are not offering any more HD channels anytime soon either, while on the other hand BOTH DirecTV AND Voom are expanding their already higher then Dish HD line-up.

Thanks for confirming my thought on this.....I will ask the following question hare and perhaps you could point to a better suited forum for this.

What brand of HD ready TV would be recomended.....as well as format (LCD, plasma, DLP, CRT ect)......no room for a projector.

 

[chucksrt]

Hdtv

I have a RPTV from Hatichi 57" and I love it but the best pic. I have seen to date is from the Samsung DLP 52" simply stated, that pic. is awesome. Yea, Plasma and LCD's are nice when watching HD but watch an SD and you will want to puke (my opinion). There are higher end DLP's like the Dimond series Mitsu. look great but do they look $1500 to $2500 better than the Samsung, that's a big NO (again that's my opinion) I have only seen and heard bad things from Sony, with their Wega. I was not impressed with their pic. and then my friend bought one (i recommended against it) that backed up my thoughts, My near 3yr old RPTV has a cleaner pic. and we are both using top notch cables and connectors. Now ther is a new type of HDTV coming out soon that is a wall mount (like Plasma) but it is a tube style and it's damn near flat, I can't wait to see it. Rumor is it will be cheaper than plasma too. :shocked
Chuck

 

[Satellite Expert]

Best new HD toy is the Toshiba SED HDTV introduced at CES