Getting an HDTV "at some point" has been in the back of my mind for a while. One of the major factors that kept convincing me to put it off was the prospect of paying "a lot" of money every month for HD programming whether it be cable or satellite.
Right now, we get Comcast basic cable service for around $13/month and I really don't want to pay more than that because we don't watch much TV (thanks to Netflix). Ideally I'd just be able to get local channels in HD for minimal extra cost.
I looked into the option getting over the air signals. But I'd need to buy and mount and antenna (maybe in the attic) and run cable. Eh.
It turns out Comcast sends HD signals from local stations unencrypted over the basic cable line, you just need a QAM tuner to display them. The local channels broadcast in HD in the Boston area are: ABC, NBC, TV-38, CBS, FOX, WGBH HD, and CW (aka the WB). This covers pretty much everything we watch currently so I'm pretty happy about that.
Most newer TVs have built-in ATSC tuners for over the air HD, but QAM tuners are less common. I'd probably want a set that has both. Anyway it looks like the biggest obstacle between me and HDTV (besides the one-time cost of the display) isn't really an issue.