Hi Mike:

I live in the Denver area and have had Comcast but this year switched to DirectTV.  Comcast in my area did not have a lot of the Center Ice games in HD.  With Direct, I get lots of HD games and the NHL Network.  I have been very happy with the switch to Direct Tv.

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 03/24/09 at 04:38 PM ET

I’m pretty happy with Comcast service in the east bay, they have been adding new HD channels with regularity and the pricing is reasonable. The AT&T service the last time I checked did not carry CSN HD and they did not provide any timeframe as to when they will either. I was also less than impressed with the quality of their HD service when a friend of mine had it for a couple of months, lots of compression errors and other visual flaws.

As far as I know Comcast does not offer center ice games in HD. You’ll probably want to call them directly to check if you consider Comcast. I use CI online myself, so I never bothered to inquire.

Posted by somedude on 03/24/09 at 05:01 PM ET

Hi Mike - I live in San Francisco and have Comcast. Comcast sucks. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. You probably remember how they screwed up Center Ice earlier this year - promised to show all Sharks games not televised on CSN Bay Area on Center Ice. Then they didn’t have enough channels to get the Sharks game on. They do that sorta stuff all the time and don’t seem to care. I used to have Center Ice with Cox Communications in Santa Barbara. What do you think they did when there were too many games for the number of Center Ice Channels. Of course! They put a couple games on each channel - WHAT AN F’ING CONCEPT! Now Comcast is gonna take away NFL Network. They are always fighting with the sports network - almost lost ESPN a few years back. Plus, no NHL Network HD and I believe no Center Ice HD (verify that).

Plus the DVR technology is awful. Sometimes fast forward skips all the way to the end of a program. It can’t tell if a program is new or a repeat if you are recording a season long series. So I get 20 South Parks a week. I called once to ask about it and they blamed it on the networks. That’s funny, I told them, Cox never had this problem FIVE YEARS AGO. By the way, when I got HD, I had to go down there and wait in line twice for a reburbished HD box because the first one didn’t work.

DirecTV - this is the best option, in my opinion. I was able to get it briefly and would go back in a heartbeat if it were possible. They are all about sports. ESPNU for example (not available on Comcast). The NCAA tournament for example. And nowhere else to get the football package of course. I know this is about hockey - but don’ they put the frozen four on ESPNU? Anyway it’s just better.

Dish - My brother has it and it’s okay, but they aren’t oriented to sports as much as DTV. They just got Vs. last week, for example.

Anyway, my money is on DTV. Hope that helps

Posted by JesseSeg from San Francisco on 03/24/09 at 05:02 PM ET

Mike-

I’ve had Comcast (formerly Adelphia) w/ Center Ice for years and switched to Verizon FIOS Tv in February for one reason: NHL in HD (more of it).

Verizon FIOS, if it’s available in your area, has NHL Network HD, VS HD, Center Ice’s Game HD, and your RSN in HD.  NHL Network in HD is great for HNIC on Saturday Night and the weekly or so TSN game.

If you currently have NHL Center Ice, you’ll likely notice that their 480p feeds of their games leave alot to be desired on an LCD TV.  In fact, once you see a game in HD on an LCD, everything else is noticably worse.  We can all wish for the day when InDemand sports subscription feeds are all in HD.

Finally, if you’re switching providers mid season and you have a subscription to Center Ice, it’s a HUGE pain.  Comcast didn’t want to pro rate the rest of the season, indicating that their sports packages are not refundable.  I pointed out that their CSRs indicated that it would be refunded and my cable bill never had me sign or agree to anything stating that I could not be refunded.  Bottom line, I was provided with a pro-rated refund, which is all I wanted.  This late in the season, it’s best to wait until summer to switch providers.

Good luck with your TV.  Check out http://www.monoprice.com btw, they have great prices for cables and mounts.

Posted by Eric from Pittsburgh on 03/24/09 at 05:31 PM ET

I switched from Comcast to Directv for one reason.  CI games in HD and they were not available in my area via Comcast.  When I asked Comcast about CI in HD they told me CI did not offer games in HD, which made my decision much easier.

Mike, you might want to check out this forum, most people are pretty knowledgeable, just find your area and go at it.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 03/24/09 at 05:33 PM ET

I will say one good thing about Comcast: On Demand has the Sharks games available shortly after the game ends. It’s only available for 24 hours, but you can save it for another 24 hours after you save it. It’s a good option if you forget to record the game on the DVR.

Posted by JesseSeg from San Francisco on 03/24/09 at 05:35 PM ET

I have had Time Warner Cable and NHL Center Ice together for ten years now.  If I were you I would not leave DirecTV. 

I have stuck it out with Time Warner due to part of my HOA fees going to the cable company.  However, I have had it with TW.  No NHL Network (SD or HD feed) and no Center Ice games in HD. 

My understanding is that DirecTV is now doing some installs where you don’t have wires running throughout the house.  If that is the case I am willing to eat the money I give to my HOA for TW in order to have the NHL Network, non-blacked out CI games (NHL Network), and HD CI games with DirecTV.  Don’t go to cable.  Bad, bad.

Posted by sharksfansd from San Diego, CA on 03/24/09 at 05:36 PM ET

I live in Phoenix and can’t speak to Comcast. I can say that our crappy version of cable, Cox, is crappy.

I have DirectTV and have gotten the Center Ice package for years. It is decent and this season did a good job of getting the majority of games in actual HD. The Versus and NHL Network are part of my package, which is the basic HD DVR pack, nothing fancy. Typically the games are shown in 4 channels….. home and away, both in HD and regular old grainy unhockey-friendly tv. The trick is to know which feed you want. Me for instance, I like to get the awesome feed of Mickey & Ken calling the Red Wings games since htey’re the best announcers in hockey and call the game for hockey fans… rather than the opposing team’s home-team announcers who think every goal against their team was cheap and easy and judge every penalty by which team ends up on the powerplay. I’ve discovered that the “HOME” feed is listed second in the guide. So, that’s easy enough.

However, DirectTV’s customer service sucks and their DVR isn’t that great either. I plan to seriously look into Dish Network once I move or get totally fed up with DirectTV. I hear Dish Network clearly labels their NHL feeds so you know for sure what game you’ll be getting. The actual TIVO brand DVR is compatible with Dish Network. And I think they’re actually cheaper.

Good luck and enjoy the HD, it’s awesome. While you’re at it, get a Blu-Ray player and be blown away.

Posted by Adam from Phoenix on 03/24/09 at 06:16 PM ET

I’m in the SF/SJ market area and have DirecTV and Center Ice. Overall, I’m very happy with it. Nearly all out-of-market games in the CI package are available in HD (both home and away feeds probably a little less than half of the time, the rest of the time only the home feed). I think the only exception to this is when some smaller market teams opt to not do a home broadcast at all, and you’re left with the visitors SD feed. Every game appearing on Versus and the NHL Network is in HD.

The only minor gripe I have regarding CI is that in DirecTV’s guide, the listings don’t differentiate between the home and away feeds, so if you’re setting your DVR to record an East coast game while you’re stuck at work, you pretty much have to guess if you prefer listening to one homer announcer over another. *Most* of the time, the second listing is the home broadcast. Except when it’s not.

For Sharks games, I’m a less pleased with things. The home games are all in HD and look great. The away games…ugh. I can’t recall any of them being in HD, and the SD feed is pure crap. I’m not kidding. I don’t consider myself a video snob (well, not much of one), but the CSN away games are at times nearly unwatchable.

I’m not familiar enough with some of the lesser Sharks to recognize them on sight during game action. You know how you instantly recognize certain players by their skating stride, the way they hold their stick, etc? I can’t do that for a Plihal or a McGinn or a Staubitz, and during away games it’s far more difficult to read sweater numbers than it ought to be. It annoys the hell out of me.

The games definitely looked better when they were still on Fox Sports. I often wonder if there are some shenanigans going on. Is Comcast is providing DTV with a crummy feed, and/or is DTV is muddying up the Comcast channel, each trying to make the other look bad? But then why do the HD games look fine? And why do the SD CSN broadcasts of Blackhawks and Flyers games look so much better? Because they’re on Center Ice? At least one inquiring mind would like to know.

Sorry if this turned into a rant…in case you stopped reading, here’s a summary. For the SF Bay area:

DirecTV is awesome for out-of-market HD Center Ice games
DirecTV is awesome for “national” HD broadcasts on NBC, Versus, and NHL Network
DirecTV is awesome for Sharks home games in HD
DirecTV sucks major ass for Sharks away games in SD

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.

Posted by shep on 03/24/09 at 06:24 PM ET

I agree with Eric. Go Verizon Fios. Their service has been outstanding. The pic quality is outstanding. And as Eric said NHL HD, Versucks HD and Center Ice HD.

Don’t get sucked in by DirecTV. They down rez their signals to pack more HD channels into their bandwidth. A buddy has it.; it sucks. The geeks, err really smart people, over on avsforum.com call it HD lite.

Posted by CaptainDennisPolonich from Warm and sunny SoCal on 03/24/09 at 07:09 PM ET

I have Dish Network and have had it since 1996 when it came out. NHL HD VS. Hd Center Ice in HD. Plus deals with virtually all sports nets. If you want HD then it comes down to Dish Network or DirecTv as they both have more HD channels than other providers. Dish can be had cheaper and has the decidedly better DVR’s. Don’t forget these guys. No I don’t work for them or have any stake. In fact I like them as lots of times I’m late paying and they don’t shut you down until you are waaaayyy behind unlike DirecTv.

Posted by Dave from Cbus on 03/26/09 at 10:49 AM ET

What ever you do, if the even offer Time Warner for 1 cent a year, RUN from them. They are the worst cable company in the Country. We used to have Adelphia, but with the problems they had, Time Warner bought them out and have treated all subscribers like a red-head step child. They give new meaning to the term..a complany that does not know what is going on. Its like a lottery at our house. When we turn on the TV we have no idea what channels will be working that day. From one day to the next you never know what you will get. They also just drop channels without warning. We used to get the CBC feed from Windsor Ont which was great for HNIC. They took it off and now with the added 2 channels, we now have 7 Spanish channels. We are only 60 miles from Canada, yet they would rather put the Spanish networks on. As far as the Center Ice Package some day its on and others (like on the weekends it off). I have called and complained so often the CSR recongnize the name and problem. When the hockey season is done I will be switching. Just don’t know where yet. TIME WARNER IS TOTAL CRAP.

As far as Center Ice not broadcasting in High Def. thats because not everyone has a HD tv.

Posted by Sarge from Waterville, Ohio on 03/28/09 at 04:26 PM ET

Hi Mike, well… I know where you live (always a good way to start a message, isn’t it?) so I’m guessing your options are either switching to Comcast or staying with Direct TV.  The short version of what I have to say is… stay with Direct TV.

The long version is that (1) Comcast in the Bay Area (and I don’t know if they do anywhere) doesn’t offer Center Ice in HD.  (2) I haven’t had Center Ice (through our Comcast service) this season, but have seen multiple postings online about how Center Ice through Comcast has had maybe half the games Direct TV has.  This doesn’t even address the whole HD thing and apparently the Comcast answer as to why half the offerings for the same cost has been about “bandwidth”.  (3) see point 1.

The only downside I know of to sports on Direct TV right now is there currently is not an agreement in place for them to carry Oakland A’s games on the new Comcast Sports Net California channel.  A rights dispute between Direct TV and Comcast… shocking.

Posted by Dave Stark from San Jose, CA on 03/31/09 at 12:41 AM ET