There's a lot to discuss about high-definition television, and we'll be covering the technical details and comprehensive reviews of the Dish gear in upcoming issues,. This article, however, will take a different approach, a subjective approach.

Sometimes, my job doesn't suck. The Dish folks (they sent a team of six guys) installed the HD television and PVR into my bedroom, which was the only room in the house with enough spare space to handle the 34-inch widescreen TV. Because I haven't figured out where to put it, I still have my old, 1985 vintage 26-inch TV there as well. This, for now at least, means I've got two relatively large TVs in my bedroom, stretching my uber-geek status to heretofore unseen heights.

I've had the use of this system for about six weeks now, and the purpose of this article is to give you my first impressions. As I do, be aware that this is a new technology. HDTV is in its infancy and services will change, become more prevalent, and likely become considerably less expensive.

What can you watch?
The Dish Network provides six HDTV channels: TNT, Discovery, Showtime, HBO, ESPN, an HD pay-per-view channel, and something called HD Net. The Dish Web site says that there's a CBS HD feed as well, but I'm not getting that. This array of channels is obviously only a small percentage of the hundreds of channels you can get with the normal Dish satellite service. I'm writing this the week of the summer Olympics and this week, Dish Network is also broadcasting an HD feed of NBC's coverage of the Olympics.

My understanding is that DirecTV provides a similar small selection of channels. You can also get HD signals off the air (remember rabbit ears?) but while I'm told that OTA (off the air) HD works pretty well, I just can't bring myself to allow rabbit ears back into my house. In addition, there's yet another service called Voom that apparently offers a wider array of channels, but we've not looked into them yet.

So, how's the picture quality?
When everything is filmed perfectly, the HDTV image can be beautiful. Discovery HD seems to understand how to film in HD better than any of the other channels; some of their programs offer breathtaking imagery.