HD receiver w/hdmi for Sony LCD television

Your only other option is to buy a used HR10-250. There are no other alternatives. The 250 will not decode MPEG-4
broadcasts. Most folks who complain about the 700 have been using the 250 which is a better machine. It seems folks who are not used to the Tivo interface have been a bit happier with the 700. I've been a DirecTv customer for a very long time. There picture quality and customer service have both gone down hill over the last several years. I don't recommend them to anyone. I'm hanging in until AT&T deploys FIOS in my area and then I'm dumping satellite.

Ditto on Narrod's comments.

I've been with DirecTV for 10 years and watched quality drop, advertising increase 300%-400% and prices escalate.

I'm waiting for Time Warner to put in fiber which is supposed to be this year. I already use Time Warner for internet and get consistent 6MBPS downloads and speed test results. 10MBPS is available for an additional $10.00 month.

Best of all, when fiber is installed I can access same programming as DirecTV, retain my same internet speed and get telephone service in a bundle for less than $100.00 month.

The main strength of DirecTV is signal to noise, on my system there is virtually no noise at all. Local cable with copper (as it is now) has continuous noise, making it unacceptable at this time. I hope their promise for super quality service is a reality or I'll be stuck.

Wepratt,

I have both an HR10-250 and an HR20-700. I'm a big fan of TiVo, which the HR10-250 provides, but the HR20-700 has its own set of features that better the HR10-250. There is no question in my mind that TiVo provides better capabilities for searching for future programs. But if you don't have TiVo now, the HR20-700 is a very nice machine.

Incidently, I had never before had reason to try the HDMI output from my HR10-250, because it connects to a Sony 36 XBR CRT. When I bought the Sony 32 XBR LCD for the bedroom, I discovered its HDMI output doesn't function. HDMI from the HR20-700 to the Sony LCD is spectacular for HD.

Also, whereas I had believed the local ABC and NBC affliates in Santa Barbara blocked HD, the HR20-700 with its new 5 LBN dish receives HD from those affliates. It's a matter of locals using a different compression scheme as I understand it.

Bottom line: I don't hesitate in recommending the HR20-700, but if you're a TiVo fan, I'd keep at least one TiVo-capable receiver on one of my sets.

db

I am with Dish Network. They have had MPEG 4 a bit longer and most of the bugs are gone.

I was with D* for 10 years. I just got tired of how they treat 100-a-month (tv/only) subscribers.----Oh, I got more tired of the false promises--for more HD. When mpeg 4 was announced 2/3 years ago I was expecting more HD but instead all the bandwidth got sucked up for locals. I had to have a rooftop anyway/from the early days.----THEN---
I read a TWC brochure and saw they has Stars/C-max in HD. That got me interested. I found out they had more HD for less. I ain't a NFL package guy, so they had more for less of what I wanted. I didn't have to buy my DVR and it has the hdmi-out. I know the first Sat.dvr cost a grand;which was to high for me. I'm sure the SA8300hd is better. and much faster.--(I also had Voom and basic D* for about 5 months) I also wonder if D* has added ch.9 for LA?? Cable doesn't make big fake-promises, imo,so we now have ch.9.-hd. It will cost a lot to go back to D* and all my equipment will have to be changed out.--I do pay $8.30 per mo. more, but did I mention the Tennis ch??