There has been a coup de tat in my household and a mighty tyranny has been overthrown. Since September of 2004, an evil regime has reigned with an iron fist in my household, a regime with a no tolerance policy for cable television. That regime has now crumbled and a new day of High Definition digital greatness in the Minton household.

Seriously though–I made a deal with my wife in the late Summer of 2004 where, if I bought a new laptop, I would give up cable television for two years (I actually had Direct TV at the time). It was a good deal although it left my Tivo with only antennae juice to feed it and the Tivo fell prey to a lightning storm shortly thereafter.

So, I was totally off television for more than a year, watching DVDs and reading more (go figure). But in November of 2005 I purchased an XBOX 360 and there was a major techtonic shift in the digital atmosphere of my household–and the urge to purchase a HDTV became unstoppable.

I was proud to add a 42″ Samsung DLP to my digital arsenal in January of this year and a new dawn of High Definition viewing (and video game playing) was born. Due to my location in Columbus, I was able to receive every major local High Definition signal with a $40 amplified antenna.

But for the past two months, I have been getting a real itch to get back into cable–probably the roll-out of the new Fall television schedule. But I cannot stand watching real television. I have to have a DVR or a Tivo so I had to research several options.

First, I could have repaired my Tivo which I still have a lifetime service plan on (they no longer offer this as an option). It would have cost be about $150 to get it fixed and would have worked adequately to record the network shows. But a Series 2 Tivo does not record in HD. To many of you that may not sound like a big deal but I assure you that once you start watching television shows in High Definition, going back to watching standard broadcasts is like going from sleeping with a Penthouse pet back to masturbating in a dark room.

The ability to record HD on a DVR was very important in my choice of which way to go.

This left me with three options to explore:

  1. Purchase a Tivo Series 3
  2. Purchase a Direct TV HD-DVR and get back into service plan with Direct TV
  3. Digital Cable with HD-plan and HD-DVR

The Tivo Series 3 just came out a couple of weeks ago and costs about $1,000 for the unit plus you have to pay a $12.95 a month service fee. And because I’m not a South American coke dealer or own major stock in an oil company, I don’t have those kind of duckets lying around the house to piss away on entertainment (no matter how cool High Definition is).

So, onto Direct TV. You can get an HD-DVR for Direct TV for about $300. The good news is that there isn’t an additional fee to pay for the DVR service itself since it’s built into the Direct TV unit. You do have to get a specialized antennae that has three prongs on it, so figure on shelling out another $100 for that at least. So, for an upfront cost of roughly $400, I could get a programming package that would probably run me every bit of $60 a month for HD through Direct TV.

And cable. I already get my internet through my cable company so bundling services would save me an automatic $10. Beyond that, the cable company underwrites the cost of the HD-DVR equipment so there is no upfront fee and no risk of the product wearing out or breaking. Plus, there isn’t a service fee broken out from the cable packaging itself–in other words, I pay for digital cable with DVR and and extra $7.95 a month for the HD package which includes Discover Channel’s HD theatre, ESPN HD, HD NET, HD NET Movies and all my local stations in HD. The DVR records about 40 hours of HD programming or about 200 hours of standard and it’s fairly easy to use.

That being said, Tivo’s big advantage is its ease of use. It’s much easier to set recordings, season passes and navigate through the software with Tivo but the price makes it totally out of the box when it comes to sensible people on a budget making smart choices about their entertainment dollar.

Right now, I’m sticking with cable–it seems to be exactly what I’m looking for.

If you guys have any opinions or stories about your own DVR search, please leave us a comment so we can all learn from each other and find the best avenue for wasting our money.

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