Finally shut off the DirecTV setup today with a switchover to Time-Warner HD Digital Cable. Was planning this for awhile but finally acted on it after our last windstorm which was pretty much straight out of TW's commercial knocking satellite TV.

Given that our dish had to site on a ten foot pole to get clearance over the roof next door, it's not quite the victory for cable that it might be. Generally we found the picture quality better on the satellite as compared with TW's digital cable. Most average storms had no effect on reception. Still, I didn't like the mounting on our roof (I half expect to find a square yard missing from the roof every time we have a heavy wind, at least until I get on the roof to take the disk down).

Since it cost nothing extra I went for the TW "High Definition" service. So far there's not much bang. With the exception of HBO, the other channels either broadcast loops or their standard 4:3 signal, except over HD. WNET (PBS) has a loop running all day. So, no loss by hooking this into the Tivo which doesn't support HD. Picture quality through the HD feed (R/G/B cables, not DVI) is nice, a bit clearer than the regular feed, even for non-HD channels.