HD Sat. woes

[bennie25]

It seems as though Christmas came early to my house as my wife and I( notice how tactful I am) picked out the Sony KF50WE610.. LCD rear projection TV. Yep , it was expensive but all of the newer sets were,, Samsung, Hitachi, Panny, all of them. However Sears done me right and I walked out for under $2800.00 with a free(rebate) progressive scan DVD and free delivery. I bought the extended warranty as I don't want to take an unprotected chance on unproven technology(longevity).
The point of my post was that I knew that if I wanted to continue with Direct TV that I had to purchase a HD receiver. The question was how much was I willing to pay. I shopped around and found that Direct have the best price for a HD system, $399.00 plus shipping. With that you got free installation but if you are already receiving the signal how much installation is involved. I then started or should I say I attempted to barter with Direct and after some time was able to have my monthly bill reduced by $20.00 a month for 6 months--saving $120.00. Now the unit costs me $279.00, pretty good I think. My point is this, if I want new technology then I must give up something, however ,I don't feel that I have to pay full price, hence I got what I wanted, paid a fair price ( I think) and enjoy it every time I plop down in front of it.

[GaToy]

IsmaVA what you seem to have forgotten is people also paid $1500 for Lazer Disk. What did that get them? A really expensive antique. Just as D Theater will soon be. You need to remember one thing. The public rules the market. If venders don't make thier product readily available to the consumer for a competetive price that product will die. I think bennie25 got a great deal on his unit. There is a big difference between $399 and $279. And now that I have found someone who has been able to jew Direct down a little I will see if they will do the same with me. I'd be very interested in signing up for $279 but we'll see. That was the point of me starting this post was to find people that had gotten better deals.

~C.C.~

[happy ears]

With all new technologies there is an additional price to enter the market early. There are several reasons for this, new components that are built in limited supply, higher cost of productions as certain parts are new. Basically when a new format or technology comes out there are higher cost associated with it. Color televisions, CD players, LCD screens, DVD players and the list goes on. Look at the price of these products today. My friend has been eyeing Plasma TV's since they first hit the market but the price has stopped him from buying. But he always thanks those that want and can afford this new products, the more they sell the price goes down.

Concerned about a new format not succeeding, well you well just have to wait until it is established. Good news is that once these new products have established there markets the masses can now afford them.

[GaToy]

Ya'll keep calling HD new. Why? Its almost been out for five years. If it were a video game console it would be on it's way out by now. It has nothing to do with the fact that it is new but everything about industry not mainsteaming it until 2006. That way they can sqeeze every cent out of it up till that point. What many of you fail to realize is I have no problem spending more money for new technology. But the qauntity is lacking the price. I have close to $6000 invested in my home theater so far. A drop in the bucket for alot of people. Know I would love for someone to rationalize spending $400 on seven channels. And i'm not going to let this drop. I can talk about this until 2006 so I hope your ready.

~C.C.~

[happy ears]

The industry in North Americs has been very slow to adapt to this technologstry. You could always move to Europe or Japan they are much further ahead than us. I live in Canada and we must wait until the United States adapts new formats because of our lack of population. Want to see how slow I am, just starting to look at Home Theatre but have had a stereo all my adult life. Only started buying CD's five years ago, at first I thought they where to expensive but know look at the price. Look at the price of records today!

Have A Great Day

[Rob1956]

GaToy: It's pretty much conventional wisdom in the broadcast industry and in Congress that the 2006 switchover is not going to happen. Congress is beginning to realize that it will be 2010-2015 before analog will be completely switched off as far as tv broadcasting is concerned.
Yes, they would like to keep the 2006 deadline, but the public is far slower to switch over than origionally thought.