lil will said:
I just purchased a Panasonic Th-50px500u. Im trying to decide whether to go with Comcast cable or Direct TV. Panasonic says it has a built in ATSC tuner and can accomodate a CableCard. My question is do I still need a HDTV receiver from Comcast or Direct TV? And if I go with DTV and purchase the HDTV receiver at Best Buy for Direct TV is that all I need to get HDTV or do I have to subscribe to each channel.
First, if your HDTV has a built-in tuner, that means it can receive over the air content, such as your local network stations. You still will not get any of the extra channels (ie, MTv, Discover, etc) To pick up those stations, you would still need an OTA antenna. Typically you can get your satellite installer to set that up for you as well...for a fee.
I don't know about whether or not Comcast has CableCard support, as they aren't available in my area.
If you go with satellite, you can either purchase your receiver at Best Buy/Circuit/etc. OR a lot of times, you can rent one from the sattelite provider for a small fee. (I'm paying $5 per month for my receiver from Dish) This means you can often trade up for a better receiver as new ones come out. Otherwise, you'd have to buy a new receiver for new tech.
And yes, you would still have to subscribe to one of DTV's channel packages, otherwise you wouldn't get any content. (I think their lowest cost package is like $41.99)