I already have FIOS Internet and would LOVE to have FIOS TV, but apparently because I live a mile over the Mass border in New Hampshire, my FIOS TV prospects are pretty clouded by the FairPoint deal.  I need to decide whether toi nstall Direct TV, or Comcast, or FairPoint or some alternative.

Thank you,

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin go with direct tv if possible they just added a slew of hd channels I believe around 75 with the same amount promised in the next 6 months or so!

Kevin: I have Dish Network. I love it, but I wish there were more HD channels.

:)

Over-the-Air stations already have hundreds and hundreds of HDTV channels.

All you need is an antenna. No other money is involved.

“hundreds” of hd OTA (over the air) channels? i think not., at least not in one location. if you are lucky enough to live within a tower or two, you’ll pick up some. i live in a large metro area (boston) and get 4-5 with a medium sized directional antenna. i could mount a larger omni-directional antenna (over the wife’s dead body) and get a couple more, but certainly not hundreds. DirecTV says kinda the same thing about all their HD channels -150 i think they claim. however, that’s total, across the country. Many (most?) are local channels only and you must live in that region to recieve.

now, the OTA channels i do get are awesome - better quality than DirecTV or any cable i’ve had. completely uncompressed and best of all, free (other than the hardware). btw, i currently have DirecTV but will be switching to FIOS in a week or so, as soon as i put in the call (already have FIOS for internet).

lastly, if you want to get an idea of what OTA channels are available to you and what type of antenna you should use for your location, check out [url=http://www.antennaweb.org]http://www.antennaweb.org[/url] - a great free site.

Barney: Let us know how the FiOS is. I live not too far from you… I am thinking of switching as well. Getting sick of our web service.

which has better qwuality directv or fios

FiOS has the bandwidth advantage, compared to any of the other providers, including DTV. more bandwidth means less compression and a better looking picture, especially the HD content. also, FiOS doesn’t suffer from bad weather (as DTV does) and allows for on-demand type features. DTV has hinted that on-demand is coming but it will be a while. Verizon has been very aggressive in their deployment of their FiOS offerings, and most people i’ve met, seem pretty excited about switching to it, when available.

k thanks because i have verizen dsl and verizen phone i should go with verizen fios for tv, instead of tv. so for hd quality between cable, sattelite, and fios can someone put these in order

in terms of picture quality i would vote: FiOS, DirecTV, and then cable. again, this is not based on channel offerings, only picture quality. currently DirecTV has the lead in number of HD channels, but from my experiance many of these HD channels have only a few shows a day that are actually HD. seems the content makers really need to increase their end of the HD production. also, if FiOS tv is available to you sf, i would definitely switch your dsl to FiOS as well… still Verizon and the up/down speeds are much(!) better. once FiOS is installed i your home, their TV, Internet, and phone service all use the same box, more or less (internet adds a separate router, replacing your dsl one). hope that helps.

I love the name Rachel

Clearly the writer doesn’t know english.  By 2008 means they will have 150 channels by the end of this year.  They meant to say either by 2009 or by the end of 2008.  Both of which are very, very different.

Fair enough, Craig. It has been fixed. Thanks.

50 more HD channels than DirecTV will offer?  Interesting.

DTV already has video on demand in Beta.  With the last software upgrade on either of the DVRs you can activate the service.  I wonder how FIOS is counting—all of the PPV options in HD as channels or not?