Directv Advice

[steveo]

Bought a 65" Mitsubishi Platinum Plus and wasted a ton of money on surround sound speakers/receiver. I love it. But my "digital cable" stinks. AT&T cable in Dallas tells me they dont even have an s-connection cable box available. I was embarrased when we had friends over last night for academy awards. "You spent over $3k on TV that looks like this?"
So, looks like I'm gonna cancel cable and buy my HDTV receiver and satellite dish sooner than expected.
I'm looking at Directv. I've seen an RCA DTC100 and a Toshiba DST 3000. Looks like Toshiba is better. Mitsubishi makes a unit but it looks expensive.
I also have two other regular TVs that I need basic receivers for. Plus, I'd like to get a TIVO type deal for one of those (as I understand its not available for the HDTV receivers).
My questions:
1. Any suggestions on RCA or Toshiba? ( or another maybe)
2. Can I get the HD broadcasts from my local stations through the Diectv satellite or do I need to install an antenna?
3. Do I need some little adaptor unit for the Toshiba?
4. Should I install myself or hire someone?
5. Will one satellite dish handle all three receivers?
5. Any idea what I can expect to pay for all this.
I know this is alot but I really could use some help.
Thanks

[ZeroDegreeK]

Originally posted by steveo
My questions:
1. Any suggestions on RCA or Toshiba? ( or another maybe)
2. Can I get the HD broadcasts from my local stations through the Diectv satellite or do I need to install an antenna?
3. Do I need some little adaptor unit for the Toshiba?
4. Should I install myself or hire someone?
5. Will one satellite dish handle all three receivers?
5. Any idea what I can expect to pay for all this.
I know this is alot but I really could use some help.
Thanks

I can answer some of your questions.

1. The RCA isn't bad, I don't really know about the Toshiba.

2. Your locals will need to be received over the air(if they are available), so you will need to buy an antenna.

3. ?

4. If you are technically inclined, do it yourself. But you usually get free installation with a 1 year contract, so you can go that way.

5. One elliptical dish can handle as many receivers you can throw at it for both normal satellite and HD. You will need a multiswitch, but it comes with the elliptical dish so don't let the installer charge you for it.

6. The RCA DTC100 is around $500., you can search the internet to find it cheaper (549 at amazon). For a DTivo I would suggest a Philips DSR6000, or a Hughes GXCEBOT. The Sony Sat T60 looks nicer but is $$$$. (note: all three are the same unit with a different cover) I can find a DTivo for less than 30 dollars delivered if you are a new customer signing a 1 year contract. Normal receivers range from free to whatever ($49 at WalMart), again check the internet for pricing. Try www.expert-satellite.com
or www.orbitsatellite.com

Hope that helps.

[ZeroDegreeK]

I re-read your post. You might want to properly calibrate your set and tweak it to get a better picture. Try the Avia DVD.

I have a 65" Mits also with both digital cable and satellite. In my opinion they are pretty much the same with respect to picture quality. They both look suprisingly good on my set. I tweaked it to death to look like that but it was worth it.

Also, if your set is very new there is a break in period before it starts to look good. Around 100 hours of viewing.

[JeffW]

Steveo,

Check out the Zenith DTV 1080 receiver. It lists for $1150 but I bought mine as a package with the eliptical HD dish for $699 (rec) and $199 (dish). $1000 total, at Crumptons TV in Greenville just east of Dallas. Their number is 903-455-2043.

The Zenith unit is a 2nd generation receiver and is the hottest one going right now. It has a great ota tuner and nice expanded DTV guides. It has inputs for ant, cable, sat and moves between them seamlessly, as all channels share a common list. Outputs are component or RGB and it has both coax and optical audio outputs as well.

I've had mine for just a short time but I very happy with it. And from what I've read in other forums, it seems to be quite reliable.

I get all the Dallas area digital/HD stations with an indoor antenna. We have 7 now with 8 more coming by May 1st. (the FCC deadline)

I installed mine myself with some help of a friend. Took about 2 hrs. Just make sure you have clear line of sight at about 181 degrees at about 56 deg elevation. (no trees or buildings)

The dish I purchased has three LNB's (sat A reg stuf, sat B hd, sat C currently not used) and four outputs. So you could hook up
4 sat receivers if you wish.

Sorry for the long reply, hope this helps. Have fun. :-)

[zarlor]

I definitely concur with ZDK about calibrating your set. DirecTV would have made no difference for the Oscars, for example, because they weren't in HD anyway. But if you have a local braodcaster who you can get digitally through an antenny, their upconversion equipment is generally better than the upconverters in most sets or tuners so it probably would have looked fairly good that way. Over satellite you usually have to deal with compression and crappy source material. YOu know what they say, "garbage in, garbage out" and that garbage is VERY noticeable on a large screen TV, but it's not really the fault of the TV.

I will say that once you start to get used to watching HD material you'll start to REALLY think the non-HD stuff looks horrible and fuzzy. Nature of the beast, I suppose.

Oh as to question number 3...

I think I might know what you mean... What kind of inputs does your TV set have? Does it only have Component inputs or an RGBHV input, or both? If both then you won't need any kind of adapter between any of the the tuners and the set. However if you only have one or the other then you would need to find out what the tuner has for outputs (The DTC-100, for example, only has an RGBHV, sometimes referred to a VGA, connector.) Is that what you were asking?

[steveo]

Thanks for all your responses. They were very helpful. From what I've read, I think I'm gonna go with the Toshiba hdt3000 Directv receiver and a couple cheapo receivers for my other TVs.
i see i can get toshiba receiver for $550 on internet, elliptical dish for $150, and cheapo receivers for $40 each.
last issue is installation. i'm assuming i can call out an installer and with a one year contract have directv pay them the install fee. correct?
also, one more question: what about antenna. i've heard lots of stories--rabbit ears are fine, need large $300 antenna, etc. best buy has one for $75 they recommend. any thoughts.
once this is all in, i guess i need to have someone come and calibrate my mitsubishi.
thanks for all your help.
steveo

[zarlor]

Antenna selection depends on where you happen to be in relation to the transmitter towers and the intervening terrain. Try http://www.antennaweb.org for some suggestions on antennas based on your locatation. Generally speaking, you just need an antenna, and beware of those that are "HDTV" specific as that is probably just marketing hype. Any antenna of a good enough size to get the signal will work. In fact many people have suggested that the Radio Shack Double Bow-Tie antenna (available for <$20) works just great even from farther than 20 miles out, in some cases, and you may want to try something for that cheap just to see if you can get away with not having to pay for (or install) anything more than that.