i am an installer myself and I install Plasma/LCD home Theater, DirecTV, Dish Net, and cable. And from experiance it’s worth paying a couple of extra $$$ for DirecTV service.

Next to DirecTV would be DishNet simply because it also is 100% digital , and will outperform cable, but if you leave they wan’t you to take down the LNB’s or else they will charge you $$$. And theire customer cervice blows, because most of the time you will be talking with someone from India.

Well, thats my oppinion take it or leave it it’s up to you.

By the way, currently DirectTV has better HD programing than Dish Network, but neither of them can give you local channels in HD. Cable does give you local channels. I have 10 HD channels with Charter and they’re adding 3 more on 9/15. When I discontinued Dish Network svc (30 days ago) they were offering 5 HD channels. I am on the waitng list for Charter’s HD Moxi box. I’ve heard good things about it. Honestly- I’d suggest going with DirectTV before Dish. I really felt that the longer I stayed with Dish, the more I was taken advantage of.

Good luck.

I wanted to be able to compare them side-by-side, especially their HDTV capabilities.

Both are good services but at this point in time, DishNetwork has superior picture quality and more HD channels. Dish bought the Voom channels. I’ve got both of the HDTV receivers DishNetwork now offers, an 811 (non-DVR) in the family room and a 942 (two-tuner DVR) in my room. The 942 is amazing, The picture quality with the 942 is superior to any receiver I have ever had. What impressed me most with the 942 is that the non-HD channels have a lot more “pop” than with any other receiver. Also, with the dual tuners you can watch and record different channels simultaneously.

The Directv HD DVR unit has similar capability to the Dish 942, recording 200+ hous of SD and 25+ hours of HD, with simultaneous watch/record ability. The picture quality is also excellent, just doesn’t have quite the pop that Dish has. Directv does, however, have NFL Sunday Ticket and Dish does not.

I think the truth is that you’d be happy with either service. They’re both really good, I think, and so much better than cable. I’m going to maintain basic HD packages on both. I don’t want to lose either of them until I see how the upcoming conversion shakes out.

As was mentioned by others the conversion from MPEG2 to MPEG4 is not far away. Both DishNetwork and Directv will be changing to a different video compression standard in the near future, and when that happens all of the current MPEG2 equipment will be useless. It’s probably not a good idea to invest too much in fancy MPEG2 DVR/TIVO units at this point in time. It’s anybody’s guess what the sat companies are going to offer when the new equipment comes on line.

DirecTV just announced an incredible deal on their HD Tivo unit. What was ~$1000 a few months (weeks? days?) ago is now less than $200. Multiple tuners, etc. Good stuff.

Here in NC, we get our local HD stations via a good ol’ aerial (sp?) antenna on the roof. Other stations come over the satellite receiver.

But, if you care about hooking it into your home network you might want to wait a bit. The networking capabilities are less than stellar at the moment (like software-limited USB speeds and 802.11b wireless only). I’ve chronicled my experience. I understand that they are rolling out a software upgrade, which should help. All-in-all, I like Tivo and the networking does work.

If you want the NFL package, you only have one choice, obviously. If you want to watch the games in HDTV, you will have to pay extra.

Both Dish and DirecTV are launching new satellites to provide more HD content, but right now you are expected to get your local stations OTA (over-the-air, with an antenna), which is fine unless you live in the fringes of the broadcast area. Both Dish and DirecTV add your OTA channels to the interactive guide.

The Dish Network HDTV DVR works quite well in my experience. The model my parents have is a 2-tuner, 2-output model, but only one of the outputs is HDTV. Basically, it lets you handle two rooms with one reciever.

DirecTV is now offering a non-TiVo DVR as well, in fact, as I understand it, you have to specifically ask for TiVo if you want it.

-Weston

I’ve had the Directv HD package since last September. I have a Samsung 46″ DLP and a Kenwood 5.1 DD receiver. These are hooked up to the D* High Def PVR via HDMI and optical audio connects. The PVR costs $299 with a $100 instant rebate when ordered through D*. As to the upcoming switch to MPEG4, D* has said that it will offer an upgrade path for people who have the MPEG2 hardware (otherwise there is a very large class action suit waiting in the wings).

As to the available HD content – its somewhat limited until the end of the year when D* will start rolling out their next generation satellite feeds. D* currently offers Showtime and HBO in HD as well as PPV HD all day. The $10.95/mo HD package includes ESPN HD, UHD (Previously Bravo HD) HDNet, HDNet Movies and Discovery HD (for American Chopper fans especially).

As far as local HD, depending on where you live in relation to your local station towers, you can hook an OTA (Over the air) antenna up to the HD Tivo box and get your local networks in HD. The Tivo adds these channels to your programming guide automatically.

The HD Tivo has a 250GB Hard drive and can record up to 30 hours of HD or 200 hrs of SD material.

One cool thing about D* is that you can change programming over the Internet at will. For example, if you see a show coming up on HBO that you want to view, just order HBO for an evening and cancel it after the show’s over. It costs you a prorated amount of .40 cents to do this and you can archive it to the Tivo to watch over and over again – I don’t think you can do that with cable – but I could be wrong.

If you need any additional insight or info you, feel free to email me directly.

When I lived in Florida, I had Dish Network and found them to be pretty horrible. The signal was weak and the programming seemed overpriced to me. Granted, a lot may have changed in the last five or six years, but I am a happy DirecTV subscriber.

Unfortunately, I can’t speak for the HD end of things, the I love my DirecTiVo. Unfortunately, DirecTV will soon be offering their own brand of DVR and I am not sure if it will be as functional as the TiVo.

I consider client-side storage to be non-negotiable. If you’re relying on the provider’s good graces not to delete those server-side episodes you’ve been saving for a rainy weekend, they’re inevitably going to pull the rug out at some point. You’re using satellite, so to some extent client-side storage is a foregone conclusion, but I’d be very careful about vetting the remote-deletion capabilities of any house-brand DVR.

All that said, I don’t know why it’s taking Tivo so long to offer an HD/Cablecard product. I think they’re still aiming for early 2006.

As for Rura’s comment above — I think re-encoding artifacts look pretty bad. A DirecTivo won’t re-encode the way a standalone Tivo will.

I would personally be inclined to suggest Dish Network as they have a better deal plus the network is getting increasingly popular with new programs.

Al