You are all going to think I'm nuts, but since I'm probably not going to get anything for Christmas but another pair of fuzzy socks from my sister and a check from my grandmother and father, I was thinking of taking that money and getting a new TV for the living room. I know. I know. Like a month's worth of TV drama wasn't enough. Why would I want to invite the drama on purpose?Well, because after two weeks of watching the high def channels, I have finally realized how inferior the picture is on my old analog TVs. This time last month I thought the pictures on those TVs were great. Now I just think they're fuzzy. I can probably count the number of times that I have watched my other TVs since I got the new LCD one in the bedroom on one hand.
As cold as it is today, I would love nothing more to sit by the fire and watch a couple of movies. The problem is I can't. The idiots who built this house put the one and only cable outlet in the living room on top of the fireplace. They then put the fireplace on an angle so the only way you can really watch TV is to lay down on the end of the sofa opposite the fireplace. If you lay down on the end next to the fireplace, you won't see anything but mantle. Ditto if you sit in the arm chair next to the fireplace.
I want another flat screen so I can put the TV on the wall opposite the sofa. That way I can watch TV from any seat in the room, including the ones right next to the fireplace. Obviously, I would have to get another outlet installed, and that will probably be another drama in its own right. The potential for drama, however, has gotten me thinking, do I really want to stick with cable? My cable company has approximately 48 HD channels, unless I counted wrong, which is always a possibility. However, some of those channels aren't in my subscription plan so I really only get around 40 HD channels. Direct TV, in contrast, has over 130 HD channels on its biggest package. That is more than three times as many HD channels as I have now.
The holidays, of course, mean there are some great Direct TV Deals going on out there. For instance, right now you can get Direct TV's Choice Package for just $29.99 a month until 2011. The deal includes three free months of Showtime and Starz and a $100 Visa gift card if you sign up for autobilling. HD channels would add an extra $10 to the stated $29.99 price.
The only reason I haven't jumped on this deal or other Direct TV Packages is I have never had satellite. I have always had cable so I have never had to deal with dishes facing the right way on my roof, weather outages, having to buy or rent a converter box for every single room in my house, contracts, and the like. In other words, I have never had to deal with the things, good or bad, that make satellite different from cable.
If anyone has had good or bad experiences with Direct TV Service, could you let me know in the comments? I may be weighing my options over the next few weeks in regards to cable and satellite, and I'll take any advice I can get. If you could also answer what probably amounts to a stupid question for me. It used to be that, when these smaller satellite dishes came out, if you wanted to watch something different in two rooms, you had to have more than one dish. Is that true anymore? Or do you just need separate boxes? I'm particularly curious because my next door neighbors have two DirectTV dishes on their roof, and I have never known why.
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