HD

We're all moved now, and my favorite part is that we can now get HD. Our previous apartment at the Meadows had DirecTV through a company called Multiband. Although I got my HDTV two years ago now, they dragged their feet on upgrading the satellite dishes to the new HD ones. And although the complex was wired up to the cable company, I couldn't get service because the lines were disabled because of their contract with Multiband. Every couple of months I'd call and ask when they'd have HD available, and the answer was always "probably in a couple months." They finally got around to upgrading a month or two before we left.

The new place, however, has Time Warner Cable. I was planning on going with their DVR, but Sandy really, really wanted to keep TiVo, so we got the TiVo HD. It was $300, which I believe is the same price as my original Series 1 TiVo was when I got it. Because we were already subscribers, I was able to get the lifetime service, which they don't offer anymore except for people who already have a lifetime subscription. It's expensive- $400- but it'll pay for itself in 3.5 years, and it's pretty nice to have one fewer monthly payment.

The CableCard is multi-stream, so with the one card TiVo can record two (HD) shows at once. It's pretty sweet to see those two red "recording" lights on in the front. Plus, now we don't have to worry so much about scheduling conflicts- if Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is on opposite of Heroes, it can record both at the same time!

It's so beautiful to see shows in HD, especially after two years of waiting. Most, but not all, of the shows in our season pass list are in HD. USA is pretty much the only holdout. Come on, USA- even TBS is HD. And we can't find Mythbusters in HD, and that's on Discovery.