Loving HD

Santa really surprised our family this year and brought us a 42" Panasonic plasma HD TV. Our family was very excited, although I am sure that I am the most excited of anyone. The kids do like to play their video games on the "big" TV, even though none of the consoles support HD (PS2 and Wii).

We have had Dish Network satellite for quite a while now, so I haven't had any kind of OTA (over the air) antenna used at our house in years. Using the satellite as an OTA antenna I was able to get a couple of HD stations, but they would come in an out. It was just enough to make me really want HD over the satellite, so I checked into it and Dish was running a decent promotion. Current customers could upgrade to an HD receiver with and HD DVR for $99 up front and get a $100 credit on their monthly bill. The HD content is $20 extra per month (no matter which plan you are on) and it is free for 6 months. All of this requires an 18 month commitment. We are planning to stay with Dish for a long time anyway, so I jumped on it.

I had always heard from co-workers and others that once you have seen sports in HD it is quite painful to watch them in SD, and I have to say I completely agree. I watched an NBA game I cared nothing about in HD and was just amazed. The detail and quality of the broadcast in HD is incredible, and since the game was on ESPN I could easily switch between SD and HD to compare. Wow, the difference is incredible and worth the money we will be spending per month to get HD.

Too bad that the teams I follow (Mountain West, Utah Jazz) really aren't on in HD. Actually, the Moutain West isn't really on TV at all thanks to the terrible deal they made to go independent and create The Mtn network that only Comcast subscribers can get too. So most of the sports I will watch will end up being in SD, but for those rare times when the Jazz are on ESPN or another HD station, it will be great. Plus, the NCAA tournament is coming up in a month and I'm sure most of it will be in HD. I love the tournament every year anyway, but seeing it in HD will be really fun.

I have to comment on the new DVR. I really like it. The functionality isn't drastically different from the SD DVR we had from Dish before, one of the biggest features I am excited about is the ability to add a USB external hard drive to the system and dramatically increase the capacity of what I can record.