Old Unhip Person's Direct TV Question

[Trotsky]

What sort of off-package a la cartisms will I need in order to get as much college hockey as I can via Direct TV?

Use small words.  I can barely spell "TiVo."

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:

 What sort of off-package a la cartisms will I need in order to get as much college hockey as I can via Direct TV?

Use small words.  I can barely spell "TiVo."[/q]

Sports Pack.

[Jacob '06]

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

 [Q2]Trotsky Wrote:

 What sort of off-package a la cartisms will I need in order to get as much college hockey as I can via Direct TV?

Use small words.  I can barely spell "TiVo."[/Q]
Sports Pack.[/q]

Yeah, the sports pack covers all the fox sports regionals, cstv, and espnu which are the only channels I have heard of college hockey on.

[DeltaOne81]

http://directv.com/DTVAPP/packages/premium.jsp

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote: What sort of off-package a la cartisms will I need in order to get as much college hockey as I can via Direct TV?[/q]
Just buy DirecTV's add-on package called "Sports Pack." That will get you CSTV and ESPNU, as well as many of the regional sports networks, including hockey-friendly RSNs such as NESN, FSN North, FSN Midwest, and the like (unlike sports bars, you will even get our new friends, Altitude TV). CSTV and ESPNU will also land you the occasional broadcast of Cornell lacrosse, wrestling, hoops, and such.

What you WON'T get are some of the college-hockey friendly cable-only and over-the-airwaves channels such as New Hampshire Public Television, WABI-5, CN8 New England, and the various regional versions of Time Warner Sports.

[Trotsky]

Cool.  Thanks.

[Chris \'03]

[Q]Hillel Hoffmann Wrote:


What you WON'T get are some of the college-hockey friendly cable-only and over-the-airwaves channels such as New Hampshire Public Television, WABI-5, CN8 New England, and the various regional versions of Time Warner Sports.
[/q]

I suppose it's worth mentioning that CN8 at least is available streamed free over the internet. The quality is usually decent.

[DeltaOne81]

NHPTV is streamed for UHN games as well (would that make it HNPTV?), or at least used to be. Several UNH games are on NESN, etc as well.

[billhoward]

Sports Pack is $12 a month atop your DirecTV bill. That beats going with Total Choice Premier (basically all the channels available except PPV) for $94 a month. If you go that route, you're spending more than $1,000 a year on programming and it begs the question: Are you still watching on a 10-year-old, 19" TV that would today sell for $199, tops?

High definition sports, when you can get them, are awesome. There's a lot of confusion over what's high-definition TV. Digital TV isn't HDTV (but HDTV has to be digital). Also EDTV is simply standard definition TV but with progressive not interlaced scanning.

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
High definition sports, when you can get them, are awesome. There's a lot of confusion over what's high-definition TV. Digital TV isn't HDTV (but HDTV has to be digital). Also EDTV is simply standard definition TV but with progressive not interlaced scanning. [/q]

May be, but I don't plan on touching HDTV for a long while. You have to pay a lot more for the tv, just to pay more for the cable/satellite box, just to pay more for the programming. When my normal, standard packages come with a significant portion of HD programming by default, the tv prices are in the same ballpark (or closer), and my satellite box supports it without paying more... then I'll consider it.

If you have money to burn (and believe me I have friends that do just that on this stuff), then have fun, but I'd rather keep my paycheck.

[KeithK]

Besides, is it really necessary to see the stain on that players jersey?  I just don't see what the added definition buys you.  I mean the difference between crappy streamed web video and regular TV is clear - I used to be very happy when I could actually see the puck on the webcast.  But once you can see all of the players and the game equipment how is it worth the added expense?

[Oat]

What website do you go to to stream CN8 for free? Is it live streaming? Or do you have to wait a few days for them to set it up before you can stream the video? What is your "decent quality" like? Can you see the puck? Smooth frames?

Sorry I had too many questions  ::nut::

[Liz '05]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
Also EDTV is simply standard definition TV but with progressive not interlaced scanning. [/q]

And here I thought EDTV was a movie starring Matthew McConaughey... :-P

[JimHyla]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 [Q2]billhoward Wrote:
High definition sports, when you can get them, are awesome. There's a lot of confusion over what's high-definition TV. Digital TV isn't HDTV (but HDTV has to be digital). Also EDTV is simply standard definition TV but with progressive not interlaced scanning. [/Q]
May be, but I don't plan on touching HDTV for a long while. You have to pay a lot more for the tv, just to pay more for the cable/satellite box, just to pay more for the programming. When my normal, standard packages come with a significant portion of HD programming by default, the tv prices are in the same ballpark (or closer), and my satellite box supports it without paying more... then I'll consider it.

If you have money to burn (and believe me I have friends that do just that on this stuff), then have fun, but I'd rather keep my paycheck.[/q]Well, having gotten a 50+ " CRT rear projection HDTV, and watched baseball, football, and recently hockey on OLN, I can't wait to see a college game in HDTV. You may not think the difference is going to be significant, but it is! Obviously the definition is better, but the wide screen really helps. The color seems more real, maybe because of better definition, I don't know. Hockey jerseys are cool :-D, etc..

Cost is not so bad if you don't mind CRT technology, with it's deep cabinet. I got mine for under $1500, with all the usual Sony features (7 video inputs, etc. ). The nicest feature is side by side "PIP". You see two channels side by side and can adjust the size from equal to one large, one small. Watching those two events simultaneously is nice. I personally think CRT technology is the best for now, especially for the price.

I was terribly disappointed when I had to change from ESPN HD to my non-HD Fox channel for the playoffs. With my Time Warner cable, getting a DVR gives you most HD channels, so cost is not that terrible.

Yes, I'm at a point in life when the extra cost for these features is not a hardship, but I also bought 4 of those terrible Harvard Four Pack games just so I could go to the CU game a few years ago. And like many of you I flew back from MI just for a couple of games when I lived there and was still in training.

You should watch a few programs on big screen HD, you'll be hooked.

[billhoward]

[Further OT] When Scary Movie VI comes out, it will be HD scenes of the 60 Minutes crew wearing standard def makeup. I saw a demo of 1080p (1920x1080 lines, progressive scan) in Japan at a show last week (sorry, namedropping) and, with a professional model, carefully made up, at this resolution you could see two pimples just below her lower lip.

Nah, you don't want to see the bloodstains, but you do want to see the puck.

The point is, if over the next four years you invest $5,000 in your TV programming, maybe you should be watching it on a $2,000 HDTV not $400 27-inch CRT. There is going to be incredible downward price pressure on high def sets, both the flat panels that will fall to $2500 and maybe $2000 for good 37" sets, and also closer to $1,000 for the rear projection sets using DLP or LCOS, not the CRT-based RPs that are the ones you see in Sunday circulars for $999.

If you're really feeling cheap, still, there's a line of RCA sets out this year, 19-inch glass CRTs, maybe 27 inches also, in the sub-$500 range, that digitally process your standard crappy cable TV signal and really make them look good. RCA understands the bottom end of the market and realizes people who don't want to pay a lot for a TV deserve a decent picture too when they're watching Survivor. Anyway, the resolution of a 19" set with standard def isn't a lot different from the resolution of a 50" HDTV.