Poll: How long have you been subscribed to pay-HDTV service?

Given that "only half" of US HDTV owners currently subscribe to any sort of pay-HDTV package, yet forecasts are suggesting that 100 million homes will be ponying up for said programming in just four short years, we're curious to know how long you HD junkies in the crowd have been hooked. Relatively speaking, HD content has exploded in just the past couple of years, but early adopters are apt to recall a time when just fetching a feed HD feeds was enough to make one's month year. Pretty simply -- how long have you been paying for HD content, and if you're more the OTA type, how long has your antenna been pulling in 720p / 1080i signals?

[Image courtesy of AT&T]

How long have you been subscribed to pay HDTV service?

6 months - 1 year, I'm a greenie!1 year - 2 years, don't call me a freshman3 years - 5 years -- I've seen some stuff5 years - 7 years, and yes, I'm still waiting for SED7 years or more -- I was watching HD before you knew NTSC from ATSCI'll tell for how long in comments below, but I'm not paying a dimeBah, my choice isn't up here!Vote

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:16PM]

OTA ever since it was available.
But Cox does provide HD without any additional cost to our "digital package," which we had for almost 2 years now...does that count?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:57PM]

They threw in OTA for the antenna types, along with pay options, so I'd say it counts. I started with an antenna before the cable companies even knew what HD was. Later I switched to cable so I could pick up the cable HD channels like HBO and take down the antenna.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:13PM]

OTA about 2 months now.

[iamme Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:59PM]

I already pay $95 with Comcast in the Chicago suburbs without any HDTV or any DVR. My bill would go up to around $140 with HD and a DVR. Ridiculous.

[TVGenius Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:26PM]

OTA HD since the premiere of Hell's Kitchen last year... first thing we watched in HD. At the time, only our Fox affiliate was doing HD at all, and it was only prime time and live sports. They run ABC on their .2 and Telemundo on .3, and compress the crap out of both (Telemundo's in mono even.) Our NBC started doing the same not long after, but now that the time's changed (we're in AZ, no DST) they have to delay programming an hour so primetime's SD again. Our CBS station has done absolutely no HD, and the people I know that work there say they've heard nothing about it.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:26PM]

Hells kitchen isnt in hd, its just widescreen.

Anyways, ive been with hd since may 2007, first had cable but i got directv now and much more pleased with a huge selection of hd channels.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:52PM]

the commercials i caught of Hells Kitchen (the new season) certainly looked like true HD

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:29PM]

OTA only. Will never pay for HD at current prices. TV is not that important to me. Just save my money and watch more movies. If you're paying $50 a month or more for cable, then that's $600 a year, to watch TV. Crazy! Especially when there's not much worth watching.

OTA - Let the commercials pay for the programming.

[rduran Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:33PM]

I'm a basic cable customer (No STB). I bought my first HDTV in Feb. hooked it up and I can get *almost* all the local channels in HD, and TNT in HD, in addition to he non-scrambled analog channels. So a total of 6 HD channels (I don't count DTV in 480i), Time Warner Cable, You suck!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:36PM]

Basic/expanded cable only... I'm quite satisfied for now with getting my 5 local channels in HD for free via Clear QAM.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:50PM]

Here in Austin, TX I have Timer Warner, "the home of free HD". They have an HD Tier, but it is like $5/mo for Universal, MOJO, HD Net, and HD Net Movies. I'll pass. All their other HD is free with digital cable. I'm really happy with it. We get a lot here: Locals, Food Network HD, TLC HD, Discovery HD Theater, Discovery Channel HD, National Geographic HD, Animal Planet HD, Science Channel HD, The History Channel HD, CNN HD, The Weather Channel HD, Fox Business News HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, Versus/Golf Channel HD, TBS HD (What a joke), TNT HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD, A&E HD, and MHD. :D

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:47PM]

I can't stand TBS HD, not only do they stretch all of their SD program(99.9% of what they show is SD), but anything they stretch is labeled by either TBS or comcast as HD(a real annoyance when looking through the guide for something in HD)

[yankees368 Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:50PM]

Free HD with cablevision for over 3 years now.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:51PM]

January 2000 - DirecTV has two HDTV channels and I bought a 1080i 46" beast of a CRT Mitsu (well over 100 lbs) and the Hughes receiver. It has one 1080I input and one 480p "DVD" input. Spent about $5G for the set in 2000.

Still works like a champ and is in the bedroom hooked up to a H20 and a DVD Burner.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:06PM]

DirecTv mainly, plus OTA (24hr local news and weather, plus a back up in case there is a lose of a satellite signal). My package only adds an additional $10/mo. The majority of the HD channels are just the upgrades to much of what I already had. But if you've ever seen something as simple as "Sunrise Earth" on [Discovery] HD Theater, you know that you never want to go back!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:01PM]

Sneakly devil that I am I voted twice :P
Why? Because I have been enjoying HD service from Brigh House for 2.5 years. Before subscribing to Bright House HD package, I watch HD for couple months over the air because I knew I was going to be moving soon back then. BrightHouse has been and is still slow in providing more HD channels. But honestly the only ones I truly want besides what I have in the Orlando area is SCI-FI HD and USA HD.

[Ryoga Hibiki Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:11PM]

OTA WTF! OTA is still the best quality HD (besides blu-ray/HDDVD) and it's free!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:11PM]

OTA since the writers strike. Why pay so much money when the was nothing on? Now I find OTA is good enough for my and I don't have to deal with TWC CS ever again.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:13PM]

Since the day before the Super Bowl XLII. Just in time to watch in fabulous HD.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:25PM]

I get my HD for FREE.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:25PM]

3 years, started with Comcast back in 2005. Since then upgraded to 2 HDTVs and I do use OTA as well.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:30PM]

OTA for about 3 months now. I can't wait to get my HD Tivo!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:49PM]

dish network HD package plus hd locals and HD DVR for about 3 months

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 3:57PM]

OTA Since around 2000. I also receive HD for free via cable since I only pay for the basic cable service (for my cable modem) and use a tuner card (the MDP-130) in my HTPC to decode the QAM HD streams that are "in the clear".

No way am I paying for HD if I can help it.

There are some HD channels I wouldn't mind getting (like Universal HD), but I'm not addicted to TV enough to spend more money on it.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 5:03PM]

Ah, so you're a veteran of the startup years too, eh? I worked personally with the chief engineer of my local ABC affiliate, troubleshooting an incompatibility between their HD broadcast equipment and my Mitsubishi HDTV. Sound was glitching and dropping out like clockwork every 90 seconds or so, just on ABC. They finally were able to get it corrected on their end.

How about when stations would forget to flip the switch to HD until partway through a program? Always baffled my mind why they couldn't automate that. I still see it happen sometimes, like on last week's broadcast of Reaper on CW, although it's a real rarity now, thankfully.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:05PM]

Does anyone know if you can get OTA HD and have it work with a DirecTV receiver? Basically, can you input your OTA signals into the DirecTV HD DVR and record shows just if they were satellite signals?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:25PM]

I wish I could get OTA channels. I'm in rural Vermont and would only get 1 OTA HD channel.

I get free HD (via CableCard) but pay for Tivo service and digital cable. All together about $70 for digital cable, Tivo service, and 25 HD channels.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:29PM]

OTA for 18 months.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 5:52PM]

2002 believe it or not. CBS and HDNet and HBO were mostly what was on for HD back then.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2008 7:03PM]

@JimC

right now you can do it with the HR20 NOT the HR21 - although there is an add-on that directv has created to enable enable even on the HR21 which should become available over the next few months.

ef

[brianbobcat Posted Mar 28th 2008 8:31PM]

OTA in Chicago since I started college again in the fall. Lousy CBS though is broadcast SO low of a frequency, I need to use my building's Dish Network feed for that channel (lot like they provide survivor in HD anyways).

-Brian

[markntravis Posted Mar 29th 2008 12:24AM]

We bought a Sony KDL46XBR2 in June '08 and Comcast HD at the same time.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 6:06PM]

0 months.

My Samsung LN-T4081F's QAM tuner picks up all of the major broadcast channels off of my $10/month Comcast basic package, as well as PBS and some on-demand stuff. Good enough for the time being, sufficient since I can't put up an ATSC antenna (apartment) and you can't argue $10/mo!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 30th 2008 12:35AM]

One day. My Directv was upgraded just yesterday.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2008 2:01PM]

OTA 8 or 9 years and later Dish HD...