You can file this one in DirecTV’s ever-growing file of promises made vs. promises kept: The company finally announced some new hi-def channels today, more than a week after their previously committed-to date. And the reality of the announcement was much more modest than the company’s commitment of 70 HD channels in September.

Beyond the credibility issues with not delivering on promises is the “fine print” about DirecTV’s HD claims. We won’t belabor these, but a quick summary of the hassles and realities: 1) you'll need a larger elliptical dish to get the HD signal; 2) existing DirecTV customers will likely have to upgrade their dish and other equipment; 3) as always, interference is common from wind, rain and snow, and you’ll need to guarantee an unobstructed signal from the dish to the HD satellite position in the sky – so get the chainsaw ready as you may need to do some heavy “pruning” of trees; 4) there are significant fees associated with the required programming packages that gain you access to many of the HD channels they will be launching – up to $1000 more per year. Beyond some of the classic satellite hassles is the fact that DirecTV’s math really doesn’t add up on its numerous HD claims. The company now says it will offer 70 HD channels by October and 100 by the end of the year. But “100” will be a looooooong stretch for the large majority of both current DirecTV customers and potential new customers based on the expense they’d need to incur to get even close to this number of channels.

The HD “tonnage” promise seems to include some channels that in reality, most customers won’t see – dozens of channels devoted to pricey add-ons like NFL Sunday Ticket, other sports packages and multiple premium channels. In fact, the added cost of getting all of these channels tied to packages and premiums would, by our calculation, cost DirecTV customers more than $1,000 extra each year. Clearly, only a small percentage of the satellite company’s customers will actually choose to subscribe to these packages and get the full number of HD channels being touted.

The more than $1,000 extra per year is on top of both DirecTV’s $9.99 monthly access fee for popular HD channels like locals, ESPN and Discovery (a cost cable customers don’t have to pay in most cases) and their newly announced $4.99 HD package. We admit the “tonnage” hype sounds appealing on the surface (minus the $1,000 reality, of course), but we ultimately agree with the expert opinion that when it comes down to it HD demand is going to revolve around a few dozen of the key, most relevant channels – channels that cable companies will carry to satisfy their customers’ desire to see their favorite programs, sports and movies in HD!