We spend all day talking about high definition content, or, to be more accurate, writing about it. We tell you what we think, how we watch our TV and movies, and we’d love to hear back. Do you get everything straight from your cable box, or do you go with a less orthodox method? Is Blu-ray your format of choice or would you rather stream? Are you willing to shell out for high quality downloads or do torrent sites do the trick? Hit the jump for the poll!
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Tim
I use Blu-ray and torrents. I’m fed up with the Canadian cable companies and the CRTC. The CRTC regulates the industry and forces cable companies (supposedly) to bundle channels. I hate paying for stuff I never watch, so I use torrents.
I kind of feel bad about this sometimes, but then I realize that I’m not in the US and not a Nielson family so my viewing habits have no impact on whether or not a show gets renewed.
I’m a fan of Blu-ray, but I hate forced trailers, piracy warnings, firmware updates, etc. If they gave me the best quality at a decent price, I’d have no problems buying all my content. I own over 200 Blu-ray discs and I’d buy more if things started getting better instead of worse. Avatar anti-piracy measures anyone? Did they stop the movie being pirated? No.
Tony Smith
I buy Blu-rays/the occasional DVD and I sometimes pay 1-2 dollars for films on TheAuteurs.com website (short films, obscure foreign stuff). I mostly rent Blu-rays now that I’m not as financially well off as I used to be. I rarely torrent anything, and the only time I have is when I have no choice (old out of print cartoons/old, cancelled Australian shows that’ll never come out to DVD). The streaming content choices are fairly limited in Australia, so I prefer to use my internet connection for gaming and Youtube.
Bryan
It might be a good idea to add OTA as one of the HD options. Aside from 1080p Quicktime movie trailers, I use Blu-ray and OTA + TiVo for my HD needs.
Dick Ward
AuthorI knew I’d forgotten something! Added the option, and a vote from you.
Adam
I completely agree with Tim, as I live in Vancouver. It’s the same old argument, but now HD is involved: content, regulation, 300 channels and nothing on, etc. Also check this out, i pay for HD cable through my HD PVR recv’r and I get cbc, ctv, fox, etc..in SD and HD, yet they won’t give me those channels’ SD versions in the rooms where I only have coaxial hookups and no box (I only have one main box in my main room). Another infuriating example of regulation is: I want RDS(sports) but I have to pay for a whole bundle of 10 French channels just to get it! And even though RDS HD exists…my cable provider doesn’t carry it!!! So I’m paying 10 bucks a month for a nonHD French sports channel! My providers excuse is “we can’t help it, it’s gov’t regulation”.
We pay like $100/mth & the only HD network show we actually watch with regularity is House, maybe we should just get Apple TV or something… But what about live HD sports? Any ideas?
Dick Ward
AuthorWhen live sports are involved, the idea of cutting the cable just doesn’t work. You can probably get away with paying less though!
My parents were paying way too much for their cable and they were considering a switch, but my dad didn’t want to give up some of the channels they’d lose.
So, I called up their provider for them (as my father) and said I wanted to cancel because we couldn’t afford the rates and were going to switch to a competitor. The Customer Service rep was incredibly helpful and knocked them down from $170/mo to $99/mo for phone, internet and cable, and added in a few premium channels.
Just make sure you’re polite and you should be able to work something out 🙂
HuskerGuy
The flipside of that is you have to be willing to cancel if they don’t budge.
I voted Cable since I could only vote for one, but I also do blu-ray (PS3) and streaming (Netflix on 360, although it’s not the best as far as HD is concerned). I also get plenty of HD gaming in as well.
phattyj
I would like to select multiple options, since I use more than one commonly. What says you?
Dick Ward
AuthorAh, when I added to the poll it reset the options for editing. Should be back to multi-option now. 🙂
Jane Morgan
I feed my 50″ plasma (Panasonic G10) a steady diet of Netflixed blu-rays, four per week. One video game per month, via gamefly, for my PS3 or X360. And sometimes some OTA HD if I want to watch a cooking show on PBS. That’s about all the a/v entertainment I can eat.
Also I read 100 novels per year, which I get from the library. But paper is a HD medium, right? 300 dpi on 6×9 paperback is higher than Quad HD…
Tim H.
Jane, are you real? You’re an HD enthusiast, gamer and avid reader? If you’re married, then your husband is one lucky man.
I agree, paper is definitely an HD medium.
Jane Morgan
Yes, my husband is a lucky boy. Our two kids too. Other kids come over and say, ‘I wish my mom was awesome.’ I let them all play on the 50″ plasma, while I feed them homemade cookies.
CsMisi
I use satellite for basic TV needs, also I buy a lots of blu-rays, and because I’m not from the USA, I use torrents mostly (95% of my downloads) for latest TV episodes. But I really don’t feel ashamed, as I purchase most of my favorite shows anyway when they come out on blu … But there are some series, which I don’t download but wait for them on blu (Fringe, True Blood, now The Pacific)
EM
Cable and Blu-ray. I get just basic cable, and so all my cable HD is from local broadcast channels. Some of those shows have been an excellent advertisement for Blu-ray: I was so impressed by HD broadcast presentations of “Star Trek“ and “Pushing Daisies” that I just had to get those series on Blu-ray disc. However, most of my Blu-ray purchases are and will continue to be of feature films.
The other HD options do not interest me.
Adam
Thanks for the post, Dick Ward.
Hey, you should get a t-shirt that says “I am not Burt Ward”. Just because.
Chaz Dumbaugh
Lots of Blurays and HD Cable right now from a local provider, I also have the normal Netflix but I’m not paying for the extra Bluray use though as I usually buy most of the movies I really enjoy, otherwise regular DVD will work till I can pick up the Blu, will be getting rid of Cable here soon as they decided to take away HDNET Movies and I was a big fan of that channel, not to mention it will save us $106 a month and most of the TV shows I watch I will be getting through Netflix down the road or using PlayOn on my PC to stream Hulu and other things to my TV, I use downloads to get some of the TV shows I watch if I end up missing them or forgetting to set the DVR, but with so many options out there (Just pre-ordered a Popbox today too) I cant see the use of paying that much for Cable TV when I dont watch 95% of the channels unless I’m completely bored with everything else I have to do 🙂