How to know which HDTV receiver is for you?
The answer to the question at hand rests on what you want, what you can pay for and what HDTV sources are available to you. Majority HDTV satellite companies provide a free HDTV receiver with no installation fees upon subscription. Some cable HDTV companies offer a rental or outright purchase of a cable HDTV receiver. Sometimes, most households bought themselves high definition enabled TV sets with large screens because they live in an area where free over-the-air HD TV broadcasts are available.
In some other localities, HDTV can be accessed by fiber-optic, the internet, packaged media and PC / Console Gaming. These options are independent of each other. The cable, satellite and over-the-air HDTV broadcast companies are still major competitions on some regions. If you are to choose among the providers on the strength of each of their HDTV receivers, you will have a hard time because the factors also include HDTV programming packages, advertising and different capabilities.
If you think that buying a HDTV that already has a built-in receiver is the key, you should think again. You will be bombarded by so many advertisements that will make your viewing troublesome or annoying. You might want to pay a little more so that you can watch your favorite shows without ads. Some receivers enable subscribers to record on a timed-schedule other programs while they are watching another show at the same time. That is very cool. It is time saving. You can watch any desired show at your convenience.
Let us start with a cable digital HDTV receiver. Keep in mind that each provider has its own set of models. This is only an example. What we have is a Time Warner circuit cable that utilizes a CISCO "Scientific Atlanta" which runs on a SARA operating system. The main strength of this HDTV receiver is that it can provide on-demand media. This means the viewer can purchase a high definition movie with full transport control. Transport control means having the ability to play, pause, fast forward and many others. It has another outstanding feature that is if one adds a SATA drive to the back of the unit, one can view a pre-recorded show and record two channels at the same time. The weakness of this HDTV receiver is in the software, which lacks user friendliness and convenience. It only has a bare bones digital video recording features.
A HDTV receiver for satellite providers may offer better features aside from the loads of HDTV program packages. There are usually a lot of complications in installing satellite HDTV receivers and usually you pay a higher subscription fee.
