I want to subscribe to Satellite TV. I need to have an HD receiver with DVR. Which one is my best choice? I'm not interested in having 486 channels, just the major ones. Local channels, History, Discovery, Spike, etc. No premium channels. Also, if it's not in HD, I'm not watching it. Which company should I subscribe to?

 

I've had both and they are both really good. I like the customer service at Directv better. Flip a coin.

 

Never had Dish Network but have had DirecTV. I really liked DirecTV and had good experiences with their customer service (when I rarely needed it). I had very sparse interruptions of service during thunderstorms, etc. but I suppose that's to be expected with any satellite service.

 

I had dish and now direct TV. I like dish much better. I wish i didn't have a stupid contract with direct.

 

DirecTV gets my vote. great service and quality

 

I've had both as well and settled on Dish...programming and pricing is pretty similar and both have better quality than almost all cable vendors.

 

i have directTV, so far so good

 

I have had both and had a nightmare customer service issue with Direct TV. I would never go back to them but many have no problems.

Packages and pricing are almost identicle when you compare them. Dish Network has better equipment though. They have two tuner recievers. I have two in my house so I run four TV's off two recievers so it saves $10 a month on extra charges that Direct TV would have. The two tuners can run two tv's at once, on different channels, one can be HD the other has to be standard def. Works great. You can even pull dvr recordings off onto the second tv. The top of the line 7000 series two tuner HD DVR is a first class machine.

TONS of hd channels and now they stream some 1080p pay per view movies.

 

I went with Direct tv because they offer the NFL Sunday ticket.

 

Dish = consistent and will not change pricing more than $5 from the original "promotional price." Also better equipment (as stated before. Locals are $5/mth extra and sports packages are bleh. The new TurboHD is supposedly very good HD and offers a challenge to DirecTVs HD Access (which has a good amount of HD channels).

DirecTV = inconsistent pricing, it will change after 4-12 months and will go up significantly (upwards of $20/mth). The equipment is OK, but programming packages are MUCH better (ie. NFL Sunday Ticket, MLB Extra Innings, Full Court, Gameplan, Direct Kick, Center Ice, NBA League Pass, March Madness). So for a person with specific interests, I'd say DirecTV will be a better choice, just look to be paying in the upwards of $60-100 a month eventually.

I recommend Dish to people who watch 4-7 channels on a regular basis, and DirecTV to those who want specific programming. Honestly you shouldn't have to worry about calling customer service as I've been with Cox for 5 years and made a total of 3-4 service calls, that honestly had nothing to do with the company and more to do with something I did (like unhook the internet and not resync things).

Satalitte will eventually be transmitting all channels in 1080p (Dish just launched Pay-per-view in 1080p) and judging by how the olympics have looked in my office the past week, its gonna be WELL worth it.