NYC inquiry

I do not have cable. I live in Brooklyn. I will soon be purchasing a
plasma TV and will need to get cable. Appreciate help with the
following questions:

1. Time Warner or Cablevision?
2. Any reason to prefer one premium movie channel over another?
3. Will having hi-def make it desirable for me to have certain
supplemental services (no need / desire for DVR)?
4. The Panasonic 42" I'm expecting to buy has 2 flavors, 1 with
cablecard 1 without. With is +$500. Needed and /or worth it?

Thank you.
Bill

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:16:00 -0700, bill wrote:

I do not have cable. I live in Brooklyn. I will soon be purchasing a
plasma TV and will need to get cable.

Why will you need to get cable? You don't have to have cable for an HDTV.
There's plenty of HD on regular TV (if you have an HDTV with digital tuner).

Appreciate help with the following questions:

1. Time Warner or Cablevision?
2. Any reason to prefer one premium movie channel over another?

From what I can tell thye all pretty much just play the same thing over
and over again adding a new title every so often.

3. Will having hi-def make it desirable for me to have certain
supplemental services (no need / desire for DVR)? 4. The Panasonic 42"
I'm expecting to buy has 2 flavors, 1 with cablecard 1 without. With is
+$500. Needed and /or worth it?

You'll have to order HD if you want it.

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bill wrote:
I do not have cable. I live in Brooklyn. I will soon be purchasing a
plasma TV and will need to get cable. Appreciate help with the
following questions:

1. Time Warner or Cablevision?

Go to their websites and look at their HD channel lineups. Cost is
another factor too, of course.

2. Any reason to prefer one premium movie channel over another?

HBO and Showtime do provide original programming. The others are all
movies. HBO-HD, Showtime-HD, and Starz-HD all do provide a fair number
of true HD movies these days but not all movies will be HD. HDNet Movies
is a desirable HD channel if you like to watch older movies in HD.

3. Will having hi-def make it desirable for me to have certain
supplemental services (no need / desire for DVR)?

I personally would go for the HD-DVR. The DVR allows you to watch TV
shows on your schedule, not the networks.

4. The Panasonic 42" I'm expecting to buy has 2 flavors, 1 with
cablecard 1 without. With is +$500. Needed and /or worth it?

Thank you.
Bill

The first generation of Cablecard has proven buggy. Works great for
some, others have had constant problems. You also lose VOD, guide info
with cable card. If this is your main TV, I would go for the lower cost
model and get a set top box (STB) or HD-DVR from the cable company. Many
cable companies are charging as much or close to for a cable card as
they do for the STB. I see cable card as more useful for a 2nd TV for
the kitchen or bedroom where one wants to get away from a bulky box.

BTW, remember to get HD from a STB, you must connect with component,
DVI, or HDMI cables - S-Video and composite are for obsolete SD only
hookups.

The other differences between the Panasonic PX60 and PX600 models are
that the PX600 has a VGA port and better speaker set. The only reason I
would get a PX600 is the VGA port for computer hookup. For me, the rest
is of no interest as I have a HD-DVR and a separate 5.1 sound system.
Good luck,
Alan F