And the beat goes on!!!

When last we checked in I had just finished purchasing my new HDTV, or so I thought. One of the last things they told me was that in order to get the HD service I needed a new box from Comcast. Now fortunately Comcast in it's infinite corporate wisdom gives these things away, sort of like Gillette giving away the fancy blade holders. They make money selling blades. Well Comcast makes money selling the HD service so the more of these boxes they give away the more money they make.

Was that the end of it, not by a long shot. Seems there are two different HD boxes, and which one you choose depends on how the TV is installed (not quite true but close) One box/service is about $12.00 a month, and the other is about $20, including the service. The $20 dollar variety is actually a DVR box (much like TiVO), and comes with a larger selection of channels, even on basic service. For reasons that escape me the other one doesn't. It gives you HD service for those shows that broadcast in HD, but no additional channels.

Oh, and did I forget to tell you that to hook the DVR up to the TV, a distance of three or four feet normally, you need to purchase an HDMI cable. Now that little sucker is almost $100, and that is the low end of the scale.

The folks at Best Buy hook everything up for free, and Comcast gives me the box, so my only real outlat is for the HDMI cable, HD TV, Stand, and speakers.

So now my purchase cost me an additional $100 for the cable, plus about $25.00/month (with taxes, etc) for the service over and above the $100 I was already paying. Ah well, what can you do, if you want to play, you have to pay, and pay, and pay, and pay...