http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/ Engadget HD Comments for DIRECTV HDTV losing its edge - Rate Hike! http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/
I'm a DirecTV subscriber with their HD DVR (well, TiVo) reciever. The main reason I've been with DirecTV for so long is because of their exclusive contract for NFL Sunday Ticket. Even though some other companies offer the NFL Network (which is available on DirecTV), and NFL Highlights on Demand (also available on DirecTV), etc., DirecTV carries "ALL" Sunday afternoon regular season games (CBS and FOX) and up to nine NFL games a week in HD. Plus, NFL Gamemix is a great feature. 8 games on 1 channel, all at the same time. That's a pigskin buffet!!!

However, this news on a rate hike "sucks." No other way to look at it. I wouldn't have minded it so much if they were to add more HD channels or if we all had HD locals (but only a few markets actually have HD locals thru DirecTV).

Additionally, your article states that some DirecTV HD subscribers were complaining about the "amount of compression" that DirecTV uses. I haven't noticed any difference (or any major difference). But I could be wrong. If any of you have any info on this, post it on here.

Bottom line (for me) is that I pissed off about the rate hike. But, I love NFL Sunday Ticket. So, I guess I'll stick with DirecTV. But I sure hope that DirecTV adds more HD channels and features. Otherwise more people will be switching over to Dish Network or Digital Cable (yuck!!!).]]>Jan 27th 2006 10:52AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/As for the compression, I haven't noticed a terrible loss in quality, but then again most of my HD watching is OTA signals.]]>Jan 27th 2006 3:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/27/directv-hdtv-losing-its-edge-rate-hike/right now it just seems to make sense. If I do I will keep my dish and try to buy the sunday ticket.

There are many discussions around the net about DIRECTV's PQ. When the HDTiVo first came out there was a keystroke that would display the current bit rate and resolution of the channel you were watching. Shortly after the complaints started the feature was removed. But some people still have the ability to capture DIRECTV content (google 169time) and report that it hasn't gotten any better. ]]>Jan 27th 2006 4:32PM