DigitalTVDojo

Uhh, here’s one from the so strange it must be true file. It seems as though prison inmates in the Clayton County Correctional Institution (it’s in Georgia) haven’t seen Monday Night Football since it made the jump from over-the-air ABC broadcast to ESPN. Hard to feel sorry for these guys, but apparently someone, including the prison’s warden, does.

His plan is to install Direct TV in the prison to up the number of channels the inmates can watch from its current two to God knows how many channels (it all depends on the subscription package remember).

Now, of course right off the bat most people are going to oppose this. Why should you have better TV in prison than you get at home. But an interesting editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution takes a different and interesting approach. The warden claims the satellite system would be a more effective management tool, this helping out the prison guards who already have an impossibly hard job. Interesting food for thought. I still couldn’t support the idea, but at least it’s nice to see another well-reasoned position on it. What do you think?

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Well here we are, knee-deep in the muck and mire that is the holiday shopping season. I have to admit a certain weakness for giving (and wishing for, but not necessarily getting) tech gadgets around this time of year. The reason why I bring it up is because I just came across what may very well be the ultimate gadget gift of all time — SAT-GO from Direct TV.

The world’s first portable satellite TV system, SAT-GO is getting rave reviews from, among other places, The Sporting News, who named it this year’s MVP (most valuable gift). Frankly, this is one time I have to agree with the Grey Old Lady of sports coverage. But at around a grand for the set-up, I honestly don’t think there’s any way it’ll be under my tree this year. Unless those elves get pretty damn busy and scare me up one by December 25th.

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I try and make it a point to not deal in too many absolutes on this blog — you want often hear me say things like “never,” or “can’t” or “always,” for example. But I was just thinking the other day what it would be like if Dish Network and Direct TV merged, and then remembered that they did — or at least tried to — five years ago.

There’s a lot of talk lately about the Sirius and XM merger, so it only makes sense that people are starting to wonder when the two big satellite TV players will be joining forces. Ain’t gonna happen folks. The Justice Department shot down that idea, as I said, five years ago, so there’s no reason to expect we’ll see it revived.

And that’s something I’m totally fine with. Sure, combining the two services might offer a bit more in terms of programming to subscribers, but I think they healthy Dish Network vs Direct TV competition that we have going on is even better for us. So be careful what you wish for, merger fans. I’ll take things just as they are, thank you very much.

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Quick updated for everyone out there regarding Direct TV. As you may have heard, the Biography Channel HD will launch next week (November 28th) on Direct TV, making it the first satellite provider to showcase the new channel. Sounds like pretty cool stuff, as a lot of their new programming is going to be shot in HD. The rest will be previously aired shows that will be upgraded to the HD format. Check out William Shatner’s show on the channel as well. I hope it’s better than those albums he used to put out

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By now just about everyone knows that you can only get some of the most popular sports packages — like Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket — on satellite TV. In fact, that package is of course only available on Direct TV. But it doesn’t stop there, and I just can’t understand what this thing is that most of the big cable companies have against the sports leagues.

If you remember back in the spring, we were very close to seeing Direct TV get exclusive rights to carry MLB’s Extra Innings package as well, until a last minute deal saved the package for most digital cable subscribers. But now there’s a fight brewing over carrying the NFL Network, and fans of the Big 10 can only get those games on satellite because the big cable companies won’t carry the package.

Now I don’t want to get all preachy on this, but what the hell? Why have the satellite companies — Dish Network and Direct TV — embraced sports fans while cable companies just keep fighting tooth and nail over every last penny that’s required to show the games people want to see. It doesn’t make any sense to me, especially when you consider that satellite prices are lower than cable, and people are jumping the cable ship all the time for the greener pastures that satellite offers.

Wake up cable.

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Just a real quick heads up here for all of you who may be thinking of upgrading your TV service during the holiday season. I was just reading Lou Dolinar’s entertaining and informative column over at Newsday.com and picked up a really useful piece of information.

Last year at this time both Dish Network and Direct TV were swamped with new subscribers. As a result, a lot of people had to wait a lot longer than they should have to get their installations done.

If you don’t want to close out ‘07 with the same crappy TV service you have now, it makes sense to go ahead and order the service now and get it installed before the holiday rush.  According to Lou, it was mostly post-holiday installations that were affected by delays, but this year from all indications things are going to be even hotter for both companies. So get in now and avoid the rush. Just a friendly word of advice.

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So this is great news for anyone with kids (or for anyone who loves sports). It also just goes to show that satellite TV is so far ahead of cable in pushing the technology envelope that it’s becoming ridiculous.

According to recent reports, Dish Network is going to be teaming up with behemoth channels ESPN and Disney to add some interactive features for its subscribers. Now, I wasn’t quite clear on what the ESPN deal is all about — something about interactive tickers, news and so on. Honestly, it didn’t sound all that great to me.

What DID sound amazing, though, is the new Disney interactive stuff, which promises, hold on to your hats, parents, games for the kids. If you’ve ever sat and watched your kids play computer games for hours, you know what a big deal this is going to be.

So fire up that Dish and get a’playin’!

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Not long ago, I was sitting with some friends in the cafeteria at work. Conversation drifted aimlessly from one topic to another until Grant, one of the guys in electronics, brought up the subject of high definition television and asked how many of us had it. Of the six people sitting there, four of us chimed in our ownership of HD programming. Grant said sales of HDTVs were significantly higher this year than the same time last year.

It didn’t surprise me to hear that. HDTV is just about the hottest piece of TV technology to come our way in quite awhile and it’s true when they say it will revolutionize the way we watch TV. If you’ve ever wondered how we got along before without being able to pause, rewind and record live TV, you’ll be asking the same question about High Def once you’ve experienced the difference in the high resolution of an HD picture.

It really isn’t necessary for you to know or even understand the technology behind what makes it so much better than standard definition. All it takes is watching a side-by-side comparison and the difference is glaringly obvious. Of course, if technology is your thing and you’d like to learn more about what makes HD the best TV viewing available, click here for more details and information.

Direct TV has conducted their own version of these comparative studies and time after time came out the winner with people almost always choosing the Direct TV HD picture over the SD one. That doesn’t surprise me either. Ever since I stumbled across this website I’ve been a big fan of HDTV in general and Direct TV in particular. Why did I choose Direct TV over some of the many other sources available for High Def TV viewing?

1. Direct TV’s customer service is second to none. Did you know the customers who purchase their priciest high-end package are assigned their own personal customer service representative? Now that surprised me. Of course, with a price tag over seven thousand dollars a year, I suppose they’re entitled to special treatment. Still, even for average Joes like us, Direct TV is still head and shoulders above cable.

2. Direct TV currently has over 75 High Definition channels with plans already in place to add even more within the next few months. The satellite that will help them achieve that is already in space and testing is going on even as you’re reading this.

3. Direct TV is the only HD provider I know of that offers you the choice of an HD package, with pre-selected channels, or, and this is the part I love, you can add only your favorite channels in HD, one at a time.

4. Direct TV’s HD programming includes some of the best-loved, most popular channels on TV, not obscure, “who watches this stuff” kind of channels.

5. Direct TV’s HD receivers, (and you have your choice of two different models) are state of the art and offer some of the most advanced technological features in the industry.

With so many companies out there competing for our TV dollars, click here to discover what puts Direct TV head and shoulders above their competition. I think you’ll understand not only why I chose them, but why I recommend them to everyone I know.

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I’m sure you guys have all seen the commercials Direct TV has been running lately — the ones where this giant satellite have all of Direct TV’s HD channels on the side, and the thing kind of floats around pimping its best-in-class lineup of HD channels. Well, get this, Direct TV wants to outfit the International Space Station with a Direct TV dish and a 42″ HDTV to watch it on.

According to BroadcastNewsroom.com, Direct TV has its top engineer standing by should the offer be accepted to help with installation and set up. I wonder what they’ll watch up there. Could be cool if the offer includes the NFL Sunday Ticket.

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We just heard about some new Direct TV deals coming down the pike for new subscribers, and we wanted to let you know about them ASAP. These are truly some pretty awesome savings here, so if you’ve been waiting to sign up, now might be a great time.

The current deal (which you can view right here), gives you a ton of free programming, but that’s only part of it — and not even the best part in my opinion.

The thing that makes it truly worth your while is the cash back — up to $360. That brings Direct TV’s price well below Dish Network’s right now. I expect Dish to follow suit soon, but for right now this Direct TV deal can’t be beat.

Check it out here. And remember where you heard about it first.

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